xviii] BUKETANS AND PUNANS 



During the last few days I had been actively engaged in the neces- 

 sary preparations for an excursion into the Kayan country by the 

 ascent of the Bintulu river. I had for this purpose procured a boat 

 with a crew of six paddlers ; and as the Kayans do not use money, 

 I had bought from the Chinese an assortment of Venetian glass 

 beads or " manet," * and a quantity of white, yellow, red, and more 

 especially dark blue cotton cloth, this being one of the more appre- 

 ciated articles for barter on the Bintulu. 



Shortly after sunrise on the nineteenth of August I left the 

 fort, but soon found that our progress was slow ; in fact, we had both 

 tide and wind against us ; besides, the boat was both heavy and 

 heavily laden, and as if this were not enough, it leaked. We were 

 fully three hours getting to Spadok, where the piles of the old 

 Mellanao village could still be seen. 



A small house which we entered to cook our breakfast was in- 

 habited by a Buketan — a true savage of the interior. He was of 

 athletic proportions and beautifully tattooed, and the lobes of his 

 ears were enormously distended by two heavy brass earrings. I 

 do not know how this " Man of the Woods " happened to be there, 

 where I was told he had been living for some years, but he was the 

 only individual of this peculiar people that I saw whilst in Borneo. 

 I never met him again, and am sorry that I did not sketch his portrait, 

 and take more detailed notes on his characteristics. Amongst my 

 collections, however, is the perfect skull of a Buketan, which was 

 given to me by the Tuan Muda at Simanggan, when I passed through 

 that place on my return journey at the end of October. He had 

 received it from a Dyak, and I do not think there can be any doubt 

 as to its authenticity. It has been carefully described and figured 

 by Professor Arturo Zannetti. 2 



Not much, indeed, can be got from a single skull as to the affini- 

 ties or diversities of the Buketans with regard to other Bornean 

 tribes. It does not show any remarkable peculiarity, the only 

 character worthy of notice being the strongly developed muscular 



consideration, for the strong action of salt water on the cells of the 

 majority of plants is well known. Thus, when the change from a terrestrial 

 or freshwater existence to a marine or estuarine one took place, the capability 

 of plants to adapt themselves to life-conditions different from those to which 

 they were until then accustomed — in a word, to undergo plasmation through 

 their environment — must have been at its apogee, and must have gone on 

 diminishing until it ceased entirely later on. 



1 I have heard or read — I do not now remember where — that the term 

 " manet " is a corruption of the Italian word moneta (money), which was used 

 for glass beads at the time when the Venetians were the foremost traders 

 in the world. Admitting this to be true, it must not, however, be forgotten 

 that the Venetians made their glass beads in imitation of the Chinese, who, 

 it appears, had used them from the remotest times in their commercial trans- 

 actions with the less civilised tribes of Southern Asia and the Malay Islands. 



2 Archivio per V Antrop. e la Etnol. ii. p. 156 ; tav. 2. Firenze, 1872. 



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