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Updated: June 27, 2025
Some of the Klemantans make houses very inferior to those of the Kayans in respect to size, solidity, and regularity of construction; lashed bamboos largely replace the strongly morticed timber-work of the better houses; but the worst houses of all are made by those Punans who have recently adopted the agriculture and settled habits of the other peoples. Other Kinds of Wood-working
Beside him he has a large cage of bamboo standing in the water, into which the fish are allowed to slide from the elevated net. A rod and line and baited hook are also in common use. The Kayans make a hook of stout brass wire, cutting a single barb. The Kenyahs use a hook made of rattan thorns.
The craftsman who makes a boat for another is helped by his customer, and is paid by him a fee in brass-ware or dollars, the usual fee being a TAWAK varying in size according to the size of the boat. If Kayans find themselves for any reason in immediate need of a boat when none is at hand, they sometimes fashion one very rapidly by stripping the bark from a big tree.
Beside or above all these is LAKI TENANGAN, a god more powerful than all the rest, to whom are assigned no special or departmental functions. He seems to preside or rule over the company of lesser gods, much as Zeus and Jupiter ruled over the lesser gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Kayans seem to have no very clear and generally accepted dogmas about these gods.
The Kayans have some slight knowledge of the medicinal properties of some herbs, and make general use of them. They administer as an aperient a decoction of the leaves of a certain plant, called OROBONG, which they cultivate for the purpose on their farms. The root of the ginger plant is used both internally and for external application.
The view that the Kayans have played this large civilising role is supported by the fact that Kayan is the language most widely understood in the interior, and that it is largely used for intercommunication, even between members of widely separated Kenyah communities whose dialects have diverged so widely that their own language no longer forms a medium of communication between them; whereas the Kayans themselves do not trouble to acquire familiarity with the Kenyah or Klemantan languages.
The tendency of the Kayans to laconic speech is well illustrated by their way of referring to well-known stories or fables with one or two words, in order to sum up or characterise a situation much as we say "sour grapes!"
The timbers used are lighter; the house is not raised so high above the ground, and the floor is usually made of split bamboo in place of the heavy planks used by Kayans and others. The plan of construction is less regular.
The Kayans are in most respects the most homogeneous of these peoples, the most conservative and distinctive, and present perhaps the richest and most interesting body of belief and custom and art; while many of their customs and arts have been adopted by their neighbours, or are indigenous with them.
At that time it enjoyed the reputation of a wild and dangerous region, owing to the strength of the Kayans, who, dwelling in all the middle parts of the rivers, had made a number of bold raids as far as the coast and even to the neighbourhood of Bruni.
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