chap, xviii] THE MELLANAOS 



attacks of the Lamm pirates and the incursions of the Sea-Dyaks. 

 Their houses are built on both sides of the river, always on high piles, 

 and with materials mostly furnished by the nipa and sago palms. 

 They resemble those of the Dyaks, and are also disposed in long 

 rows and divided by planks into many pintus. Outside each house, 

 projecting from the main body of the edifice, corresponding to the 

 entrance on the river, is a kind of shed, which is used for domestic 

 purposes and especially for sago-making operations. 



I have already stated that the greater portion of the inhabitants 

 of Bintulu are Mellanaos. These are a very singular people, inhabit- 

 ing the mouths of most of the rivers on the north coast of Borneo, 

 especially those between the Rejang and the Barram. They 

 have also a colony at Santubong, at the mouth of the Sarawak 

 river, where they still speak their own language, which is very 

 different from the Malay tongue. They also differ from the Malays 

 in their customs and habits, and have all the appearance of having 

 always been a peaceful people. Very few have been converted to 

 Islamism ; most are faithful to their old creed, which consists in a 

 belief in good and evil spirits, to which offerings are made to calm 

 their anger or to propitiate their good-will. They possess wooden 

 idols, very rudely carved, but it does not appear that they worship 

 them. They are exposed outside the houses, or have a special place 

 in the village where all can easily see them. Usually, as far as I 

 could judge, the people do not pay much attention to these images, 

 but in times of sickness or other troubles they decorate them in 

 various ways, often using long white slips made with young nipa 

 leaves and plaited in various fashions, very much as is done in 

 Italy with palm leaves on the Sunday before Easter. 



The Mellanaos are the principal cultivators of the sago palm on 

 the coast ; and the extraction of the fecula from the trunk of that 

 palm is their chief industry. They also make elegant mats with 

 slips of " bumbang " (Clinogyne dichototna), but where they most 

 excel is as fishermen. During the entire season of the north-east 

 monsoon the shores of this portion of Borneo are nearly inaccessible 

 to the usual Malay — and I may even add European boats — on account 

 of the surf, which is naturally more violent on the river bars, which 

 have not much water on them. Notwithstanding this the Mel- 

 lanaos go out in almost any weather in their short, but wide- 

 beamed boats, called barongs, which are of a peculiar type and very 

 seaworthy. 



At Bintulu they also use the same huge fish-traps which I had 

 noticed at Muka, where they had so nearly caused our launch to 

 capsize ; but I was not able to examine one closely. Fishing is an 

 affair of such importance with the Mellanaos, that the women refuse 

 to allow their husbands to enter their houses if they return without 

 having caught anything. 



257 s 



