SARAWAK ETHNOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION. 15 



whilst the lid of the resonator is tapped with the fingers of 

 the other. 



I am inclined to believe that the Sea-Dyak engkratong at 

 any rate is derived from a stringed instrument like the 

 enserunai through a guitar stage. In my private collection is a 

 roughly made Sea-Dyak six-stringed guitar very like the Dusun 

 guitar in shape but with a much longer projection distad of the 

 resonator and this instrument is known to >Sea-Dyaks as an 

 engkratong. If the stem of this guitar was shortened to corres- 

 pond in length with the distal projection and if the string were 

 stretched between two uprights in a vertical plane the instrument 

 would become an engkratong. It is at least curious that the 

 guitar in this form should be known to the Sea-Dyaks only under 

 the name of engkratong, and that it should have disappeared 

 almost entirely from use. 



Ling Roth (I.e. Vol. II, p. 260), figures a zither from S. E. 

 Borneo in the collection of the Leyden Museum. It is a flat board 

 with eight strings stretched across it and bridged up with a 

 cylindrical piece of wood at each end : there is no information 

 as to the tribe from whom the instrument was obtained. I do 

 not consider that the instrument is connected in any way with 

 the engkratong, and have doubts as to the correctness of the 

 locality quoted. 



1. Murut — Upright Harp. (Plate II, fig. 6, upper specimen). 



A long narrow wooden box, truncate at one end, at the 

 other tapering and produced into a handle ; it is cut out of one 

 piece of wood and hollowed out from the bottom, the cavity 

 being closed by a wooden cover pegged on with wooden pegs. 

 The handle is a flattened oval. Two loops of rattan (making four 

 strings) pass through two holes in the handle to the opposite 

 end of the instrument, where they perforate a projection from 

 the wall of the box and are knotted to prevent slipping. The 

 four strings are raised clear from the resonator by two upright 

 bridges set in holes in its roof ; the bridges have two notches on 

 each side to receive the strings. The strings were originally 

 of bemban (Donax sp.) but having been destroyed by insects, are 

 replaced by rattan. 



R. A. Soc. No. 40, 1904 



