IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



pitan arrows. Other solvents for the dried sap of the upas are 

 tobacco juice, the sap of the Hoy a imperialis, and of Dyak gambir, 

 or kayu seddi, a Tiliacea of the genus Elceocarpus, from which it 

 appears that an astringent juice can be obtained like that of 

 Uncaria gambir. Arrows thus prepared preserve their deadly 

 effect for two or three months, and if kaju seddi has been used, 

 for as much as a year. I have been told that the Kayans also fix 

 the fangs of poisonous snakes at the extremity of their sumpitan 

 arrows, which are split for their insertion, the fang being secured by 

 a ligature. 



The use of upas as a poison (known in other parts of Malaya 

 under the name of ipo) is not limited to Borneo, but extends to Java, 

 the Malay Peninsula, and Cochin China. 1 I imagine that' the sum- 

 pitan was known in a very remote epoch to the primitive popula- 

 tions of the Asiatic continent, whence it must have passed to Borneo. 

 Thus in the grand work on the temple of Boro Budor, published by 

 the Dutch Government, a savage of Aryan type is figured using 

 a sumpitan in plate cix., and on plate clx. men are depicted shooting 

 monkeys with this weapon (Fig. 50). 



The sumpitan is not simply a blow-gun, but it is also a spear, 

 being provided with an iron blade in the shape of an olive leaf, with 

 double cutting edges. In war the Kayans, in addition to the sum- 

 pitan with its small bamboo quiver for holding the arrows and 

 the parang-ilang already mentioned, carry a large shield of light 

 wood, the utak, garnished with tufts of human hair and variously 

 ornamented with arabesques, and usually with a grotesque face with 

 huge eyes and tusks. When fully armed and equipped, wearing the 

 above-described war dress, the singular cuirasse and the cap, with 

 tall feathers, the Kayan warrior, with flowing black hair, fine car- 

 riage, and fierce expression heightened by the white leopard teeth 

 projecting from his ears, is indeed one of the finest types of 

 savage. 



The Kayans are, perhaps, next to the Dyaks, the most numerous 

 of the Bornean people. They are spread over the central portion of 

 the island, and are found on the Bintulu, the Baloi, the Barram, the 

 Limbang, and especially on the Upper Banjar, the Pasir, and the 

 Koti or Kutei. On the Barram river they are very numerous, and 

 some of their villages have a population of 2,500. 



The Kayans have great personal courage, are warlike and very 

 enterprising, and they are thus greatly feared by the tribes with 

 whom they are in contact. They have, however, a special fear of 

 firearms, and by means of these weapons the Dyaks, who possess 

 a few, have made themselves respected. They often undertake 



1 The sumpitan with which the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula shoot 

 their ipo-poisoned darts is formed by a single internode of the Bambusa 

 Wrayi, Stopf. In Cochin China the Moys are said to use ipo. 



280 



