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Updated: June 21, 2025
Both pig and deer are sometimes brought down with the blow-pipe, especially by the Punans, whose favourite weapon it is. The wild cattle are very wary and dangerous to attack. They sometimes take to the water and are then easily secured. Birds and monkeys are chiefly killed with the blow-pipe. Traps Traps of many varieties are made.
In case of unfavourable weather and too much delay in getting fresh provisions, I felt that I should be satisfied in penetrating well into a region not before visited by whites, where I might succeed in coming into contact with the shy nomads, called Punans, known to roam there in limited numbers.
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
For in physical characters, in language, and, as far as the difference in the mode of life permits, in customs and beliefs, the Punans resemble the Kenyahs so closely that we must assume them to be closely allied by blood; and it seems probable that the Punans have merely persisted in the cultural condition from which the Kenyahs and other tribes have been raised by the adoption of agriculture and the practice of building substantial houses.
They live entirely upon the wild produce of the jungle, vegetable and animal. Animals of all kinds are eaten, and are secured principally by the aid of the blow-pipe and poisoned darts, in the use of which the Punans are very expert.
We leave open the question of an ancient Negrito population, and go on to the statement that the present population is derived from four principal sources. From a very early period the island has been inhabited in all parts by a people of a common origin whose surviving descendants are the tribes we have classed as Klemantans, Kenyahs, and Punans.
The seeds are crushed and the tallow melted out and gathered in bamboos. It is used as a food, generally smeared on hot rice. It is sometimes a principal feature of the Punan's diet for considerable periods. Wild sago is abundant and is much used by Punans, and occasionally by most of the other peoples when their supply of PADI is short.
The catching of souls is practised in very similar fashion among all the peoples of Borneo, even by the Punans, though the details of the procedure differ from tribe to tribe.
Hose that the Ulu Ai Dayaks, near Fort Kapit, about one hundred miles up the river, had attacked and killed a party of Punans for the sake of their heads. These Punans are a nomadic tribe who wander about through the great forests with no settled dwelling-places, but build themselves rough huts and hunt the wild game of the forest and feed on the many wild fruits that are found in these forests.
The Punans, among whom we include, beside the Punans proper, the Ukits and a few other closely allied but widely scattered small groups, are the only people who do not dwell in villages established on the banks of the rivers. They live in small groups of twenty or thirty persons, which wander in the jungle. Each such group is generally made up of a chief and his descendants.
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