The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

vi PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO
peoples are to be found ; and
the nature of his
duties as Resident Magistrate necessitated a constant
and intimate intercourse with all the tribes of the
districts, and many long and leisurely journeys into
the far interior, often into regions which had not
previously been explored. Such journeys, during
which the tribesmen are the magistrate's only companions
for many weeks or months, and during
which his nights and many of his days are spent in
the houses of the people, afford unequalled opportunities
for obtaining intimate knowledge of them
and their ways. These opportunities have not
been neglected ; notes have been written, special
questions followed up, photographs taken, and
sketches made, throughout all this period.
In the years 1898-9 the second collaborator
(W. McD.) spent the greater part of a year in the
Baram district as a member of the Cambridge
Anthropological Expedition, which, under the
leadership of Dr. A. C. Haddon, went out to the
Torres Straits in the year 1897. During this visit
we co-operated in collecting material for a jointpaper
on the animal cults of Sarawak ; ^ and this
co-operation, having proved itself profitable, suggested
to us an extension of our joint program to
the form of a book embodying all the information
already to hand and whatever additional information
might be obtainable during the years that one of us
was still to spend in Borneo. The book therefore
may be said to have been begun in the year 1898
and to have been in progress since that time ; but
it has been put into shape only during the last few
years, when we have been able to come together
for the actual writing of it.
During the year 1899 Dr. A. C. Haddon spent
some months in the Baram district, together with
other members of the Cambridge Expedition (Drs.
^ Published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxi.