22 THROrCH CF.NTRAl. BORNEO 



Dutch parr of it, will remain a prolific field for research. 

 The tribes are ditricult to classify, and in Dutch Borneo 

 undoubtedly additional jjiroup*^ arc to be found. The 

 Muruts in the north, who use irrigation in their rice 

 culture and show physical differences from the others, 

 are still little known. Many tribes in Dutch Borneo 

 have never been studied. So recently as 1913 Mr. 

 Harry C. Raven, an American zoological collector, in 

 crossing the peninsula that springs forth on the east 

 coast about i^ N.L., came across natives, of the Basap 

 tribe, who had not before been in contact with whites. 

 The problem of the Indonesians is far from solved, nor 

 is it known who the original inhabitants of Borneo were, 

 Negritos or others, and what role, if any, the ancestors of 

 the Polynesians played remains to be discovered. 



The generally accepted idea has been that the Malays 

 inhabit the coasts and the Dayaks the interior. This is 

 not strictly correct because the racial problems of the 

 island are much more complicated. Doctor A. C. Had- 

 don recognises five principal groups of people in Sarawak, 

 Punan, Kenyah-Kayan, Iban or Sea Dayak, Malay, and 

 the remaining tribes he com[)rchends under the non- 

 committal name Klemantan. lie distinguishes two main 

 races, a dolichocephalic and a brachycephalic, terming 

 the former Indonesian, the latter ProtoMalay. 



Doctor A. W. Nieuwenhuis, who about the end of the 

 last century made important researches in the upper parts 

 of the Ka[)uas and Mahakani Rivers ;iiid at Apo Kayan, 

 found the Ot-Danum, Bahau-Kenyah, and Punan to be 

 three distinct groups of that region. Doctor Kohlbrugge 

 and Doctor Iladdon consider the Ot-Dinunis as Indone- 



