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Updated: June 27, 2025
This was observed with regret by an influential chief, who, therefore, found an opportunity to relate in public the following story. "A party of Kayans," he said, "once came over from the Batang Kayan to visit their relatives in the Baram.
Such a makeshift boat is more commonly made by Sea Dayaks. Of all the interior tribes the Kayans are probably the best boat-makers; but most of them make their own boats in the same way as the Kayans. There are, however, a few of the Klemantan sub-tribes who never attempt to make anything more than a very rough small canoe of soft wood, and who buy from others what boats they need.
Kenyahs when on the warpath frequently tie a band of plaited palm fibre round the wrist for the same object. The tatu of the backs of the hands is avowedly copied from the Kayans, but has a different name applied to it KUKUM. The metatarsus is tatued with broad bars, IWA, very like the foot tatu of Kayan women of the slave or of the middle class; lines known as JANGO encircle the ankle.
These traders usually travel in a small boat with a company or crew of only two or three men, and they are practically defenceless against any small party of the natives who might choose to rob or murder them. Such traders have now and again been robbed, and sometimes also murdered, by roving bands of Sea Dayaks, but we know of no such act committed by Kayans or Kenyahs.
In any account of the arts and crafts of the Kayans, the working of iron claims the first place by reason of its high importance to them and of the skill and knowledge displayed by them in the difficult operations by which they produce their fine swords.
The former of them serves as a fixed date in relation to which other events are dated. The traditional lore of the Kayans provides answers of a kind to many of the deep questions that the spirit of enquiry proposes whenever man has made provision against the most urgent needs of his animal nature.
Kayans conducting a successful attack of this kind will make as many prisoners as possible, and will as a rule kill only those men who make desperate resistance, though occasionally others, even women and children, may be wantonly killed in the excitement of the moment.
He does not figure in the Kayan creation myth. There seems to be no doubt about his supremacy over the other gods; these are sometimes asked by Kayans to intercede with him on their behalf. As regards the minor departmental gods, it is difficult to draw the line between them and the spirits of the third class distinguished above.
Although the more solidly built houses, such as those of the Kayans, would be habitable for many generations, few of them are inhabited for more than fifteen or twenty years, and some are used for much shorter periods only.
The coffin is then lifted to its cleft, and the weapons, implements, and war clothes, the large hat, the cooking-pot, and in fact any articles of personal property that may be of use to the departing soul, are hung upon the tomb. If a gong is hung up, it may be cracked or pierced beforehand, but it is not usual among Kayans to spoil other articles before hanging them on the tomb.
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