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Updated: June 18, 2025
The designs, if accurately copied, are so extremely unlike all that are known to us that we are not able to hazard even a guess at their provenance or meaning. The other design figured on the same page is copied from Carl Bock; it occurred on the shoulder of a Punan, and is said by Mr. Crossland to be commonly used by the Sea Dayaks of the Undup.
He distinguishes two main races, a dolichocephalic and a brachycephalic, terming the former Indonesian, the latter Proto-Malay. Doctor A.W. Nieuwenhuis, who about the end of the last century made important researches in the upper parts of the Kapuas and Mahakam Rivers and at Apo Kayan, found the Ot-Danum, Bahau-Kenyah, and Punan to be three distinct groups of that region.
Among the aborigines of Borneo whom I visited, with the possible exception of the Punan nomads, the belief in evil spirits and in good ones that counteract them, both called antoh, is universal, and to some extent has been adopted by the Malays. Apprehension of evil being predominant in human minds, the word is enough to cause a shudder even to some Malays.
Above 100 metres elevation it was not at all difficult to make one's way through the jungle, even if we had not had a slight Punan path to follow. It is easier than to ascend the coast range of northeast Queensland under 18 S.L., where the lawyer palms are very troublesome.
The practice of tatu is so widely spread throughout Borneo that it seems simpler to give a list of the tribes that do not tatu, than of those who do. Punan. 2. Maloh. 3. Land Dyak. Malanau. 5. Miri. 6. Dali. 7. Narom. 8. Siduan 10. Tutong. 11. Balait. 12. Bisaya. 14. Kadayans.
Within each group harmony and mutual helpfulness is the rule; each shares with all members of the group whatever food, whether vegetable or animal, he may procure by skill or good fortune. On returning to camp with a piece of game, a Punan throws it down in the midst and it is treated as common property.
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