xxiv] STONE IMPLEMENTS 



most countries. It would thus appear that stone implements, 

 if such were ever made and used in Borneo, ceased to be so perhaps 

 long before this was the case in Europe. Whatever be the explana- 

 tion, it is a fact that stone implements are excessively rare in Borneo, 

 whilst they are not so in Java and in the Malay Peninsula. Perhaps 

 the reason why they have not been found lies in the luxuriance 

 of the vegetation, which covers most of the island and virtually 

 prevents or renders exceedingly improbable any such finds. Not 

 merely small stone implements, but even great temples might 

 easily thus be hidden for ages to come in the depths of the jungle. 



Dr. Shelf ord, in his Report on the Sarawak Museum, dated 

 February 1901, states that he bought from a Malay a stone axe 

 found in the house of a Dyak on the Upper Sadong, where it is 

 probable that others may be found ; and adds that similar imple- 

 ments of various shapes and sizes have been discovered by Dr. 

 Hose and Dr. Haddon amongst the tribes of the Barram district. 

 The first stone axe discovered in Sarawak was found by Mr. A H. 

 Everett in the gravel in the banks of the Sinyawan river. 



On the Malay Peninsula stone implements are rare, but a stone 

 axe was found at Singapore, and has been described by Mr. Ridley. 

 In Perak and Pahang they are called " batu linta," which means 

 literally " leech-stone," probably in allusion to their usual shape. 



Mr. St. John {Op. cit., p. 190), mentions stones or pebbles of 

 a dark colour considered by the natives as sacred. Some such, 

 found at Quop, were said to have been lost during the civil wars. 

 They are possibly palaeolithic implements. 



Sarawak, up to the present, has derived its wealth more from 

 Nature's spontaneous products than from agriculture or human 

 industries of any kind. Agriculture has hitherto been less successful 

 than might have been expected in a country whose soil has a reputa- 

 tion for great fertility. Sago has alone yielded good profits in 

 the hands of Europeans, pepper and gambir to the Chinese. The 

 sago palm is a plant whose cultivation, more than that of any other, 

 is likely to give profitable results, and it can be extended to low 

 swampy and flooded land which is otherwise unproductive. Hill- 

 rice succeeds well in Sarawak, but the present system used in its 

 cultivation keeps large areas of ground in a fallow condition for 

 years, for rice cannot be sown again in the same field under an 

 interval of six or seven years. The reduction to " sawas " — a 

 series of irrigated terraces — might, however, be tried wherever 

 possible. 



All over Borneo agriculture is in a. very primitive stage The 

 cultivation of rice is no doubt extensively practised, but it is under- 

 taken, as I have shown, in the rudest manner. In Sarawak the 

 plough is unknown, although it is used in North Borneo. As I 

 have suggested, the Javanese " sawas " system of rice-cultivation 



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