456 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



sive Kyans, they became separated from the main body, ever since 

 which time, even down to the present day, their implacable enemies 

 have steadily driven them northward step by step, until finally, 

 jjerhaps even as early as the end of the present centuiy, their north- 

 em boundary will reach the country of the Ida'ans, and the three 

 sub-tribes will become more closely related than now. 



The Ida'ans (or Dusuns), according to St. John,* are essentially 

 the same in appeai-auce as the Dyak of Sarawak, the Kyan, the 

 Munit and Bisaya. Some of the men tattoo slightly, but in an en- 

 tirely different fashion from the Kyans. They are clear-skinned 

 and have good-tempered countenances. The women, although not 

 good-looking, are not ugly. All the gii'ls and young women wear 

 a piece of cloth to conceal their bosoms : their petticoats also are 

 longer than usual, and the young girls (of Ginambur) had the front 

 of the head shaved like Chinese girls. Near the sea-coast, the men 

 wear jackets and trousers, but as the traveller advances into the in- 

 terior, the amount of clothing gradually lessens ; cloth garments 

 being seen on a few only at the foot of Kina Balu, beyond which the 

 people are said to wear nothing but bark-cloth. 



The houses of the Ida'ans on the Tampasuk Kiver, IVIr. St. John 

 declares to be the best he ever saw among the Bornean aborigines. 

 Some were " boarded with finely- worked planks ; " the doors were 

 strong and excellently made ; and the flooring of bamboos beaten 

 out, which in one house at least was very neat and free from all 

 dirt. "While some have adopted the Chinese custom of a separate 

 house for each family, others occupy the usual long-house so com- 

 mon among the Sea Dyaks, with the open hall and a separate room 

 for each family. 



The Ida'ans are essentially agriculturists, in which pursuit they 

 are so far advanced as to use the plough, which is very simple and 

 made entirely of wood, and also an equally rude harrow. They 

 raise rice, sweet potatoes, yams, maize, sugar-cane, tobacco, and 

 cotton. " Simple as this agricultvu-e is," says St. John, " it is su- 

 perior to anything that exists to the southward of Brunei, and it 

 would be curious if we could investigate the causes that have ren- 

 dered this small portion of Borneo, between the capital and Malludu 

 Bay, so superior in agriculture to the rest. I think it is obviously 

 a remnant of Chinese civilization." ..." The Ida'ans also use 

 a species of sledge made of bamboos and drawn by buffaloes to 



* Vol. i., p. 379 et seq. 



