342 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



They know nothing of agriculture and to them salt and 

 lombok are non-existent. Few of them survive. On the 

 authority of missionaries there are some three hundred 

 such savages at the headwaters of the Kahayan, who are 

 described as very Mongolian in appearance, with oblique 

 eyes and prominent cheekbones, and who sleep in trees. 



They are considered inveterate head-hunters, and the 

 skulls of people killed by them are used as drinking- 

 vessels. Controleur Michielsen, who in his report de- 

 votes two pages of hearsay to them, concludes thus: 

 "In the Upper Katingan for a long time to come it will 

 be necessary to exercise a certain vigilance at night 

 against attacks of the Ulu-Ot head-hunters. " A civilised 

 Kahayan who, twelve years previous to my visit, came 

 upon one unawares at the headwaters of the Samba, told 

 me that the man carried in his right hand a sampit, in 

 his left a shield, and his parang was very large. He wore 

 a chavat made of fibre, and in his ear-lobes were inserted 

 large wooden disks; his skin was rather light and showed 

 no tatuing; the feet were unusually broad, the big toe 

 turned inward, and he ran on his toes, the heels not touch- 

 ing the ground. 



Without precluding the possibility, although remote, 

 of some small, still unknown tribe, it seems safe to assume 

 that Ulu-Ot is simply a collective name for several moun- 

 tain tribes of Central Borneo with whom we already have 

 made acquaintance — the Penyahbongs, Saputans, Bukits, 

 and Punans. Of these the last two are nomads, the first 

 named have recently been induced to become agricultur- 

 ists, and the Saputans some fifty years ago were still in an 



