544 A MURUT VOCABULARY. 
In the Western hills of Keningau District are the Kwijaus, a 
semi-Dusun, semi-Murut tribe. On Keningau plain are the ‘Dabar = 
in the East, in the upper Sook, are the Bokan tribes (probably close- 
ly related to Peluan). 
Peluan tribes are found in the Daht and Mesopo and Karamatoi 
districts and the head-waters of the Telankai and Penawan rivers 
i.e. the S. E. part of Keningau and the N. of Pensiangan, with 
a sub-tribe called Belarun (“Bladun country” on small maps) and 
from there across Tenom district to the Mengalong and Lakutan 
rivers of Province Clarke and the River Bukau of Beaufort. Timu- 
gun tribes are found in the northern part of Tenom plain, on the 
Pegalan river, and there are also few in Beaufort. 
- The Semambus are a more important branch, and stretch from 
the S. E. part of Pensiangan, (when they meet with the ‘Sakais’ of 
Dutch Borneo, related to the Tidongs of Bulongan) through the 
Tagul, Siliu, Rundum, Selalir, Telecosan and Tomani rivers, across. 
the Padas to Bole; and perhaps to Lawas in Sarawak. At Bole, 
the people call themselves “T'agals’ and when I was District Officer 
Province Clarke I do not recollect hearing them use the name 
Semambu of themselves: their dialect however is similar, and a 
Policeman who has learnt ‘Murut’ at Bole is soon quite at home 
amongst Pensiangan people. 
Besides these, in Province Clarke, there were some settle- 
ments of people who called themselves ‘Kolor’? ‘Okolor’ ‘Unkolor’ 
and said they came from Dutch rivers south of the Selalir, and, in 
the extreme ulu Padas the ‘Undaio’ or ‘Lundaio’ (? = Ulun Daio, 
‘Dyak men’) who were closely related to the ‘Muruts’ of the upper 
Limbang and Trusan rivers of Sarawak, and appeared to be very 
distinct in type and language, from either the “Tagals’ or ‘Kolor.” 
For practical purposes therefore, I omit Kuijaus, as not being 
a pure race and the Lundaio, as being of Dyak kin, and classify 
our ‘ Muruts’ as Dabai and Timugun on the plains, with Peluan 
and Semambu as Hill tribes. 
In conclusion, it may be of interest to give a few illustrations 
of dialect variations. Several letters appear to be commonly inter- 
changed, and these differences in pronunciation and spelling offer a 
considerable obstacle to any attempt to make a satisfactory or con- 
cise Murut-Enelish Vocabulary. A Native, if questioned whether 
e.g. “baguh’ or ‘waguh’ is correct, will often say ‘ either will do.’ 
though whether he means that each form is in use in one or other 
of the dialects or that your hearer would catch your meaning and 
excuse your ignorance of his language, is open to doubt. 
The Keningau dialect, as given in this vocabulary, seems very 
fond of initial ‘m’ which is often absent in the ulu Padas (Semam- 
buy 
Jour. Straits Branch 
