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Any estimate of the numbers of the people of each of these six divisions is necessarily a very rough one, but it is perhaps worth while to state our opinion on this question as follows: Klemantans, rather more than 1,000,000; Kenyahs, about 300,000; Muruts, 250,000; Sea Dayaks, 200,000; Kayans, 150,000; Punans and other peoples of similar nomadic habits, 100,000 I.E. a total of 2,000,000.
The chief and only important improvement effected in the condition of the Punans since that early period would seem to be the introduction of the superior form of blow-pipe of hard wood.
With the Bukats, rusa must not be eaten unless one has a child, but with the Punans it is permissible in any case. The meat of pig is often eaten when ten days old, and is preferred to that which is fresh. In this they share the taste of the Dayak tribes I have met, with the exception of the Long-Glats.
Two forms of BAYOH are known to the people of Niah, but it is only with the BAYOH SADONG that there is any need to deal here. The other form is used by the Punans, or mixed Punans and Malanaus.
Among the Penyahbongs, Saputans, Punans, and Penihings a woman may accompany her husband or another man on the chase, carry a spear, and assist in killing pig or deer. Bear she does not tackle, but, as my informant said, "even all men do not like to do that." She also carries her own parang, with which she may kill small pigs and cut down obstacles in her path.
It seems probable that there is some intimate relation between this belief and the second of the two modes of punishment described above; but we have no direct evidence of such connection. All the other peoples also, except the Punans, punish incest with death.
Some four years later the Pokun community migrated to the Tinjar; and shortly afterwards the murderer, thinking the whole matter was forgotten, set out through the jungle with a small party to seek to trade with another group of Punans. His companions, remembering the incident of four years before, suspected the Punans, but saw no trace of any.
This illustrates his intimate dependence on other tribes, and seems to imply that the blow-pipe, at least in the highly finished form in which it is now used, cannot have been an independent achievement of the Punans. They are especially skilful in the plaiting of rattan strips to make baskets, mats, and sieves.
According to native report the trees which furnish the juice do not grow along the Mahakam and the nearest country where they are found is to the south of Tamaloe. As is the case with the Punans and Bukats, cutting the teeth is optional. Restrictions imposed during pregnancy do not differ from those of other tribes described. At childbirth no man is permitted to be present.
One of these Pokuns, a man of the upper class, being angered by the adhesion of the Punans to the chief Jangan and by their refusal to trade with him, cut down one of them during an altercation in the jungle, leaving him dead on the spot. The companions of the murdered man retired, and all the Punans deserted the neighbourhood of the Pokuns.
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