Pagan Tribes of Borneo.

by Hose & McDougall.

Preface

In writing this book we have aimed at presenting a clear picture of the pagan tribes of Borneo as they existed at the close of the nineteenth century. We have not attempted to embody in it the observations recorded by other writers, although we have profited by them and have been guided and aided by them in making our own observations. We have rather been content to put on record as much information as we have been able to obtain at first hand, both by direct observation of the people and of their possessions, customs, and manners, and by means of innumerable conversations with men and women of many tribes.

The reader has a right to be informed as to the nature of the opportunities we have enjoyed for collecting our material, and we therefore make the following personal statement. One of us (C. H.) has spent twenty-four years as a Civil Officer in the service of the Rajah of Sarawak; and of this time twenty-one years were spent actually in Sarawak, while periods of some months were spent from time to time in visiting neighbouring lands -- Celebes, Sulu Islands, Ternate, Malay Peninsula, British North Borneo, and Dutch Borneo. Of the twenty-one years spent in Sarawak, about eighteen were pa.s.sed in the Baram district, and the remainder mostly in the Rejang district. In both these districts, but especially in the Baram, settlements and representatives of nearly all the princ.i.p.al peoples are to be found; and the nature of his duties as Resident Magistrate necessitated a constant and intimate intercourse with all the tribes of the districts, and many long and leisurely journeys into the far interior, often into regions which had not previously been explored. Such journeys, during which the tribesmen are the magistrate's only companions for many weeks or months, and during which his nights and many of his days are spent in the houses of the people, afford unequalled opportunities for obtaining intimate knowledge of them and their ways. These opportunities have not been neglected; notes have been written, special questions followed up, photographs taken, and sketches made, throughout all this period.

In the years 1898 -- 9 the second collaborator (W. McD.) spent the greater part of a year in the Baram district as a member of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, which, under the leadership of Dr. A. C. Haddon, went out to the Torres Straits in the year 1897. During this visit we co-operated in collecting material for a joint paper on the animal cults of Sarawak;[1] and this co-operation, having proved itself profitable, suggested to us an extension of our joint program to the form of a book embodying all the information already to hand and whatever additional information might be obtainable during the years that one of us was still to spend in Borneo. The book therefore may be said to have been begun in the year 1898 and to have been in progress since that time; but it has been put into shape only during the last few years, when we have been able to come together for the actual writing of it.

During the year 1899 Dr. A. C. Haddon spent some months in the Baram district, together with other members of the Cambridge Expedition (Drs. C. G. Seligmann, C. S. Myers, and Mr. S. Ray); and we wish to express our obligation to him for the friendly encouragement in, and stimulating example of, anthropological field work which he afforded us during that time, as well as for later encouragement and help which he has given us, especially in reading the proofs of the book and in making many helpful suggestions. We are indebted to him also for the Appendix to this book, in which he has stated and discussed the results of the extensive series of physical measurements of the natives that he made, with our a.s.sistance, during his visit to Sarawak.

We have pleasure in expressing here our thanks to several other gentlemen to whom we are indebted for help of various kinds -- for permission to reproduce several photographs, to Dr. A. W. Nieuwenhuis, the intrepid explorer of the interior of Dutch Borneo, who in his two fine volumes (QUER DURCH BORNEO) has embodied the observations recorded during two long journeys in the interior; to Mr. H. Ling Roth for the gift of the blocks used in the preparation of his well-known work, THE NATIVES OF SARAWAK AND BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, many of which we have made use of; to Dr. W. H. Furness, author of THE HOME LIFE OF BORNEO HEAD-HUNTERS (1902), for several photographic plates made by him during his visits to the Baram in the years 1897 and 1898; to Drs. C. G. Seligmann and C. S. Myers for permission to reproduce several photographs; to Mr. R. Shelford, formerly Curator of the Sarawak Museum, for his permission to incorporate a large part of a paper published jointly with one of us (C. H.) on tatu in Borneo, and for measurements of Land Dayaks made by him; to Mr. R. S. Douglas, formerly a.s.sistant Officer in the Baram district and now Resident of the Fourth Division of Sarawak, for practical help genially afforded on many occasions.

Finally, it is our agreeable duty to acknowledge our obligation to H.H. the Rajah of Sarawak, who welcomed to his country the members of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, and without whose enlightened encouragement of scientific work on the part of his officers this book would never have been written.

C. H.

W. McD.

JULY 1912.

Supplementary Preface by one of the Authors

I feel that it is necessary to supplement our joint-preface with some few words of apology for, and explanation of, the appearance of my name on the t.i.tle-page of this book. For the book is essentially an attempt to set forth in condensed form the ma.s.s of knowledge of the tribes of Borneo acquired by Dr. Hose in the course of a quarter of a century's intimate study of, and sympathetic companionship with, the people of the interior. My own part in its production has been merely that of a midwife, though I may perhaps claim to have helped in the washing and dressing of the infant as well as in its delivery, and even to have offered some useful advice during the long years of pregnancy. And, since it is more difficult to present a brief and popular account of any complex subject the more intimate is one's knowledge of it, I may fairly hope that my superficial acquaintance with the pagan tribes of Borneo has been a useful ally to Dr. Hose's profound and extensive knowledge of them; I have therefore gladly accepted my friend's generous invitation to place my name beside his as joint-author of this work.

W. McD.

CHAPTER 1

Geography of Borneo

Borneo is one of the largest islands of the world. Its area is roughly 290,000 square miles, or about five times that of England and Wales. Its greatest length from north-east to south-west is 830 miles, and its greatest breadth is about 600 miles. It is crossed by the equator a little below its centre, so that about two-thirds of its area lie in the northern and one-third lies in the southern hemisphere. Although surrounded on all sides by islands of volcanic origin, Borneo differs from them in presenting but small traces of volcanic activity, and in consisting of ancient ma.s.ses of igneous rock and of sedimentary strata.

The highest mountain is Kinabalu, an isolated ma.s.s of granite in the extreme north, nearly 14,000 feet in height. With this exception the princ.i.p.al mountains are grouped in several ma.s.sive chains, which rise here and there to peaks about 10,000 feet above the sea. The princ.i.p.al of these chains, the Tibang-Iran range, runs south-westward through the midst of the northern half of the island and is prolonged south of the equator by the Schwaner chain. This median south-westerly trending range forms the backbone of the island. A second much-broken chain runs across the island from east to west about 1[degree]

north of the equator. Besides these two princ.i.p.al mountain chains which determine the main features of the river-system, there are several isolated peaks of considerable height, and a minor ridge of hills runs from the centre towards the south-cast corner. With the exception of the northern extremity, which geographically as well as politically stands apart from the rest of the island, the whole of Borneo may be described as divided by the two princ.i.p.al mountain chains into four large watersheds. Of these, the north-western basin, the territory of Sarawak, is drained by the Rejang and Baram, as well as by numerous smaller rivers. Of the other three, which const.i.tute Dutch Borneo, the north-eastern is drained by the Batang Kayan or Balungan river; the south-eastern by the Kotei and Banjermasin rivers; and the south-western by the Kapuas, the largest of all the rivers, whose course from the centre of the island to its south-west corner is estimated at 700 miles. Although the point of intersection of the two princ.i.p.al mountain chains lies almost exactly midway between the northern and southern and the eastern and western extremities of the island, the greater width of the southern half of the island gives a longer course to the rivers of that part, in spite of the fact that all the six princ.i.p.al rivers mentioned above have their sources not far from this central point. The princ.i.p.al rivers thus radiate from a common centre, the Batang Kayan flowing east-north-east, the Kotei south-east by east, the Banjermasin south, the Kapuas a little south of west, the Rejang west, and the Baram north-west. This radiation of the rivers from a common centre is a fact of great importance for the understanding of the ethnography of the island, since the rivers are the great highways which movements of the population chiefly follow.

In almost all parts of the island, the land adjoining the coast is a low-lying swampy belt consisting of the alluvium brought down by the many rivers from the central highlands. This belt of alluvium extends inland in many parts for fifty miles or more, and is especially extensive in the south and south-east of the island.

Between the swampy coast belt and the mountains intervenes a zone of very irregular hill country, of which the average height above the sea-level is about one thousand feet, with occasional peaks rising to five or six thousand feet or more.

There seems good reason to believe that at a comparatively recent date Borneo was continuous with the mainland of Asia, forming its south-eastern extremity. Together with Sumatra and Java it stands upon a submarine bank, which is nowhere more than one hundred fathoms below the surface, but which plunges down to a much greater depth along a line a little east of Borneo (Wallace's line). The abundance of volcanic activity in the archipelago marks it as a part of the earth's crust liable to changes of elevation, and the acc.u.mulation of volcanic matter would tend to make it an area of subsidence; while the north-east monsoon, which blows with considerable violence down the China Sea for about four months of each year, may have hastened the separation of Borneo from the mainland. That this separation was effected in a very recent geological period is shown by the presence in Borneo of many species of Asiatic mammals both large and small, notably the rhinoceros (R. BORNIENSIS, closely allied to R. SUMATRa.n.u.s); the elephant (E. INDICUS, which, however, may have been imported by man); the wild cattle (BOS SONDIACUS, which occurs also in Sumatra); several species of deer and pig (some of which are found in Sumatra and the mainland); several species of the cat tribe, of which the tiger-cat (FELIS NEBULOSA) is the largest; the civet-cat (VIVERRA) and its congeners HEMIGALE, PARADOXURUS, and ARCTOGALE; the small black bear (URSUS MALAYa.n.u.s); the clawless otter (LUTRA CINEREA); the bear-cat (ARCTICTIS BINTURONG); the scaly ant-eater (MANIS JAVANICUS); the lemurs (TARSIUS SPECTRUM and NYCTICEBUS TARDIGRADUS); the flying lemur (GALEOPITHECUS VOLANS); the porcupine (HYSTRIX CRa.s.sISPINIS); numerous bats, squirrels, rats and mice; the big shrew (GYMNURA); several species of monkeys, and two of the anthropoid apes. The last are of peculiar significance, since they are incapable of crossing even narrow channels of water, and must be regarded as products of a very late stage of biological evolution. Of these two anthropoid species, the gibbon (HYLOBATES MULLERI) is closely allied to species found in the mainland and in Sumatra, while the MAIAS or orang-utan (SIMIA SALYRUS) is found also in Sumatra and, though not now surviving on the continent, must be regarded as related to anthropoids whose fossil remains have been discovered there.[2]

The zoological evidence thus indicates a recent separation of Borneo and Sumatra from the continent, and a still more recent separation between the two islands.

The climate of the whole island is warm and moist and very equable. The rainfall is copious at all times of the year, but is rather heavier during the prevalence of the north-east monsoon in the months from October to February, and least during the months of April and May. At Kuching, during the last thirty years, the average yearly rainfall has been 160 inches, the maximum 225, and the minimum 102 inches; the maximum monthly fall recorded was 69 inches, and the minimum .66, and the greatest rainfall recorded in one day was 15 inches. The temperature hardly, if ever, reaches 100[degree] F.; it ranges normally between 70[degree] and 90[degree]

F.; the highest reading of one year (1906) at Kuching was 94[degree], the lowest 69[degree]. Snow and frost are unknown, except occasionally on the summits of the highest mountains. Thunder-storms are frequent and severe, but wind-storms are not commonly of any great violence.

The abundant rainfall maintains a copious flow of water down the many rivers at all times of the year; but the rivers are liable to rise rapidly many feet above their normal level during days of exceptionally heavy rain. In their lower reaches, where they traverse the alluvial plains and swamps, the rivers wind slowly to the sea with many great bends, and all the larger ones are navigable by small steamers for many miles above their mouths: thus a large steam launch can ascend the Rejang for 160 miles, the Baram for 120, and some of the rivers on the Dutch side for still greater distances. The limit of such navigation is set by beds of rock over which the rivers run shallow, and which mark the beginnings of the middle reaches. In these middle reaches, where the rivers wind between the feet of the hills, long stretches of deep smooth water alternate with others in which the water runs with greater violence between confining walls of rock, or spreads out in wide rapids over stony bottoms. The upper reaches of the rivers, where they descend rapidly from the slopes of the mountains, are composed of long series of shallow rapids and low waterfalls, alternating at short intervals with still pools and calm shallows, bounded by rock walls and great beds of waterworn stones, which during the frequent freshets are submerged by a boiling flood. The whole river in these upper reaches is for the most part roofed in by the overarching forest.

Practically the whole of Borneo, from the seacoast to the summits of the highest mountains, is covered with a dense forest. On the summits this consists of comparatively stunted trees, of which every part is thickly coated with moss. In all other parts the forest consists of great trees rising to a height of 150 feet, and even 200 feet, and of a dense undergrowth of younger and smaller trees, and of a great variety of creepers, palms, and ferns. Trees of many species (nearly 500) yield excellent timber, ranging from the hardest ironwood or BILIAN, and other hard woods (many of them so close-grained that they will not float in water), to soft, easily worked kinds. A considerable number bear edible fruits, notably the mango (from which the island derives its Malay name, PULU KLEMANTAN), the durian, mangosteen, rambutan, jack fruit, trap, lansat, banana of many varieties, both wild and cultivated, and numerous sour less nutritious kinds. Wild sago is abundant in some localities. Various palms supply in their unfolding leaves a cabbage-like edible. Among edible roots the caladium is the chief. Rubber is obtained as the sap of a wild creeper; gutta-percha from trees of several varieties; camphor from pockets in the stem of the camphor tree (DRYOBALANOPS AROMATICA). But of all the jungle plants those which play the most important parts in the life of the people are the many species of the rattan and the bamboo; without them more than half the crafts and most of the more important material possessions of the natives would be impossible, and their lives would perhaps nearly conform to the conventional notion of savage existence as something 'nasty, dull, and brutish.' The jungle of Borneo is, of course, famous for its wealth of orchids, and can claim the distinction of producing the largest flower of the world (RAFFLESIA), and many beautiful varieties of the pitcher plant.

The forests of Borneo harbour more than 450 species of birds, many of them being of gorgeous colouring or strange and beautiful forms; especially noteworthy are many hawks, owls, and eagles, fly-catchers, spider-hunters, sun-birds, broad-bills, nightjars, orioles, miners, pigeons, kingfishers, hornbills, trojans, magpies, jays, crows, partridges, pheasants, herons, bitterns, snipes, plovers, Curlews, and sandpipers. Amongst these are many species peculiar to Borneo; while on the mountains above the 4000-feet level are found several species which outside Borneo are known only in the Himalayas.

Besides the mammals mentioned above, Borneo claims several species of mammal peculiar to itself, notably the long-nosed monkey (NASALIS LARVATUS); two species of ape (SEMNOPITHECUS HOSEI and S. CRUCIGER); many shrews and squirrels, including several flying species; a civet-cat (HEMIGALE HOSEI); a deer (CERVUS BROOKII); the bearded pig (SUS HARBATUS); the curious feather-tailed shrew (PTYLOCERCUS LOWII).

Reptiles are well represented by the crocodile, which abounds in all the rivers, a long-snouted gavial, numerous tortoises and lizards with several flying species, and more than seventy species of snakes, of which some are poisonous, while the biggest, the python, attains a length of thirty feet. The rivers abound in edible fish of many species; insects are of course numerous and varied, and, aided by the mult.i.tude of frogs, they fill the island each evening at sunset with one vast chorus of sound.

CHAPTER 2

History of Borneo

The Pagan tribes of Borneo have no written records of their history and only very vague traditions concerning events in the lives of their ancestors of more than five or six generations ago. But the written records of more cultured peoples of the Far East contain references to Borneo which throw some small rays of light upon the past history and present condition of its population. It has seemed to us worth while to bring together in these pages these few historical notes. The later history of Borneo, which is in the main the story of its occupation by and division between the Dutch and English, and especially the romantic history of the acquisition of the raj of Sarawak by its first English rajah, Sir James Brooke, has often been told,[3] and for this reason may be dismissed by us in a very few words.

The coasts of Borneo have long been occupied by a Mohammedan population of Malay culture; this population is partly descended from Malay and Arab immigrants, and partly from indigenous individuals and communities that have adopted the Malay faith and culture in recent centuries. When Europeans first visited the island, this population, dwelling for the most part, as it still does, in villages and small towns upon the coast and in or near the mouths of the rivers, owed allegiance to several Malay sultans and a number of subordinate rulers, the local rajahs and pangirans. The princ.i.p.al sultans had as their capitals, from which they took their t.i.tles, Bruni on the north-west, Sambas in the west, Pontianak at the mouth of the Kapuas river, Banjermasin in the south at the mouth of the river of the same name, Pasir at the south-east corner, Kotei and Balungan on the east at the mouths of the rivers of those names; while the Sultan of Jolo, the capital of the Sulu islands, which lie off the north coast, claimed sovereignty over the northern end of Borneo. But these Malay sultans were not the first representatives in the island of culture and of civilised or semi-civilised rule; for history preserves some faint records of still earlier times, of which some slight confirmation is afforded by surviving traces of the culture then introduced.

In spite of all the work done on the history of the East Indies, most of what occurred before and much that followed the arrival of Europeans remains obscure. There are several Asiatic nations whose records might be expected to contain valuable information, but all are disappointing. The Klings, still the princ.i.p.al Hindu traders in the Far East, visited the Malay Archipelago in the first or at any rate the second century after Christ,[4] and introduced their writing[5] and chronology. But their early histories are meagre and unsatisfactory in the extreme. The Arab culture of the Malays, which took root in Sumatra in the twelfth century, is of course of no a.s.sistance in regard to events of earlier date, and does not give trustworthy and detailed accounts until the fifteenth century. The Chinese, on the other hand, always a literary people, carefully preserved in their archives all that could be gathered with regard to the "southern seas." But China was far away, and many local events would possess no interest for her subjects. Under the circ.u.mstances, the official historians deserve our grat.i.tude for their geographical descriptions and for the particulars of tribute-bearing missions to the Son of Heaven, though they have little else to tell.

The first account we have been able to find referring to Borneo is a description of the kingdom of Poli from the Chinese annals of the sixth century. Poli was said to be on an island in the sea south-east of Camboja, and two months south-east of Canton. The journey thither was made by way of the Malay Peninsula, a devious route still followed by Chinese junks. Envoys were sent to the Imperial court in A.D. 518, 523, and 616. "The people of this country," our authority says, "are skilled in throwing a discus-knife, and the edge is like a saw; when they throw it at a man, they never fail to hit him. Their other arms are about the same as in China. Their customs resemble those of Camboja, and the productions of the country are the same as of Siam. When one commits a murder or theft they cut off his hands,[6]

and when adultery has been committed, the culprit has his legs chained for the period of a year. For their sacrifice they choose the time when there is no moon; they fill a bowl with wine and eatables and let it float away on the surface of the water; in the eleventh month they have a great sacrifice. They get corals from the sea, and they have a bird called s'ari, which can talk." A later reference to the same place says: "They carry the teeth of wild beasts in their ears, and wrap a piece of cotton round their loins; cotton is a plant of which they collect the flowers to make cloth of them; the coa.r.s.er kind is called KUPA, and the finer cloth T'IEH. They hold their markets at night, and cover their faces.... At the east of this country is situated the land of the Rakshas, which has the same customs as Poli."[7]

This is an interesting account in many ways, and tallies very closely with what other evidence would lead one to suspect. For there is reason to think that Bruni, before it became Mohammedan, was a Bisaya kingdom under Buddhist sovereigns and Hindu influence; and nearly all the particulars given with regard to the people of Borneo are true of one or other of the races allied to Bisayas and living near Bruni to-day. The discus-knife, a wooden weapon, is not now in use, but is known to have been used formerly. The wild Kadayans sacrifice after every new moon, and are forbidden to eat a number of things until they have done so. The Malanaus set laden rafts afloat on the rivers to propitiate the spirits of the sea. The very names of the two kinds of cotton, then evidently a novelty to the Chinese, are found in Borneo: KAPOK is a well-known Malay word; but TAYA is the common name for cotton among the Sea Dayaks, though it is doubtful whether it is found in Sumatra at all, and is not given in Marsden's great Dictionary. The use of teeth as ear-ornaments may refer to Kenyahs. If these ident.i.ties are sufficient to show that Poli was old Bruni, we have an almost unique ill.u.s.tration here of the antiquity of savage customs. That an experience of fourteen hundred years should have failed to convince people of the futility of feeding salt waves is a striking demonstration of the widespread fallacy, that what is old must needs be good.

Poli had already attained a certain measure of civilisation, and even of luxury. The kingly dignity was hereditary, and the Buddhist monarch was served with much ceremony. He was clad in flowered silk or cotton, adorned with pearls, and sat on a golden throne attended by servants with white dusters and fans of peac.o.c.k feathers. When he went out of his palace, his chariot, canopied with feathers and embroidered curtains, was drawn by elephants, whilst gongs, drums, and conches made inspiriting music. As Hindu ornaments have been found at Santubong together with Chinese coins of great antiquity, as the names of many offices of state in Bruni are derived from Sanskrit, and the people of Sarawak have only lately ceased to speak of "the days of the Hindus,"[8] there is nothing startling in the statement that the kings of Poli were Buddhist.

Whatever Poli may or may not have been, there is little question that Puni, 45 days from Java, 40 from Palembang, 30 from Champa, in each case taking the wind to be fair, was Bruni. The Chinese, who have neither B nor double consonants in their impoverished language, still call the Bornean capital Puni. Groeneveldt says that the Chinese consider Puni to have been on the west coast of Borneo. This state is mentioned several times in the annals of the Sung dynasty, which, though only ruling over Southern China, had a complete monopoly[9]

of the ocean trade for three centuries (960 to 1279 A.D.). Puni was at that time a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, protected by a stockade of timber. The king's palace, like the houses of modern Bruni, was thatched with palm leaves, the cottages of the people with gra.s.s. Warriors carried spears and protected themselves with copper armour. When any native died, his corpse was exposed in the jungle, and once a year for seven years sacrifices were made to the departed spirit. Bamboos and palm leaves, thrown away after every meal, sufficed for crockery. The products of the country, or at least such as were sent as tribute, were camphor, tortoisesh.e.l.l, and ivory.[10]

In the year 977, we are told, Hianzta, king of Puni, sent envoys to China, who presented tribute with the following words: "May the emperor live thousands and tens of thousands of years, and may he not disapprove of the poor civilities of my little country." The envoys presented a letter from the king. This was written on' what looked like the very thin bark of a tree; it was glossy, slightly green, several feet long, and somewhat broader than one inch; the characters in which it was written were small, and had to be read horizontally. In all these particulars the letter resembled the books of magic which are still written by the Battas of inland Sumatra.[11] The message ran: "The king of Puni, called Hianzta, prostrates himself before the most august emperor, and hopes that the emperor may live ten thousands of years. I have now sent envoys to carry tribute; I knew before that there was an emperor, but I had no means of communication. Recently there was a merchant called Pu Lu, whose ship arrived at the mouth of my river; I sent a man to invite him to my place, and he told me that he came from China. The people of my country were much delighted at this, and preparing a ship, asked this stranger to guide them to the court. The envoys I have sent only wish to see Your Majesty in peace, and I intend to send people with tribute every year. But when I do so I fear that my ships may occasionally be blown to Champa, and I therefore hope Your Majesty will send an edict to that country with orders that, if a ship of Hianzta arrives there, it must not be detained. My country has no other articles,[12] and I pray Your Majesty not to be angry with me." The envoys were entertained and sent home with presents. In 1082 A.D., a hundred years later, Sri Maja, king of Puni, sent tribute again, but the promise of yearly homage was not kept. Gradually the Sung dynasty declined in power, and East Indian potentates became less humble.

In the thirteenth and the early part of the fourteenth centuries Bruni owed allegiance alternately to two powers much younger than herself, Maj.a.pahit in Java, and Malacca on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Both these states were founded in the thirteenth century.[13] Maj.a.pahit, originally only one of several Javan kingdoms, rapidly acquired strength and subjugated her neighbours and the nearest portions of the islands around. Malacca, formed when the Malay colony of Singapore was overwhelmed by Javanese, became the great commercial depot of the Straits and the chief centre of Mohammedanism in the Archipelago. The two powers therefore stood for two faiths and two cultures: Maj.a.pahit for Brahminism and Hindu influence, Malacca for Islam and the more practical civilisation of Arabia.

In the earliest years of the fourteenth century Bruni was a dependency of Maj.a.pahit, but seems to have recovered its independence during the minority of the Javan king. It is to this time that the tradition of the Kapuas Malays ascribes the arrival of the Kayans in Borneo.[14]

Then Angka Wijaya extended the power of Maj.a.pahit over Palembang in Sumatra, Timor, Ternate, Luzon, and the coasts of Borneo. Over Banjermasin he set his natural son. In 1368 Javanese soldiers drove from Bruni the Sulu marauders who had sacked the town. A few years later the ungrateful king transferred his allegiance to China, and not long afterwards, with calculating humility, paid tribute[15]

to Mansur Shah, who had succeeded to the throne of Malacca in 1374 A.D.

An extraordinary incident occurred at the beginning of the fifteenth century, which again -- and for the last time -- draws our attention to the Chinese court. The great Mongol conquerors, Genghis and Kublai Khan, had little to do with the Malay Archipelago, though the latter sent an unsuccessful expedition against Java in 1292. But the Ming emperors, who were of Chinese blood, came to power in 1368 and soon developed the maritime influence of the empire. For a few years there was a continual stream of East Indian emba.s.sies. During the last twenty years of the century, however, these became more rare, and in 1405 the Chinese emperor found it necessary to send a trusted eunuch, by name Cheng Ho, to visit the va.s.sal states in the south. This man made several journeys, travelling as far as the sh.o.r.es of Africa, and his mission bore immediate fruit. Among others, Maraja Kali, king of Puni, although Cheng Ho does not appear to have called on him in person, sent tribute in 1405; and so pleased was he with the embroidered silk presented to him and his wife in return, that he visited the Son of Heaven three years later. Landing in f.u.kien, he was escorted by a eunuch to the Chinese capital amid scenes of great rejoicing. The emperor received him in audience, allowing him the honours of a n.o.ble of the first rank, and loaded him with gifts. The same year, having accomplished his one great ambition of "seeing the face of the Son of Heaven," this humbled monarch died in the imperial city, leaving his son Hiaw.a.n.g to succeed to the throne of Puni. Having induced the emperor to stop the yearly tribute of forty katties of camphor paid by Puni to Java, and having agreed to send tribute to China every three years, Hiaw.a.n.g returned home to take up the reins of government. Between 1410 and 1425 he paid tribute six times, besides revisiting the Chinese Court; but afterwards little Puni seems to have again ignored her powerful suzerain.

It is probable that the Chinese colony in North Borneo which gave its name to the lofty mountain Kina Balu (Chinese widow) and to the Kina Batangan, the chief river which flows from it, was founded about this time. Several old writers seem to refer to this event, and local traditions of the settlement still survive. The Brunis and Idaans (a people in the north not unlike the Bisayas) have legends differing in detail to the effect that the Chinese came to seize the great jewel of the Kina Balu dragon, but afterwards quarrelled about the booty and separated, some remaining behind. The Idaans consider themselves the descendants of these settlers, but that can only be true in a very limited sense. Both country and people, however, show traces of Chinese influence.

There is good evidence that the Chinese influence and immigration were not confined to Bruni and the northern end of the island. In south-west Borneo there are traces of very extensive washings of alluvial gravels for gold and diamonds. These operations were being conducted by Chinese when Europeans first came to the country; and the extent of the old workings implies that they had been continued through many centuries. Hindu-Javan influence also was not confined to the court of Bruni, for in many parts of the southern half of Borneo traces of it survive in the custom of burning the dead, in low relief carvings of bulls on stone, and in various gold ornaments of Hindu character.