Folk-lore in Borneo

A compact ethnographic sketch outlines the varied folk beliefs of Borneo's interior tribes, stressing linguistic and cultural diversity and the absence of written records. It describes communal longhouses, household elders and tribal chiefs, practical crafts such as weaving and boat- and house-building, and the persistence of head-hunting and reciprocal vengeance. The worldview is chiefly animistic: every tree, rock, and pool may harbor spirits, omens guide daily life, and many tribes preserve distinct creation accounts. One Kayan version relates a primeval rock becoming soil through tiny creatures, a paradisiacal tree arising from a sun-born parang-handle, and a moon-vine marrying the tree to beget the first humans.