ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES. 
135 
Muruts were the sole inhabitants of these parts of 
Borneo, roaming the hills, clothed in skins made from 
the denizens of the forest, where no foreign element 
had cast its shadow, and living in what we should call 
a distinctly uncivilized state. In these days there lived 
three beings, or “spirits” one might call them, Batu 
Api, Batu Bung a and Batu Lawi. All three were gifted 
with speech. The first named lived in the Limbang 
district, not far from where the rivers Madalam and 
Limbang meet, Batu Bunga lived in the country called 
Palutut in Dutch territory and Batu Lawi lived in the 
whirl-pools of the Ocean. As if to live up to his name 
—“Rock of Fire”— Batu Apt s mission in life seems to 
have been to consume with restless energ} T the drift¬ 
wood as it surged madly down the rivers in flood, 
borne on the bosom of the raging veaters. Batu Bunga 
was stationary. As time passed by, Batu Lawi rose 
from the Ocean, and meeting with Batu Api, advised 
him to change places, ‘For,’ said he, ‘the country is 
always in flood, and should I reside in the Limbang, 
floods will cease.’ So they changed places. Then 
Batu Lawi intending to make the round of his district, 
met Batu Bunga whom he ordered to move further in¬ 
land, but Batu Bunga refused and some angry words 
passed between them ending in an encounter In which 
Batu Bunga was defeated. From that day the gift of 
speech passed away. And Batu Bunga, now a broken 
tumbled mass, resides in the Palutut country, while 
Batu Lawi is still to be seen and admired near the 
sources of the Limbang River. 
There, for ever untrodden by the foot of man ; 
A lasting monument of ages to stand. 
A possible connection between the present Batu Lawi 
and its former maritime existence is suggested by the 
Murat word Lawit or Lawid meaning fish ; though I 
must confess that I have yet to meet the Mu rut who 
will admit this explanation. 
La was 
Dec. 12th, IQ 10. 
W. R. T. Clement. 
