With few exceptions, these photographs were taken by myself.
For the pictures facing page 26 I am indebted to Doctor J.C.
Koningsberger, President of the Volksraad, Buitenzorg, Java. Those facing
pages 16 and 17 were taken by Mr. J.F. Labohm. The lower picture facing
page 286 was taken by Mr. A.M. Erskine.
My observations on the tribes are recorded in conformity with my itinerary,
and include the Kayans, Kenyahs, Murungs, Penyahbongs, Saputans, the
nomadic Punans and Bukits, Penihings, Oma-Sulings, Long-Glats, Katingans,
Duhoi (Ot-Danums), and the Tamoans. On one or two occasions when gathering
intelligence from natives I was very fortunate in my informants - an
advantage which will be appreciated by any one who has undertaken a similar
errand and has enjoyed the keen satisfaction experienced when drawing the
veil from primitive thought which lies so near and yet so far away.
Circumstances naturally prevented me from making a thorough study of any
tribe, but I indulge the hope that the material here presented may prove
in some degree acceptable to the specialist as well as to the general
reader. Matter that was thought to be of purely anthropological interest
is presented in a special supplement. Above all, I have abstained from
generalities, to which one might be tempted on account of the many
similarities encountered in the tribes that were visited. Without the
light of experience it is impossible to imagine how much of interest and
delight there is in store for the student of man's primitive condition.
However, as the captain of Long Iram said to me in Long Pahangei, "One
must have plenty of time to travel in Borneo." I have pleasure in
recording here the judicious manner in which the Dutch authorities deal
with the natives.
On a future occasion I shall hope to be able to publish a detailed report
on several of the novel features of my Bornean collections, especially as
regards decorative art, the protective wooden carvings called kapatongs,
the flying boat, etc.
The first collections sent to Norway ran the risks incident to war. Most
of them were rescued from the storehouses at Antwerp after the German
occupation, through the exertions of the Norwegian Foreign Office, though
a smaller part, chiefly zoological, appears to have been lost in Genoa.
Count Nils Gyldenstolpe, of the Natural History Museum,
Vetenskapsakademien in Stockholm, who is determining the mammals
collected, informs me that so far a new species of flying maki and two new
subspecies of flying squirrels have been described.
To further my enterprise, liberal gifts of supplies were received from
various firms in Christiania: preserved milk from Nestle & Anglo-Swiss
Condensed Milk Co., tobacco from Tiedemann's Fabrik, alcohol for
preserving specimens from Loitens Braenderi, cacao from Freia Chokolade
Fabrik. A medical outfit was presented by Mr. E. Sissener, Apotheket
"Kronen," Christiania, and Messrs.
