Borneo is the principal island of the Sunda group. After Australia, it is the largest island on the globe, as large as France and England com bined. Stein estimated it at 210,107, and the Penny Magazine at 286,000 square miles, with 3 to 4 millions as its population. Its many tribes take their tribal names from the river basins or the districts they inhabit, and thus we have the Dyak clans, Orang Duson, and the Orang Sampit from these rivers ; and in the north of the island are the Sarebu Dyaks, Sakarran, Lundu, Sibnuw, established on the rivers which bear these names. Other rivers are the Borneo, Banjarmassin, Passir, Coti, Pontianak, and Sambas.
The better known tribes are Malay, Suluk, Baju, Balagnini, Dustin or Duson, Illanun, Kadayan, Bisaya, Murut, Kalamut, Tutung, Kyajao, Kayan, Dyak, Tatao, Kanawit, and Melando. The sea-coast has tribes totally uncon nected with each other, each with its own manners and customs, and governed by its own laws. The west is occupied by Malays and Chinese ; the north-west by the half-caste descendants of the Muhammadans of Western India ; the north by the Cochin - Chinese ; the north - east by Sulu ; and the east and south coasts by the Bugis tribes of Celebes. There are, besides, numerous seafaring tribes, who live in prahus in islands near the coast ; amongst others, the Lanun from Magindanao, and the Orang Baju and Orang Tidong, source unknown.
Since A.D. 1244, Malays from Malacca, Sumatra, and Java have been settled along the coast. On the east coast there is a great admixture of Bugis blood. All the rajas and principal men are Bugis, or have Bugis relatives in Celebes, and there are also many Bugis in the Western Residency. The greater part of the coast is dotted, rather than peopled, with Malay settlements.
The Dyak inhabit thatched bamboo houses, erected on piles 18 or 20 feet high, those be longing to each family or petty tribe being joined together by means of a stage or verandah running along the front, and reached by ladders, which are pulled up at night. Many of the smaller villages are defended by stockades. The Jang kang Dyaks dwelling on the Sakiam, a branch of the Sadong river, are said to be cannibals. The men of this tribe file down their teeth to a point, like the teeth of a saw. Until after the middle of the 19th century, the Dyak tribes were constantly at war with each other, making forays for heads, which they suspended in their houses. A man could not marry until he procured a head, and distant voyages and every stratagem were adopted to obtain these.
The Kyan, a powerful tribe, about 100,000 in number, occupy the country from the south of the kingdom of Brunei, right away into the interior. They are the most martial tribe in Borneo, fierce, hot-blooded, and reckless of life. The Kyan have eleven tributary clans, several of whom, both men and women, tattoo. The Kyan and the Idaan or Murut are said to be addicted to human sacrifice ; and they arrange skulls about the houses.
Mr. Burbidge (Gardens of the Sun) has given the latest and best account of the present state of the inhabitants. He tells us that the Kadyans are peaceable and well-disposed tribe of ab originals, who, living along the coast near to the capital, have mixed a good deal with the Malays, and speak their language. Some of the older and more intelligent men of this tribe are well acquainted with the Murut, Duson, and the Brunei dialects. Although the Kadyan people are nomin ally Muhammadans, their women enjoy the greatest freedom, and are never secluded, as is the custom of the Malays of the coast ; indeed, many Kadyan houses consist of one very large room only, there being no private apartments of any kind. This is a rather singular trait of these people, since even the Murut and the Dusan have one side of their houses partitioned off so as to allow of a separate private room for each family.
The Dusan villagers keep bees and export wax in quantity, and most of the tribes collect the varied natural products of the sea or of the forest in their respective districts.
The physique of the inland tribes, especially of the Dyak, Kadyan, and Murut, is superior to that of the Malays.
Murut women, whether in boats or afield, appear to be as active as the men. Their hair is often very gracefully wreathed up with a string of red or amber-coloured beads, sometimes with a strip of the pale-yellow nips leaf in its young state, and the colour contrast is then very effect ive. In Borneo and elsewhere in the Malayan islands, Orang-Utan (literally wild man) is ap plied not only to the large red monkey, but also to the aboriginal inhabitants of the interior. The Murut are frequently spoken of as Orang-Utan, not only by the Malays, but also by the Kadyans, a tribe of aboriginals converted to the Muham madan faith. The Murut have a great love for gong music ; and now and then a cheap German gun or old Tower musket is obtained from Chinese traders. Spears, blowpipes, krisses or parongs (swords), and their ghastly baskets of human skulls, form their only accumulated wealth.