Vanishing Borneana
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances." Thus spake our immortal Countryman, and in all ages poets, moralists and the like have loved to dwell upon everchanging character of life, it's bevity and it's uncertainties. The same theme runs through our most sacred hymns and the element of changefulness is a constant factor in the experience of all: so much so that it would seem that the quality of life necessarily implies change. Nevertheless, it is not the intention of the writer to pose as a moralist but rather prosaically to consider some aspects of this subject as it relates to Sarawak.
We do not need to turn to the literature - now obsolete though scarely forty years old - on Sarawak to learn that within recent times more than one Sarawak tribe has gradually vanished altogether. Such is the case with the Lundu Dayaks, the Long Utan of the Tinjar and the Srus of the Kalaka River - these latter people are not quite extinct. The causes for this senile decay amongst such tribes are probably complicated and we will say no more about it other than that it has nothing whatever to do with European influence. Who can tell us where are the people who carved the stones in Upper Sarawak and at Santubong or what was the fate of those industrious workers in iron who bequeathed to us those large quantities of slag still to be found at Santubong.
Tis supposed that once this region was visited by Hindus and that thus did the Land Dayaks acquire the smatterings of Hinduism that they now possess: however this may be no descendants of such people now remain to us.
We are tols too that centuries ago the enterprising Celestials anticipated Messrs. the Borneo Company Limited in Upper Sarawak and, having filled their pockets, they too disappeared.
Malay tradition has much to tell us of certain heroes of old who performed many wondrous feats worthy to be remembered for ever in history: but how little do we really know concerning the founders of this colony, and of Sarawak in "pre-European" times!
And, again, of the peoples who still remain, how many are here to stay: is it possible, for example, that the Land Dayaks can persist and will the Milanos (includingt Siduans etc.) be able to keep up with their more vigorous neighbours when competition makes the sthe struggle for existence keen and deadly?
Fashions also change. All of us know that the radical Sea Dayaks has very few customs which he can really count his own: how that he borrows other people's tatu patterns, their decorative art and their clothing. People who know them tell us that hat fashions among Saribas ladies are periodically changed much as in the gay cities of Europe: and the Dayaks dandy of today decks himself out in a costume very different from that of the swell of fifty years ago.
As for the rising generation of our Islam friends they love to wear a tuan's clothes and to play his games: the 'main raga' - how many of us have ever witnessed this characteristic Malay game - has entirely given place to football, hockey and the like.
The same processes are at work amongst tribes who in some respects are rather conservative. It is prophesied that a generation hence there will not be left a single Bayoh (the witch doctor - we had thought him a permanent institution amongst Milanos!) to the Milanos of the Oya district: and for a very trivial reason - it takes up too much time forsooth! - the Milano mothers are abandoning the practice of pressing their heads of their female children. At one time these same people were wont to weave their own cloth but nowadays the material itself is rarely met with. For centuries apparently they have worked sago and have employed a very odd-looking tool, the Pemalo - of considerable interest being probably a derivative of a stone adze - but within quite recent years this has been dropped in favour of an entirely different tool, the Parut. Not many generations ago they lived in big fine houses, tall and strong like those of the Kayans: today their homes are much like those of the Malays.
Ad exception to this rule is presented by those conservative people, the Kayans, who, I am told, take some pride in preserving their tribal customs and peculiarities: but it is noteworthy that in Sarawak they do not more than hold their own and perhaps their conservatism will be sorely tried in the future.
Having thus briefly indicated sone of the numerous processes of change taking place on every side one may enquire to what extent they are desirable. Whether it be worth while to artificially prolong the life of a tribe in the last throes of decay must be question for individual opinion, but at any rate it would seem that in a country where the struggle for existence is so mild as in Sarawak the tribe which dies off must indeed be a poor one and in the long run the country is the richer when a superior tribe takes it's place.
As for changing customs, however it may appeal to our sentiment, we should remember that progress - a vexed question full of pitfalls - necessarily implies change. And turning to a lighter side of the subject, the mere fact that on a festive occasion a Malay boy will make use of his tuan's brown boots does not necessarilyimply that the present day Malay is a degenerate person, as, given the opportunity, his grandfather would doubtlessly have done exactly the same: and for that matter we are ourselves as much the slaves of fashion, particularly at a certain period of our lives, as are the Malayan gallants.
In one respect at least these changing scenes offer to us opportunities which should not be missed. When, as frequently happens, an interesting custom dating back from antiquity is evidently fast disappearing it is surely fitting that it should find some place in our records lest oblivion overtake it entirely: and it were well that a vanishing tribe, providing perhaps an important link in a chain of evidence concerning the relationships of the people of Sarawak, should have it's annals written in the story of the earth's people. This is the demand of Ethnology and of History and already the data are rapidly leaving us.
Exactly similar processes are in evidence in the animate nature around us. When we go to the top of the hill and carefully scan the lowlands around us, it is usually easy to distinguish between primitive virgin jungle and secondary jungle - that which appears sonme years after a clearing has been made - and the amount of destruction which has been taken place is much greater than one would have supposed. Now, the trees of the secondary growth include but a few representatives of the original jungle and these are mostly of an inferior type, so that, as everybody knows, some of the valuable timber trees are in such areas exterminated. Another result of the Dayaks extravagant method of padi farming is that not a few of the more local elements of the flora must be exterminated before ever they are known to science. The same story has been told in well nigh every other country and usually the cry has been raised when it is too late. We may mention the oft quoted case of St. Helena: this island was once densely clothed with a luxuriant forest, rich in Ebony and other valuable woodsa: today, partly on account of goats, the greatest of all foes to trees, the island is comparatively speaking barren and forbidding.
It is but poor compensation that following the clearings many kinds of foreign plants appeat: so much is this the case that, as I believe, the majority of the wayside plants of Kuching are foreigners. Such are the South American "Lantana Camara" (bunga missi); that pretty little passion flower, also South American; that noxious weed Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant: and the handsome blue flowered Thunbergia which strangles every tree over which it climbs.
Again, the exit of the jungle is accompanied by a rapid annihilation of certaib forms of animal life. With the rise of the pepper and gambier gardens in this neighbourhood a host of handsome butterflies and insects have been destroyed and in absence of their feeding ground they are lost to this part for ever. It is fortunate that the valuableinsect collections of the Sarawak Museum were formed at a time when primary jungle was to be found at the outskirts of this town: today it would be quite impossible to acquire such a collection.
Many animals, it is true, survive and multiply rapidly, but these are often pests inasmuch as they dwell in our homes or eat up our field crops; and to make matters worse animals (clothes moths for example) of like nature come from other parts of the tropics. Now, though this tale of woe may not appeal much to the utilitarian, nevertheless it has a serious aspect, particularly in relation to diseases. It is common knowledge that some of the most terrible scourges of manking are caused by the presence within the system of extremely minute animals (or plants) and that these same creatures are brought to us by means of certain hosts (e.g. mosquitoes) which we have with us here: such being the case it would be possible for a tick-carried parasite, brought from other countries, to effect great havoc amongst the Sarawak herds which are already somewhat troubled with ticks of bad reputation: and we may mention that amongst the mosquitoes which remain to us - the innocent jungle lovers have largely gone - we have at least half a dozen kinds which can carry the filaria parasite and others concerned with malaria, and if a case of yellow fever should be brought here - it is prophesied that the opening of the Panama canal will result in introducing this disease from America into Asia - it might spread far and wide, as we are well stocked wth the mosquito host. In concluding these rambling remarks on a subject somewhat wide I would crave the pardon of readers who think I have made too melancholy a case: my intention was merely to call attention to the fact that things of scientific interest will soon be gone for ever and that now is the time to collect the data.
J.H.
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