There are certain petty chiefs, remnants of good stock, who keep up as long as they can the old exclusive traditions, and who are usually situated in out-of-the-way places.
Owing to the number of difficulties of access and to the raids that have taken place among the intermediate peoples, and also owing to the fact that every Kayan and Kenyah chief is chary of giving in or of admitting that he is in any way inferior to any other chief, it is easy to understand that until brought together by an external power these people rarely meet one another even though they may be friends.
It is not difficult to imagine that in course of time the less important chiefs should acquire an exaggerated opinion of their power and authority generally. They see nobody but people who listen to them, and having no opposition, they regard themselves as small lords of creation. Some in their excited moments of drunkenness tell their followers that the sky and earth belong to them; and in the case of people like the Kalabits it is not uncommon to find a chief who adds the name Langit (“the sky”) to his proper name.
The really important Kenyah and Kayan chiefs laugh at this sort of thing, and men like Tama Bulan and others strongly object to have any title given them. Taman Aping Kuleh, a Long Sibatu Lepupun, when told by Hose that Borneo was an island, remarked that it might be so, but that he knew nothing about it; it was of no consequence to him where the river ran out, and that he and his people knew only of the country and people immediately round about, and they regarded themselves as the most important people.
Nor must the purely social element be left out of account. Gatherings such as these tend largely towards creating a solidarity between more or less isolated peoples. As it is, the different tribes or villages which live on a small river, or on a long stretch of a large river, tend to constitute a social group, so that one can speak of the Silat people or of the Upper or Lower Tinjar people as recognised groups. In the case of the two latter, although there is friction between them, yet they combine in the case of a common trouble, and so, for example, we have a temporary Tinjar combination of sentiment against the Baram.
This is the initiatory step towards the development of a feeling of nationality, and there is no doubt that in time a wider sentiment of a similar character may be induced by meetings such as this. It appears to me that one probable result of Hose’s system of government may be the development of a patriotic feeling for the Baram district as a whole. Should this occur in this and other rivers or divisions, a Sarawak nation may in time arise, composed, as practically every European nation is, of several races and innumerable tribes.
A nation is an organism of slow growth, and requires careful tending, especially in its early stages. As in some other instances in the past elsewhere, the cementing bonds in the present instance probably will be the relief from anxiety in the daily agricultural pursuits and the mutual interests of commerce. But no nation is worthy of the name that has not a patriotic feeling consisting of love for the country, regard for fellow-countrymen, and loyalty to the Government.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Ray informs me that Kake! is a word of address to a woman; the corresponding term to a man is Kame! I suppose my informant, who was a Mabuiag man, made a slip, as he would himself naturally begin a love-letter with “Kake!”