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Updated: June 21, 2025
For the Sea Dayaks had been accustomed to adopt a somewhat swaggering and domineering attitude towards the Klemantan tribes, and could not easily learn to modify it when they came in contact with the prouder and less submissive Kayans and Kenyahs.
The Kayan language, on the other hand, stands apart from both the Iban and the Klemantan languages, but is much nearer to the latter than the former. The Kenyah dialects especially contain many words or roots that appear also in the Kayan, and seem to be more closely allied to it than is any of the Klemantan tongues.
The latter name is known to all the tribes, and is probably of foreign origin; and it seems possible that the design and this name are derived from the dragon forms so commonly used in Chinese decorative art. The various Klemantan tribes make use of many decorative designs very similar to those of the Kayans.
The Kenyahs also invoke in their prayers several spirits who seem, like ODIN LAHANG, to be regarded as deceased members of their tribe; such are TOKONG and UTONG, and PA BALAN and PLIBAN. From all these descent is claimed by various Kenyah and Klemantan sub-tribes; and that they are regarded as standing higher in the spiritual hierarchy than recently deceased chiefs, is shown by the prefix BALI, commonly given to their names, whereas this title or designation is not given to recently deceased chiefs; to their names the word URIP is prefixed by both Kayans and Kenyahs.
Nevertheless prowess in war has made them respected or feared by all the peoples; and during the last century they established themselves in the middle parts of the basins of all the great rivers, driving out many of the Klemantan communities, partly by actual warfare, partly by the equally effective method of appropriating to their own use the tracts of jungle most suitable for the cultivation of PADI.
Although one of us has a practical command of the Kayan, Kenyah, Sea Dayak, and Malay languages, and a tolerably intimate acquaintance with a number of the Klemantan dialects, we do not venture upon the task of discussing their systematic positions and relations to languages of other areas.
A remarkable exception to the general simplicity of the Klemantan patterns is furnished by the Ukits, Bakatan, and Biadjau, who tatu very extensively in the most complex designs; the Long Utan, an extinct tribe, probably of Klemantan stock, also used highly decorative and complex designs.
The Ibans use a rather greater variety of weapons than the Kayans, in that they have spears whose blades bear barbs which prevent the withdrawal of the blade from the body of the enemy without great violence. The Klemantan tribes are on the whole far less warlike than Kayans, Kenyahs, and Ibans. Their offensive warfare is usually on a small scale, and is undertaken primarily for revenge.
Thus the Kayans in general live in larger communities, each of their villages generally consisting of several long houses; whereas a single long house generally constitutes the whole of a Kenyah or Klemantan village. The Kayans excel in iron-working, in PADI culture, in boat-making, and in house-building.
Any such assumption is rendered untenable by the fact that many Punans have quickly assimilated the mode of life and general culture of the other tribes; and there can be no doubt, we think, that many of the tribes that we have classed as Klemantan and Kenyah are very closely related to the Punans, and may properly be regarded as Punans that have adopted Kayan or Malay culture some generations ago.
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