Aucust 31, 1899] 
NATURE 
415 
Rivers traced as far as possible the genealogy and 
relationships of every person on the island. This some- 
what laborious work has proved a most valuable method 
of anthropological research, which, so far as I am aware, 
has not been attempted before for a whole community. 
The value of this method consists in the large number of 
accurate sociological data that are accumulated. _ 
Short visits were paid to other of the western islands 
of the Straits in which ethnographical facts and specimens 
were collected. 
At Mabuiag, and later at Thursday Island, we had an 
opportunity of studying some North Queensland natives, 
and the contrast, both mentally and physically, between 
them and the islanders was obvious. The average height 
of seventeen Queenslanders was 1°626 m. (5 ft. 4in.), and 
their average cephalic index was 74'5. 
We finally left Torres Straits on November 15, 
1898. 
Messrs. Ray, Seligmann and myself reached Kuching 
on December 12, where we had to remain until January 
4; Mr. Ray occupied the time in learning Malay, and I 
laid the foundations of a study of the decorative art of 
Sarawak by utilising the collections in the most excellent 
museum which the Rajah has so wisely and liberally en- 
dowed. The foundation of the ethnographical collections 
was the very valuable Brooke Low collection, which the 
Rajah bought in England and reshipped to its native 
land. This has been added to from time to time, and, 
although there is a good deal to be done before all the 
handicrafts and arts of the natives of Sarawak are fully 
ulustrated, the museum contains the best and most in- 
structive collection of Sarawak ethnography extant. The 
fauna of Sarawak isalso most fully represented, and the 
value of the collections is daily increased by the well- 
directed labours of the curator, Mr. R. Shelford. 
During the north-east monsoon it is impossible for a 
steamer to cross the bar at Baram Mouth, and this 
necessitated our proceeding to Limbang, where we had 
to remain a few days whilst messengers were sent to Mr. 
Hose. We then had to journey some 200 miles in boats up 
the Limbang, Madalam and Trikan rivers, and after walk- 
ing across the watershed at the foot of Mount Mulu we 
descended the Malinau, Tutau and Baram, arriving at 
Marudi (Claudetown) on January 28, where we rejoined 
Mr. McDougall, Mr. Myers having been obliged to return 
home a few days previously. On February 6 Mr. Hose 
took Messrs. Ray, MacDougall and myself an up-river 
trip, Mr. Seligmann was busy studying wpohk (upas), tuba 
and other poisons ; later he stayed some time among the 
up river Kayans. We went over 200 miles up the rivers 
Baram, Tinjar, Dapoi and Lobong, and saw many in- 
teresting scenes, and gained further experience of the 
jungle vegetation of a typical tropical land. 
At Long Puah we witnessed the ceremony of moving 
the skulls into a new house from the hut in which they 
had been temporarily lodged, and then we participated 
in the ceremony of naming the first-born son of the chief. 
On the same occasion peace was made between two 
hostile tribes, and the covenant was ratified in the usual 
manner by “speaking” to some pigs, that were then 
killed and their livers inspected for augury. In one 
village we saw a Punan medicine man exorcise fever 
from) a white man by means of incantations and obvious 
thaumaturgics. We gained fair insight into the mode of 
life and beliefs of several tribes of the interior ; we made 
collections to illustrate their handicrafts and decorative 
art ; numerous photographs were taken, which unfor- 
tunately have not proved a success owing partly to 
climatic conditions. Physical measurements were made 
of a large number of natives, and vocabularies collected. 
We also had an excellent object-lesson in the paternal 
administration of native affairs that is the keynote of the 
Sarawak system of government. 
It was on this trip that I discovered a stone imple- 
NO. 1557, VOL. 60| 
ment in a native house, close by the usual skulls and 
associated with other sacred objects. After great diffi- 
culty Mr. Hose succeeded in procuring it, and later he 
secured several other specimens of varied types. With 
the exception of a specimen in the museum at Oxford 
of a very different type from any we obtained, and one 
recently acquired by the Sarawak Museum, these are the 
only authentic stone implements known from. Borneo. 
Mr. McDougall and I paid a hurried visit to Mount 
Dulit, but nothing of interest was collected. 
Later on Mr. Hose took me to visit Tama Bulan, the 
great Kenyah Penghulu, who lives on the Pata River. 
Messrs. Myersand McDougall had previously visited him. 
Towards the end of our stay in Baram we were pre- 
sent at a great peace-making, when quite 6000 natives 
assembled from all parts of the Baram district, and even 
from beyond its borders. We thus had an unique oppor- 
tunity of seeing representatives of nearly every im- 
portant tribe of the Raj. Amongst other incidents we 
witnessed a canoe race in which about one thousand men 
competed, and participated in an attempt to /wéa-poison 
a large lake in which over two thousand men weie 
engaged. 
We have now in Cambridge specimens to fairly well 
illustrate the arts and crafts of the natives of Sarawak. 
Mr. Ray obtained material for grammars of the two 
dialects spoken respectively by the Land Dayaks and by 
the Sea Dayaks, as well as notes upon several other 
languages. Vocabularies of over 200 words were obtained 
in forty-six dialects spoken by various tribes of Sarawak. 
Mr. Myers made numerous psychological observations. 
Mr. Seligmann studied native medicine, &c. Mr. 
McDougall paid special attention to the question of the 
relations of men to animals and plants in Borneo, and 
helped me with the measurements and physical observ- 
ations of the natives. In all we measured some 276 
natives, the bulk of whom are mesaticephalic or slightly 
brachycephalic. The following are some of the ap- 
proximate average indices (the numbers in brackets 
refer to the number of each tribe that were measured) :— 
Maloh (7)—probably an immigrant people from Java— 
76; Barawan (17), 77°5; Kalabit (10), 78; Kenyah (103), 
79—of these the Sibops (5) have the lowest index with 
75°5, which gradually rises through the Malangs (20), 
76°5, Tabalos (3), 775, Madangs (6), 78, Long Pokun 
(19) and Lirong (15), 79°5, Long Dallo (12), 80's, Apoh 
(9), 82, to the Long Sinong Kenyahs (5), with an index 
of 83°5—this does not appear to be a very homogeneous 
group ; Kayan (22), 80; Long Kiput (9), 8o0°5 ; Punan 
(22), 81; Sea Dayaks (53), 83; Malanaus (7), 855 ; 
Brunei-Malay (1), 85°5. We have not yet had time to 
study the skulls we brought away. I had an opportunity, 
however, of measuring five Murut skulls at Limbang, 
which had an average index of 75° (extremes 73-77'5). 
It is thus evident that there is a dolichocephalic element 
in Borneo which may be identical with the Indonesians 
as defined by de Quatrefages and Hamy in “ Crania 
Ethnica.” There is also a low brachycephalic element 
found among the up-river Kenyahs (Long Sinong, Apoh, 
and Long Dallo), Punans, and to a less extent among the 
Kayans. The Sea Dayaks are not an indigenous popu- 
lation ; they probably constituted the advance wave of a 
later Malay migration. The Malanaus are Moham- 
medans greatly influenced by Malays, and who very fre- 
quently artificially deform the heads of their babies, so 
their relatively high index of 85°5 may be neglected. 
Although the Punan cephalic index (81) is close to that 
of the Sea Dayaks (83), the slender pale-coloured forest- 
dweller is physically very different from the short, sturdy, 
dark-skinned, low-country agriculturist. We were for- 
tunate in coming across several groups of Punans, a 
nomadic jungle folk who are certainly one of the most 
primitive people in Borneo, and who may, perhaps, be 
the true autocthones of the country, for there is no 
