The Pagan Tribes of Borneo / A Description of Their Physical Moral and Intellectual Condition, with Some Discussion of Their Ethnic Relations

by Charles Hose; William McDougall

[38] — The sub-tribes are the following: — Uma Pliau, Uma Poh, Uma Semuka, Uma Paku, and Uma Bawang, chiefly in the basin of the Baram; in the Rejang basin — the Uma Naving, Uma Lesong, Uma Daro; in the Bintulu basin — the Uma Juman; in the Batang Kayan — the Uma Lekan; in the Kapuas — the Uma Ging; the Uma Belun, the Uma Blubo scattered in several river-basins; and one other group in the Madalam river, and one in the Koti.

[39] — All the Kenyahs of the Baram are known as Kenyah Bauh. On the watershed between the Batang Kayan and the Baram are the Lepu Payah and the Madang. In the Batang Kayan basin are the Lepu Tau, the Uma Kulit, Uma Lim, Uma Baka, Uma Jalan, Lepu Tepu. In the Koti basin are the Peng or Pnihing; in the Rejang the Uma Klap. These are the principal branches of the pure Kenyahs; each of them comprises a number of scattered villages, the people of each of which have adopted some local name. In addition to these there is a number of groups, such as the Uma Pawa and the Murik in the Baram, and the Lepu Tokong and the Uma Long in the Batang Kayan, the people of which seem to us to be intermediate as regards all important characters between the Kenyahs and the Klemantans. (For discussion of these relations see Chap. XXI.)

[40] — For the marriage ceremony see Chap. XVIII.

[41] — We take this opportunity of contradicting in the most emphatic manner a very misleading statement which of all the many misleading statements about the peoples of Borneo that are in circulation is perhaps the most frequently repeated in print. The statement makes its most recent reappearance in Professor Keane's book THE WORLD'S PEOPLES (published in 1908). There it is written of the "Borneans" that "No girl will look at a wooer before he has laid a head or two at her feet." To us it seems obvious that this state of affairs could only obtain among a hydra-headed race. The statement is not true of any one tribe, and as regards most of the "Borneans" has no foundation in fact. Applied to the Sea Dayaks alone has the statement an element of truth. Among them to have taken a head does commonly enhance a wooer's chances of success, and many Sea Dayak girls and their mothers will taunt a suitor with having taken no head, but few of them will make the taking of a head an essential condition of the bestowal of their favour or of marriage. A mother will remark to a youth who is hanging about her daughter, BISI DALAM, BISI DELUAR BULI DI TANYA ANAK AKU (When you have the wherewithal to adorn both the interior and the exterior of a room (I.E. jars within the room and heads without in the gallery) you can then ask for my child).

[42] — For the naming ceremony see Chap. XVIII.

[43] — It is not rare to find that a child does not know the original names of his parents, and even husbands may be found to have forgotten the original names of their wives.

[44] — We append to this chapter a table showing the names and degrees of kinship of all the inhabitants of one Kenyah long house. At the suggestion of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, who has found this method of great value in disentangling the complicated kinship systems of some Melanesian and Papuan and other peoples, we have collected similar information regarding Kayan, Sea Dayak, Klemantan, and Murut villages. But in no case does the table discover any trace of any elaborate kinship system.

[45] — They are skilled woodmen, and know how to cut a tree so as to ensure its falling in any desired manner; the final strokes cut away the ends of the narrow portion of the stem remaining between the upper and lower notches.

[46] — See Chap. X.

[47] — See Chap. XVII.