BRITISH BORNEO. - 65 
of the stream, with its point towards the source, so that the 
Spirit of the brook shall be powerless to harm you. 
In caves and on small islands you frequently find platforms 
and little models of houses and boats—propitiatory offerings 
to hantus. In times of general sickness a large model of a 
boat is sometimes made and decked with flags and launched 
out to sea in the hope that the evil spirit who has brought 
the epidemic may take his departure therein. At Labuan it 
was difficult to prevail on a Malay messenger to pass after 
sunset by the gaol, where executions took place, or by the 
churchyard, for fear of the ghosts haunting those localities. 
Javanese element, and Hindu work in gold has been dis- 
covered buried in the island of Pappan, situated between 
Labuan and Brunai: Mr. INCHE MAHOMET, H. B. M.’s Con- 
sular Agent in Brunai, was good enough to procure for me 
a native history of Brunai, called the Ze/selah Besar, or 
principal history. This history states that the first Maho- 
medan Sovereign of Brunai was Sultan MAHOMET and 
that, before his. conversion and invesiture by the Sultan 
of Johor, his kingdom had been tributary to the State of 
Majapahit, on the fall of which kingdom the Brunai Govern- 
ment transferred its allegiance to Johor. Majapahit* was 
the last Javanese kingdom professing Hinduism, and from 
its overthrow dates the triumph of Mahomedanism in Java. 
This occurred in A.D. 1478, which, if the chronicle can be 
trusted, must have been about the period of the commence- 
ment of the Mahomedan period in Brunai. Inclusive of this 
Sultan MAHOMET and of the late Sultan MUMIM, who died 
in May, 1885, twenty-three Mahomedan Sultans have reigned 
in Brunai and, allowing eighteen years for an average reign, 
this brings us within a few years of the date assigned to the 
overthrow of the kingdom of Majapahit, and bears testimony 
to the reliability of the chronicle. I will quote the first few 
paragraphs of the Ze/selah, as they will give the reader an 
idea of a Brunai history and also because they allude to the 
connection of the Chinese with Borneo and afford a fanciful 
explanation of the origin of the name of the mountain of 
* CrRAwFuRpD’s Dictionary—Indian Islands—Majapait, 
