a
different account of creation, and claims that its people sprang from
the first created mortals. The following account is the story of Genesis
according to the Kayans of Northwestern Borneo:--

In the old, old days, when there was nothing but water and sky, there
fell from the heavens an enormous rock; that part of it which protruded
from the water was hard, slippery, and quite bare, with no soil nor
plants upon it of any kind. After a long time, however, the rains
produced slime upon the rock, and little worms, called _halang_, were
bred in this slime, and they bored into the rock and left fine sand
outside of their burrows; this sand eventually became soil and covered
the rock. Again years passed and the rock remained barren of all other
life until suddenly there dropped from the Sun a huge wooden handle of a
_Parang_ (or sword) known as _Haup Malat_. This parang-handle sank deep
into the rock and taking root in the soil it sprouted and grew into a
great tree, named _Batang Utar Tatei_, whose branches stretched out over
the new land in every direction. When this tree was fully grown, there
dropped from the Moon a long rope-like vine known as the _Jikwan Tali_.
This vine quickly clung to the tree and took root in the rock. Now the
vine, Jikwan Tali, from the Moon became the husband of the tree, Batang
Utar Tatei, from the Sun, and Batang Utar Tatei gave birth to twins, a
male and a female, not of the nature of a tree, but more or less like
human beings. The male child was called _Klobeh Angei_, and the female
was called _Klubangei_. These two children married and then gave birth
to two more children, who were named _Pengok N'gai_, and _Katirah
Murai_. Katirah Murai was married to old man _Ajai Avai_, who comes
without pedigree into the narration. From Katirah Murai and Ajai Avai
are descended many of the chiefs who were founders of the various tribes
inhabiting the land of Kalamantan; their names are Sejau Laho, Oding
Lahang, from whom the Kayans spring, Tabalan, Pliban, and, finally,
Tokong, the father of head-hunting.

As time went on, that which formerly had been merely slime on the rock,
became moss, and little by little small plants were produced. The twigs
and leaf-like appendages of the tree, evidently the female principle in
nature, as they fell to the ground, became birds, beasts, and fishes.
(Let me mention here that the endowment of leaves with life and
locomotion is no more than natural; while in the ju