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What causes the lunar eclipse, according to Dusun mythology

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According to Dusun mythology, Kinharingan is a creator deity who came from a rock in the middle of the sea with his sister/wife Munsumundok.

In one version of the legend, Kinharingan and Munsumundok walked across the water, perhaps like Jesus in the Bible, until they arrived to the house of the god Bisagit.

Bisagit gave the pair earth and there, Kinharingan created the Dusuns.

The Dusun legend of Kinharingan and the snake

Kinharingan once pounded rice and made flour from it. After he made the flour, he called all the animals in the world together and ordered them to eat it.

When their mouths were so full they could not speak, Kinharingan asked them, “Who can cast off his skin?”

The snake, who had only been putting his mouth into the flour and pretending to eat, was the only one able to answer because his mouth was not full.

The snake answered, “I can.”

“Very well,” said Kinharingan, “if that is so, you shall not die.”

That is how a legend started that the snake would not die unless a man killed it.

The Tarob and the Lunar Eclipse

moon 2496817 1280

Here is a Dusun legend of how the lunar eclipse came about.

The children of Kinharingan were pounding rice when a spirit called Tarob came and ate it all up.

It became so that very time they pounded rice, the Tarob would come and eat it again.

Finally, they had enough and went to complain to their father.

Then Kinharingan told them, “If he comes again order him to eat the moon.”

When the Tarob came over wanting to steal the pounded rice again, Kinharingan’s children told him the exact thing that their father told them to.

Sure enough, the Tarob went to eat the moon, swallowing it and making it disappear from the night sky.

And that was how the lunar eclipse came to happen, accordin to Dusun mythology.

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From Sandakan POW Camp to Singapore Outram Prison

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Outram Prison was one of the earliest prisons in Singapore.

Originally, it was known as Pearl’s Hill Prison before being called Outram Prison or Outram Road Prison.

Completed in 1882, the jail complex had five blocks for male criminals; four for natives and one for European.

Other buildings housed the female prisons, hospitals, employees’ quarters, execution room and morgue.

By January 1937, the long-term prisoners were transferred to the-then new Changi prison while leaving the short sentenced prisoners in Outram Prison.

During World War Two (WWII), Singapore was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Immediately, the infamous Japanese military police known as Kempeitai took over Outram Prison.

They used the gaol to punish all those who broke their laws; prisoners of war (POWs), civilian internee and local people alike.

From Sandakan POW Camp to Singapore Outram Prison

The inmates jailed at Outram Prison were coming in from not only in Singapore but surrounding areas such as Malaya and Borneo.

They were transported by sea using Japanese hell ships. As if their journey to receive their sentences were not hellish enough, another form of hell welcomed them at Outram Prison.

These men and were punished for many reasons, from espionage to rebellion.

For a group of POWs from Sandakan POW camp in former British North Borneo, their crime against the Japanese circled around a radio.

From Singapore to Sandakan POW Camp

The Battle of Singapore or Fall of Singapore is till known today as the largest British surrender in history.

The intense fight took place lasted from Feb 8 to 15, 1942 which resulted in the Japanese capture of Singapore.

After the battle ended, about 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops in Singapore became POWs along with 50,000 men who were taken by the Japanese during the earlier Malayan Campaign.

As for the Japanese, they were not entirely ready with this large influx of POWs.

One of the POWs who arrived in Sandakan POW camp to work on the airfield in July 1942 was Lionel Colin Matthews.

While many were taken prisoner in Changi Prison, thousands were transported to be used for forced labour on constructions like the Burma-Siam Railway and Sandakan airfield in North Borneo.

There, Matthews founded an intelligence network among the POWs. They collected information, weapons, medical supplies and radio.

The secret group even made contact with the local police as well as Filipino guerrillas.

Unfortunately in July 1943, four local Chinese members of Matthews’ underground group were betrayed to the Japanese.

After being tortured by the kempetai, they confessed to providing radio parts to Matthews and his team.

Matthews and his second in-command, Lieutenant Rod Wells as well as the members of the underground group were captured, beaten, tortured and starved during their interrogation.

After that, the group was sent to Kuching, Sarawak to stand for trial.

In Kuching, Matthews was sentenced to death along with two members of the British North Borneo Constabulary and six other local Sabahans.

Meanwhile, Wells and 18 others were sentenced to Outram Prison.

Rod Wells’ account on his experience at Outram Prison

Wells, who received 12 years of solitary confinement, said goodbye to Matthews with a handshake and a few personal message from Matthews to his wife.

Two days after departing Kuching, Wells arrived in Singapore where he had been captured two years before.

In Singapore, he was imprisoned at Outram Prison and here is his account as recorded by Christoper Somerville’s Our War: Real Stories of Commonwealth soldiers during World War II.

“On entering Outram Road Jail I found the most terrible sights of dejected people with absolutely no will to live, just slowly walking around. From the back you could see their reproductive organs hanging down between their legs – there was no flesh on them. It made sitting very hard. The hip bone would be pressing into bare skin. But you just had to sit and put up with the pain.

“Everything was done to order. No talking was allowed. When no order was given, you were silent and just stayed in the same position you were in when the last order was given. At nine o’clock at night you were sent back to your cell. There was a light on all night inside the cell, so that there was not a second of the twenty-four hours you were in darkness. And this went on, for me, for twenty-three months, including my period in Kuching. Twenty-three months in solitary.

“We worked at picking strands of hemp out of old ropes, to make a new ones. The strands were too tough to break with your hands; you had to follow them to find out where they started. If you left any of those knots untouched you got a belt across the back with a sword in its scabbard. And as an added incentive, if you didn’t do a hundred of these lengths of rope in day by picking out about 200 lengths of hemp from each – you got no rice that day.

“Meals were roughly five ounces of cooked rice and a bit of stewy water with a bit of weed in it, green grassy stuff. Tea – that was like a hundred to one whiskey and water, pale discoloured stuff that was always cold when you got to it.

“The little pair of shorts you had on had your number on it. 641, that was me. You had to learn that number in Japanese pretty quick, because that was your name and address and everything else. I lost all identity. I was no longer a POW – I was a criminal; just a number. That was the worst thing of the lot. Just a number.”

Bill Young’s account on his experience at Outram Prison and ‘The Postman’

Not all POWs who were sent from Sandakan POW Camp to Outram Prison belonged to Matthews’ group.

William Young or better known as Bill Young, was captured and trialed in Kuching for escaping Sandakan POW Camp.

They were captured by the Formosan guards an hour after their escape and then Young and his friend M.P Brown were severely beaten.

The duo both ended up with broken arms, a leg and an ankle.

In Kuching, Brown was sentenced to eight years of hard labour in Outram Prison while Young was sentenced to four years because of his age. Young was around 16 years old, making him one of the youngest Australian POWs during WWII.

One of the many things Young remembered about Outram Prison was a guard which the prisoners nicknamed ‘The Postman’.

“And there was one guard in particular we used to call ‘The Postman’, he was very, very particular about it. He’d open the door and come and bash you if you weren’t sitting properly. Some of the guards you knew were lazy or indifferent and you could get away with standing up, resting your legs out, reading the graffiti. Morse code. And there’s some guards you would never send a message or anything like that, you’d never read graffiti and you’d never not sit cross-legged, and the worst one was the bloke we called ‘The Postman’.

And sometimes, I know on one particular time, probably one of the first times I was caught by him. I didn’t realise he was on duty. I’m sitting back, with my back on the wall with my legs stretched and I’m shaking them and one thing and another, relaxing, and I heard the knock and that was the signal, only one knock, bang!, just one knock like that. There was about two or three minutes, which seemed to be hours in time, and you knew he was outside, you knew.

“Now after that you’d hear the key’d go in the lock, now it wouldn’t turn, you’d hear the key go in the lock, and then for another two or three minutes there’d be silence, but you’d know he was outside there, and then he’d turn the lock and you’d hear it turned and there’d be nothing else. Two, couple of minutes.

“And then all of a sudden, bang! The door’d be slammed back. Frightened the life out of you. And there would be The Postman. And they all had swords. But it was an old-fashioned jail and the locks were old-fashioned and the keys were great old-fashioned things. And he’d come in and you’d be looking up and you’d be at attention, as if you were like that all the time, you’re willing your hair to grow bit thicker because you know what’s coming.

And he’d stand just a little bit behind you on the side. Not much room between you but he’d get there, wasn’t a very big bloke actually, and then he’d be giving you a lecture or something like that and all of a sudden, while he’s doing this, he’s raising this flaming great big key and then bang! down it comes. And oh God, flaming lump or a cut, sometimes blood come down, and you couldn’t do anything and you’re sitting there and the tears come into your eyes because when you have lost all your weight, your food, your muscles go down, it’s not mentally, everything goes down too. Your resistance to pain, your resistance to everything.”

Surviving Sandakan POW Camp and Outram Prison

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The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

After the war ended, Young returned to Sydney, Australia. He revealed to ABC news in 2016 at that time he couldn’t wait to reunite with his old mates from Sandakan.

But Young couldn’t find any of his friends. He told ABC, “I waited and waited and waited. It took me ages to find out.”

The sad truth was there were only six survivors from Sandakan POW camp and they had survived because they escaped.

After the war ended, 1,787 Australians died in Sandakan with many of them perishing during the 250km-long Death Marches from Sandakan to Ranau.

Those who were sent out from Sandakan to Outram Prison for their punishment had a narrow escape from death. If they were to stay in Sandakan, chances were high that they did not survive just like their friends.

Still, all of them did not escape from suffering caused by the Japanese at Outram Prison.

According to Australian War Memorial website, the prison was a place of starvation, torture and terror, a place of madness and for many, death.

Since these prisoners were sentenced to prison and not death, the Japanese couldn’t legally execute them.

Instead, the Japanese purposely trying to starve the prisoners to death by providing little food for them.

It is estimated about 1400 prisoners died at Outram Road Prison during Japanese occupation in Singapore.

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5 things you should know about sumpit or blowpipe of Borneo

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‘Sumpit’ or ‘sumpitan’ are what we call the blowpipe or blowgun in Borneo. Some communities in the Philippines and Sulawesi also refer to the blowpipe as ‘sumpit’.

In fact, the first written description of sumpit can be found in the works of Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 who visited the Palawan people.

He wrote, “”Those people of Polaoan (Palawan) go naked as do the others: almost all of them cultivate their fields. They have blowpipes with thick wooden arrows more than one palmo long, with harpoon points, and other tipped with fishbones, and poisoned with an herb; while others are tipped with points of bamboo like harpoon and are poisoned. At the end of the arrow they attach a little piece of softwood, instead of feathers. At the end of their blowpipes they fasten a bit of iron like a spearhead; and when they have shot all their arrows they fight with that.”

Just like the Palawan’s sumpit, the blowpipe in Borneo commonly has a spearhead attached to the end.

Putussibau 16
A traditional blowpipe which also works as a spear.

Traditionally, the sumpit is used for hunting and in fights against the enemy. Today, they have become souvenirs or treasured family heirlooms.

Here are five things you should know about sumpit or blowpipe of Borneo:

The pagan tribes of Borneo a description of their physical moral and intellectual condition with some discussion of their ethnic relations 1912 14598123498
Kenyah man lashing spear-blade to a blowpipe. Circa 1912. Credit: Copyright expired.

1.The reason why people of Borneo use sumpit

Have you ever wondered why the Borneo natives chose the blowpipe over the bow when it came to hunting?

According to author Peter Metcalf, in the nineteenth century, ethnologists were curious why people who advanced using iron tools did not adopt or come up with the bow.

The reason lay on topography and landscape. Metcalf wrote “For hunting, they (bows) are ineffective because the dense vegetation seldom allows a clear shot.”

“For pigs or deer, a combination of dogs and spears brings the best results. In regard to small game in the lower branches of trees, such as birds and monkeys, they are easily shot with darts.”

Furthermore, the bow is difficult to shoot at such steep angles. And once you lose your arrows, it is impossible to recover them in the thick Bornean thick jungle.

2.The materials of the blowpipe

Generally, blowpipes are made from bamboo. However, there are some made from wood.

A blowpipe can be made from one to three pieces joined together.

The length of this weapon usually depends on the user. The typical length is about 1.2 to 1.6m and 2 to 3cm in diameter.

Danau Sentarum Festival 4

3.How to make blowpipe darts

Thick wooden or palm leaf-rib darts are generally used in war.

Also known as damak, the dart is basically a single pointed sharp needle.

The needle is plugged into a cork-lie cushion with bird feathers to allow the blowgun to float constantly toward the target.

Then the tip of the damak is dipped in poison.

4.How to make blowpipe dart poison

According to Herwig Zahorka in his paper “Blowpipe dart poison in Borneo and the secret of its production”, the poison is generally produced from the latex of the Antiaris toxicaria tree which belongs to Moraceae (fig family).

He started, “This latex contains a variety of toxic chemical compounds. The principal toxic agent is a steroid glycoside known as beta-antiarin. A lethal dose is only about 0.1mg per kg weight of a warm-blooded animal.”

On how to make them, Zahorka explained, “To dehydrate the milky latex into a paste, a long, carefully implemented procedure is essential because the steroid glycoside compound is extremely heat-sensitive.

“Therefore, hunters perform the dehydration of the latex by using a young leaf from the small Licuala spinosa palm. The leaf is folded into a boat-shaped container to hold the latex at a carefully determined distance over a small flame for one week. This is possible because the young Licuala leaf is astonishingly fireproof and durable. If the latex were heated at too high a temperature, the glycoside compound would crack and its toxicity would be lost.”

5.How long does it take to kill using the blowpipe

Andrew Horsburgh who was in Sarawak from 1852 to 1856 as a missionary published a book called Sketches in Borneo (1858).

Regarding our local sumpit, he wrote, “The arrows are dipped again into the poison immediately before using and are used in hunting as well as in war, and kill not only birds and squirrels, but also large animals such as orangutans. To animals the poison proves fatal, because they cannot pull the arrow out of the wound; but men suffer little inconvenience from it, as their comrades can always extract the missile before the poison has been absorbed by the system. Squirrels and small animals drop a few minutes after they have been struck, but orangutans frequently clamber about among the trees for a whole day before the poison takes effect upon them as to bring them down.”

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The rise and fall of Bulungan sultanate, a Muslim kingdom with Kayan roots

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Today, the Kayan people of Borneo are known to practice mainly Christianity. Most of them have left their traditional belief called bungan and shamanism.

However, did you know that hundreds of years ago, a Muslim sultanate called the Bulungan sultanate was allegedly founded by a Kayan princess from Apau Kayan who had married a Bruneian?

Centuries ago, a great number of Kayans moved to east Borneo. There, they began the ethnogenesis of the Bulungan people when they converted to Islam.

The sultanate is located in the existing Bulungan Regency in the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia.

The center of the sultanate is today’s Tanjung Selor town which is the capital of both the North Kalimantan province and Bulungan regency.

During the peak of its reign, the sultanate territory spanned the eastern shores of North Kalimantan up to Tawau, now Malaysian Borneo.

The history of Bulungan sultanate

According to Bernard Sellato in his paper Forest, Resources and People in Bulungan, the history of the kingdom started from a group of Kayans who settled near the coast.

He stated, “This Dayak group, the Kayan Uma’ Apan, moved from Apo Kayan in the 17th century down the Kayan river, settled near Long Peleban (middle Kayan river), and then moved farther downstream to the Binai river, near the coast.

“There, a Kayan princess, marrying a visiting nobleman, Lancang, allegedly from Brunei (c.1650), started a dynasty of Indianised kings, which later was centered near Tanjung Selor. A century later (c.1750), this dynasty converted to Islam, and a long line of sultans, vassals to the sultan of Berau (himself a vassal to Kutai), followed until the 1850s, when the Dutch began interfering in local affairs, trying to eradicate piracy and the slave trade.”

Another account of the founding of Bulungan kingdom stated that it was founded by Kuwanyi, a Kayan aristocrat from Uma Apan of Usun Apau.

He was known for his leadership and bravery. Kuwanyi had a daughter named Asung Lawan. She then married a Brunei prince named Datu Mencang. It was under the reign of Asung Lawan and Datu Mencang, the kingdom became a Muslim sultanate.

Meanwhile, another origin story behind the Bulungan sultanate is more on the fantasy side.

Long time ago, there was a childless Kayan leader who found an egg and a bamboo.

He brought both home and the the egg and bamboo turned into a baby girl and and a baby boy respectively.

According to this legend, the boy and girl later founded the Bulungan kingdom.

Either way, it is widely understood that Bulungan sultanate is rooted from the Kayan people.

Kayan river
Kayan river in North Kalimantan.

A Norwegian’s visit to Sultanate of Bulungan

Carl Sofus Lumholtz (1851-1922) was a Norwegian explorer and ethnographer.

In 1913, he started an expedition to explore Dutch Central Borneo to learn about the culture in the area.

One of the few accounts about Sultan of Bulungan back then can be found in Lumholtz’s book, Through Central Borneo; an account of two years’ travel in the land of the headhunters between the years 1913 and 1917 (1920).

He wrote:

“Two days later, among mighty forests of nipa-palms, we sailed up the Kayan or Bulungan river and arrived at Tandjong Selor, a small town populated by Malays and Chinese, the number of Europeans being usually limited to two, the controleur and the custom house manager. It lies in a flat swampy country and on the opposite side of the river, which here is 600 metres wide, lives the Sultan of Bulungan.

I secured a large room in a house which had just been rented by two Japanese who were representatives of a lumber company, and had come to arrange for the export of hardwood from this part of Borneo.

Accompanied by the controleur, Mr. R. Schreuder, I went to call on the Sultan. He was a man of about thirty-five years, rather prepossessing in appearance, and proud of his ancestry, although time has so effaced his Dayak characteristic that he looks like a Malay. Dato Mansur, his executive, met us at the landing and escorted us into the presence of the Sultan and his wife, where were offered soda water and whiskey, and we were remained an hour. They are both likeable, but the Sultan appears rather nervous and frail, and it is rumoured that his health has suffered as a result of overindulgence in spiritualistic seances.

He gave an entertaining account of natives living in the trees on the Malinau river. As it had been impossible for me to obtain cartridges for my Winchester rifle, the Sultan was kind enough to lend me one of his before we parted, as well as two hundred cartridges.”

Lumholtz’s visit to the Sultanate of Bulungan took place sometimes in December 1913.

Sultanate of Bulungan under Dutch colonisation

The Dutch signed with the Sultan of Bulungan a Politiek Contract to impose their sovereignty over the kingdom in 1850.

By 1893, there was a Dutch government post set up in Tanjung Selor.

Under the Dutch control, the sultan was forced to hand over control of the remoter regions of the Bahau river, Pujungan river, and Apo Kayan.

Then in 1881, the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBC) was formed, placing North Borneo (present-day Sabah) under British jurisdiction.

Tawau, which was previously reigned over by Sultan of Bulungan, was claimed by BNBC.

After long negotiation with the British, the Dutch finally recognised the British borders in 1915 which is basically the border between Sabah and North Kalimantan now.

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Groepsportret met Maulana Mohamad Djalaloeddin Sultan van Boeloengan op zijn troon TMnr 60041528
The rulling class of the Bulungan Sultanate (taken c. 1925-1935). Credit: Creative Common

Bulungan sultanate during Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation

Ultimately, the connection between the kingdom and Malaysia played a role in the fall of Bulungan.

After World War II had ended and many countries were freed from Japanese occupation, Indonesia gained its independence from the Dutch.

Unlike many sultanates in Borneo which were abolished after independence partly due to many sultans and their families being executed by the Japanese, the Sultanate of Bulungan retained its power.

Then Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation took place in 1963 because Indonesia opposed the creation of Malaysia.

During this time, the Sultanate of Bulungan was accused of being supportive toward Malaysia.

In April 1964, it was reported that a document was found proving the ties between Bulungan aristocracy and Malaysia.

It stated that the Bulungan royal family would proclaim a merger with Sabah and subsequently Malaysia.

Furthermore, the aristocrats were seen to be visiting Sabah frequently. However, many believed the visits were just because they had relatives in Tawau.

In the same month, the Indonesian army allegedly found arms in the former palace of the sultan. By now, they strongly believed that sultan and his followers would take part in the Confrontation but would lean on the Malaysian side.

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De sultan van Bulungan en zijn echtgenote Borneo TMnr 10001599
Abdul Jalil of Bulungan with the Queen consort (1940). Credit: Creative Common

The massacre of Bulungan royal family

Later, an order came out to arrest all members of the Bulungan royal family.

When the army arrived at the Bulungan palace on July 2, 1964, they came under the pretense of just an ordinary official visit.

Naturally, the royal family provided a feast for the army that night to welcome their visit. The Sultan had no idea what the army had planned.

In the dawn of July 3 while the family and their servants were sleeping, the army surrounded the palace.

They then proceeded to capture everyone in the palace including the sultan.

Burhan Djabler Magenda in his book East Kalimantan: The Decline of a commercial Aristocracy narrated the fate of this aristocracy.

“The aristocrats were separated into several groups. All the male members were put into one group and into one boat, while the women and children were placed in a separate boat. They were supposed to be transported first to Tarakan and from there taken to Balikpapan. This plan never materialised,” he wrote.

Instead, off the shore of Tarakan, all about 30 of them in total were gunned down by their own guards.

There, their bodies were thrown into the sea. The soldiers also burned the palace to the ground and the fire lasted for two days and two nights.

Amal Beach Tarakan 2
Amal Beach of Tarakan

The end of the Sultanate of Bulungan

While there were many different accounts about the massacre, one thing for sure was that many members of the Bulungan royal family were executed in July 1964.

Among the immediate family of Sultan Bulungan, one son was in school in Malang during the incident.

However, he was later arrested in Balikpapan and was never heard of again.

Another two sons were able to survive because they managed to escape in time. They fled to Tawau and became Malaysian nationals.

In 2017, the descendants of the Sultan revealed to an Indonesian newspaper their intentions to return to their homeland by giving up their Malaysian nationalities and become Indonesian.

As dead men cannot speak, there was no definite proof that the Bulungan royal family was supportive of Malaysia to this day which cost their lives.

Even if they were, many agreed that killing the whole family including women and children was an extreme move by the army.

Regardless, the massacre of Bulungan royal family marked the end of the sultanate.

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Pipe smoking in the olden days of Borneo

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When it comes to traditional or the ‘old school’ way of smoking in Borneo, most people are familiar with the technique of wrapping the tobacco in a dried banana leaf before lighting up.

However, the oldest traditional form of smoking in the world is actually pipe smoking.

Even though pipe smoking in Borneo was less practiced compared to the traditional cigarette, it doesn’t mean it was not there.

Here are some descriptions of pipe smoking in the olden days of Borneo:

1.Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)

When British naturalist Wallace was 31, he travelled through the Malay Archipelago including Borneo from 1854 to 1862.

Besides collecting specimens for his work on natural history, Wallace also observed the local culture.

Wallace once wrote in his book about pipe smoking, stating, “The Dyaks’ favourite pipe is a huge hubble-bubble, which he will construct in a few minutes, by inserting a small piece of bamboo for a bowl obliquely into a large cylinder, about six inches from the bottom, containing water, through which the smoke passes to long slender bamboo tube.”

2.Dayak smoking pipe in the Mahakam

Carl Alfred Bock (1849-1932) was a Norwegian author and explorer.

From 1878 to 1879, he travelled from Sumatra to Dutch Borneo under the authority of the then governor-general of the Dutch East Indies.

Based on his exploration, Bock wrote the book The Headhunters of Borneo; A Narrative of Travel Up the Mahakkam and Down the Barito, Journeyings in Sumatra (1882).

In the book, he described what a Dayak aasmoking pipe looked like.

“The Dyak pipe is a very peculiarly constructed instrument, consisting of a stout bamboo cylinder, about twenty-two inches long and one and a half inches in diameter, which contains water to cool the smoke ; inside this tube is placed a piece of split rattan filled with fibre, which absorbs the nicotine ; about one inch from the end of this tube is inserted, at right angles, a slender carved piece of ironwood, about eight inches in length, and bored with a hole rather more than a quarter of an inch in diameter ; this constitutes the bowl, which contains only a very small quantity of tobacco. The Dyak, however, never takes more than half-a-dozen puffs at a time, as the Java tobacco which is generally used is very strong, and the smoke is always swallowed. Cigarettes, made of a little tobacco rolled up in a small piece of banana leaf, are largely used. The use of opium is, in some districts, rapidly extending among the rich Dyaks.”

3.Owen Rutter

Speaking of a travel writer, Owen Rutter (1889-1944) was one of the prominent ones during the early 20th century,

From 1910 to 1915, Rutter was serving with the North Borneo Civil Service. After serving in the army during World War I, he travelled extensively around the world including Borneo, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Canada and the United States.
Describing about smoking pipe of a Murut in his book British North Borneo: an account of its history, resources and native tribes (1922), Rutter stated:

“The pipe is a fearful contrivance, and is guaranteed to turn the most hardened European smoker green. It consists of a cylinder of bamboo twelve to eighteen inches long with a small brass or wooden bowl about an inch from one end. Into this bowl, which is about a quarter the size of an ordinary pipe, the Murut crams his tobacco, lights it, and then, having taken one or two enormous puffs down the bamboo mouthpiece, inhales violently.

“The air is choked with the reek of native tobacco and there arise great clouds of smoke, followed by a sound of coughing and expectoration. Immediately after all this you notice that he lays the pipe aside. The smoke is over. Mercifully so, for no pipe and a few smokers could endure so drastic a performance for very long.”

4. Did pipe smoking indicate a Chinese-occupied Borneo?

William Maunder Crocker was the Governor of British North Borneo from 1887 to 1888.

Unlike other Europeans who had observed pipe smoking among the locals, Crocker claimed, “I have never seen nor heard of any Bornean tribes who smoke pipes.”

However, English geologist Frank Hatton who worked in British North Borneo had two pipes in his possession before he died on Mar 1, 1883.

Frank Hatton

Commenting on the Hatton’s pipes, Crocker wrote, “They must be peculiar to that one tribe, the Tungara people. All the natives of Borneo smoke, almost from the moment they leave their mothers’ arms. They roll the tobacco in a palm leaf to smoke it and it has a very fine flavour. But pipes, this is the first time anybody has ever heard of pipes in Borneo.

“These two pipe-relics of Frank’s last expedition, are made of hard red wood, and have bamboo stems. They are much the same kind of pipe as that used by the Chinese, who only put in a pinch of tobacco.

“The discovery of these pipes suggests another piece of evidence favourable to the belief that at some very remote period Borneo was partially settled and occupied by China.”

5.The law against taking away a pipe

Whether part of Borneo was ever occupied by China is a story for another day.

One thing for sure is that there is a native law that still exists to this day regarding the Bidayuh traditional bamboo water pipe, sirubok.

According to Sarawak native law Adat Bidayuh 1994 Section No 56, whoever damages, contaminates or takes a away a sirubok from a pingudung (rest stop) shall provide one hundred fruit as pingasung, or some form of restitution for a breach of the adat.

So if you see a sirubok lying around, be a model citizen and treat it like you would any piece of public property – with respect.

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Remembering the attack on Semporna town in 1954

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The attack on Semporna town in March 1954 is considered one of the major incidences of Sabah cross-border crimes.

A group of 30 armed Filipino pirates with two policemen and four others were killed.

The news of the attack travelled fast, especially among European communities.

In a news report by Reuters published on Mar 31, 1954, stated that, “One European, one police sergeant and two constables were killed when an unknown number of men in two boats, believed to be Filipino pirates from the South Philippines, raided the small town of Semporna, on the east coast of North Borneo, last night.

“The pirates, who were well armed with automatic weapons, tried to rob the town but were opposed by the small police force of 14 men.

“The European killed in the exchange of fire was the Assistant Conservator of Forests of Tawau (Mr Barnard).

“The North Borneo police, headed by residents of the east coasts, are scouring surrounding waters for the pirates.

“Semporna has been raided a few times by pirates in the past but last night’s raid was the most serious.

“Nearby waters are haunts of murderous Sulu and Moro pirates who find protection in the multitude of islands.”

Semporna police station

The beginning of the attack on Semporna town

So what actually happened on that fateful day? How did the European Mr Barnard get caught in the fire between the police and the pirates?

The answer lies in a special report by Sabah Forestry Department.

Mr Barnard or Thomas Robert Barnard, to be precise, was the District Forestry Officer (DFO) of Lahad Datu.

He was in Semporna to carry out grading work at a log pond, about half a mile from town, owned by a prominent timber merchant Pua Din Kok.

Barnard went there with Timber Inspector Ahmad Nawi, along with boatman Damsik and his assistant.

They arrived at 5.30pm and they moored their boat at the Customs jetty where the Police Station and the Forestry Checking Station were also located.

While Ahmad was securing the boat to the jetty, he suddenly noticed two suspicious boats.

As the boats came closer, Ahmad realised the men on board were armed with automatic firearms and parangs.

Realising that the men were Filipino pirates, Ahmad immediately warned Barnard and the others.

Together with the boatmen, Ahmad jumped into sea and swam towards the mangrove trees nearby to hide.

Barnard, however, took out his shotgun to fire at the pirates, who at this moment already started to shoot at the police station.

While he managed to kill a pirate and wound another, Barnard was unfortunately shot in the back and died on the boat.

The shootout at Semporna Police Station

The pirates then proceeded to attack Semporna police station with intent to take control of it.

At the same time, the police who had heard the gunshots from the jetty were returning fire.

During the attack, the officer in-charge, Sergeant Sagar Singh was slashed in the neck. In other reports, it was stated that he was shot.

Regardless, Sergeant Singh was attacked while trying to unlock the firearms safe to retrieve more weapons and ammunition.

With the attack on the sergeant, the pirates got hold of the weapons and ammunition in the safe.

For the next three hours, the pirates looted the town, robbing the locals at gunpoint.

They finally left at about 8.45pm that same evening.

Besides Barnard and Sergeant Singh, the attack took the lives of a Chinese tailor, a 12-year-old Bajau boy and another two police constables.

The aftermath of the attack on Semporna town

After the bloody incident, BNBC set up an armed force of marine police in North Borneo.

They proved themselves to be an efficient organisation as they successfully patrolled and kept order in North Borneo waters in subsequent years.

Meanwhile, Barnard’s courageous and selfless act was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.

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3 things we learn from W.H. Treacher’s British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891)

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Sir William Hood Treacher (1849-1919) was a British colonial administrator in Borneo and the Straits Settlements.

In Selangor, he was at the Anglo Chinese School in Klang on Mar 10, 1893.

His career in Borneo started in 1871 when he arrived in Labuan to be the acting Police Magistrate.

In 1873, Treacher became Colonial Secretary of Labuan before going on to be the first Governor of North Borneo (1881-1887).

Based on his career in Borneo, Treacher wrote a book ‘British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo’.

His writings circled around his own experience as a colonial officer as well as the books and research that had been previously written about Borneo.

However, Treacher’s spellings for Malay words might take a second or two to understand.

For example, ‘chukei basoh batis’ is actually ‘cukai basuh betis’ or ‘the tax of washing feet’. Similarly, ‘mantri’ is menteri (minister).

Sir william hood treacher

Here are three things we learn from British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891) by William Hood Treacher:

1.The important role of Chinese immigrants in British Borneo

In 1881, the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) ran a census on North Borneo and found the native population was considered to be unsuited to meet the requirements of modern development.

They estimated the number of indigenous people to be 60,000 to 100,000.

In order to increase the population, the government realised they needed to push on immigration, particularly from China.

Noting the importance of Chinese immigrants, Treacher stated,

“The frugal, patient, industrious, go-ahead, money-making Chinaman is undoubtedly the colonist for the sparsely inhabited islands of the Malay archipelago. Where, as in Java, there is a large native population and the struggle for existence has compelled the natives to adopt habits of industry, the presence of the Chinaman is not a necessity, but in a country like Borneo, where the inhabitants, from time immemorial, except during unusual periods of drought or epidemic sickness, have never found the problem of existence bear hard upon them, it is impossible to impress upon the natives that they ought to have “wants,” whether they feel them or not, and that the pursuit of the dollar for the sake of mere possession is an ennobling object, differentiating the simple savage from the complicated product of the higher civilization.

[…]“The Chinaman, too, in addition to his valuable properties as a keen trader and a man of business, collecting from the natives the products of the country, which he passes on to the European merchant, from whom he obtains the European fabrics and American “notions” to barter with the natives, is also a good agriculturist, whether on a large or small scale; he is muscular and can endure both heat and cold, and so is, at any rate in the tropics, far and away a superior animal to the white labourer, whether for agricultural or mining work, as an artizan, or as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, as a cook, a housemaid or a washerwoman.

“He can learn any trade that a white man can teach him, from ship-building to watchmaking, and he does not drink and requires scarcely any holidays or Sundays, occasionally only a day to worship his ancestors.

2.How famous Hugh Low was among the locals

Sir Hugh Low (1824-1905) was another British colonial administrator and naturalist.

From 1848-1850, he was the Colonial Secretary of Labuan.

Then in 1851, Low made the first documented ascent of Mount Kinabalu.

For Treacher, being associated with Low was a life-saving thing.

“His (Sir Hugh Low) name was known far and wide in Northern Borneo and in the Sulu Archipelago. As an instance, I was once proceeding up a river in the island of Basilan, to the North of Sulu, with Captain C. E. Buckle, in two boats of H. M. S. Frolic, when the natives, whom we could not see, opened fire on us from the banks.

I at once jumped up and shouted out that we were Mr. Low’s friends from Labuan, and in a very short time we were on friendly terms with the natives, who conducted us to their village.

They had thought we might be Spaniards, and did not think it worth while to enquire before tiring.”

Read about Hugh Low here.

3.The origin of the name ‘Sabah’?

How the name ‘Sabah’ remains uncertain to this day. Some believe it came from a type of banana called ‘pisang saba’.

Treacher may not provide the definitive answer either, but he worked hard to explore the possibilities.

“Some explanation of the term “Sabah” as applied to the territory—a term which appears in the Prayer Book version of the 72nd Psalm, verse 10, “The kings of Arabia and Sabah shall bring gifts”—seems called for, but I regret to say I have not been able to obtain a satisfactory one from the Brunai people, who use it in connection only with a small portion of the West Coast of Borneo, North of the Brunai river.

“Perhaps the following note, which I take from Mr. W. E. Maxwell’s “Manual of the Malay Language,” may have some slight bearing on the point:—”Sawa, Jawa, Saba, Jaba, Zaba, etc., has evidently in all times been the capital local name in Indonesia. The whole archipelago was pressed into an island of that name by the Hindus and Romans.

Even in the time of Marco Polo we have only a Java Major and a Java Minor. The Bugis apply the name of Jawa, jawaka (comp. the Polynesian Sawaiki, Ceramese Sawai) to the Moluccas. One of the principal divisions of Battaland in Sumatra is called Tanah Jawa. 

Ptolomy has both Jaba and Saba.”—”Logan, Journ. Ind. Arch., iv, 338.”

“In the Brunai use of the term, there is always some idea of a Northerly direction; for instance, I have heard a Brunai man who was passing from the South to the Northern side of his river, say he was going Saba.

“When the Company’s Government was first inaugurated, the territory was, in official documents, mentioned as Sabah, a name which is still current amongst the natives, to whom the now officially accepted designation of North Borneo is meaningless and difficult of pronunciation.”

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Know the true story behind Oscar-nominated film Sandakan No. 8 (1974)

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Sandakan No. 8 (1974) is a Japanese film directed by Kei Kumai which focused on the ‘karayuki-san’.

‘Karayuki-san’ is the Japanese term for young women forced into sexual slavery in the 19th and early 20th century. Directly translated, it means ‘Ms. Gone-To-China’, although it was expanded to ‘Ms. Gone-Abroad’ as it saw these young women being trafficked to Southeast Asia, Manchuria and even as far as San Francisco.

The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975. (It lost to Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala.) 

Sandakan No.8 2

The plot of Sandakan No.8

The film starts with journalist Keiko Mitani (Komaki Kurihara) who is researching the history of Japanese women who were sex slaves in Asian brothels during the early 20th century.

While researching, she finds Osaki (Kinuyo Tanaka), a former karayuki-san who lives in a shack in a rural village.

Osaki agrees to tell her life as the film goes into a flashback to the 1920s.

Poverty-stricken circumstances led to a young Osaki (Yoko Takashi) being sold by her family to work as a maid.

The location? Thousands of miles away in Sandakan, British North Borneo (present-day Sabah).

Osaki thought she was going to work in a hotel. As it turns out, the establishment was actually a brothel called Sandakan No.8.

She is forced to work as a prostitute at Sandakan No.8 until World War II. During her stay at the brothel, she has a short-lived romance with a poor farmer.

When Osaki finally returns to Japan, her brother and his wife who have bought a house using the money she sent them, turns her away. Osaki’s life can never be normal again due to her past at Sandakan No.8.

In the epilogue, Osaki tells Keiko about a graveyard established for prostitutes who died in Sandakan.

Later, Keiko makes her way to Borneo looking for the cemetery. When she finds the graveyard, Keiko realises that all of them were buried with their feet pointing in the direction of Japan.

It is a gesture to condemn their ancestral home for abandoning them.

Sandakan No. 8 is based on the book “Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower Class”

When author Yamazaki Tomoko interviewed a former karayuki-san, she gave her the pseudonym – Yamakawa Saki – to protect her identity.

Yamazaki met her by accident during a trip to Amakusa in 1968 while researching on karayuki-san. After a series of interviews with Osaki and her friend Ofumi, Yamazaki wrote the book “Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower Class” (1972).

Although it was Yamazaki’s first book, it instantly became a national best-seller, with her work considered as a pioneer work on karayuki-san. It was later followed by “The graves of Sandakan 1964” and “The Song of a Woman Bound for America 1981”.

The real-life Osaki was born around 1900. Shortly after her birth, her father died leaving her mother struggling to feed three children.

Osaki’s mother then remarried, this time to her own brother-in-law, moving in with her new husband and his six children. For the most part, however, her mother left Osaki and her siblings to fend for themselves.

In order to survive, Osaki’s brother sold her to a procurer for 300 yen. Osaki had also agreed to go because her best friend was going too. She was only 10 years old.

When Osaki first arrived at Sandakan, she worked as a cleaner in the brothel on Lebuh Tiga in Sandakan.

After she turned 13, she was forced to take on customers.

Osaki’s life at Sandakan No.8

Later, she moved to Sandakan No. 8, also known as Brothel No.8, which was unusually owned by a woman named Kinoshita Okuni. She was also known as Okuni of Sandakan who treated her girls well.

Before coming to Sandakan, Okuni was a live-in mistress to an Englishman back in Yokohama. After he left Japan for good, she moved to Sandakan to open a general store and a brothel.

Osaki became a live-in mistress to an Englishman in Sandakan after seven years working at the brothel.

Interestingly, the arrangement was a facade to hide the fact that the Englishman was having an affair with another Englishman’s wife.

Little is known about the Englishman. Osaki called him “Mister Home” and he worked at Dalby Company which owned a shipyard in Sandakan back then. Mister Home also had a wife and children back in England.

Nonetheless, Osaki was happy with the arrangement. She still received money from Mister Home to send it back to Japan and she no longer took customers at the brothel.

Unfortunately, just like the film, Osaki was rejected by her elder brother and the rest of her family upon her return to Japan.

So where is Sandakan No.8?

Just like Keiko in the movie, Yamazaki made her way to Sandakan in the 1970s.

To her disappointment, there were no traces left from Sandakan No.8 or any other brothels.

However, she did find an old graveyard which is now called Sandakan Japanese Cemetery.

It was founded in 1890 by Osaki’s boss, Okuni. She built it to pray for the souls of Japanese who died in Sandakan.

And just like in the movie Sandakan No.8, they were all buried with their feet pointed in Japan’s direction.

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Ellena, the forgotten American colony in Sabah

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Did you know that there was an American colony in Sabah? And at one point in time, James Brooke and successors were not the only white ‘Rajahs’ on Borneo island.

The establishment of Consulate in Brunei

In 1850, the United States signed a bilateral treaty of Peace, Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation with the Sultanate of Brunei. This treaty was enforced on July 11, 1853 and is still in effect to this day.

Then in 1865, the US sent its first consul in Brunei, Charles Lee Moses.

Moses later on played an important role in the establishment of Ellena.

In August 1865, Moses concluded a 10-year lease with Brunei’s Sultan Abdul Momin.

The Sultan then guaranteed land rights in various areas in the north of Borneo.

Later, Moses went on to sell these rights to an American merchant Joseph William Torrey in return for a third of any profits made.

In October 1865, Torrey along with another American, Thomas Bradley Harris decided to build a colony in the area of today’s Kimanis, about 45km from Kota Kinabalu.

The new venture was pursued under The American Trading Company of Borneo. It was a chartered company formed by Torrey, Harris and several Chinese investors.

Torrey even made a trip to Sultan of Brunei to draw up a new concession letter on Nov 24, 1865.

In the letter, the Sultan even gave Torrey the title of ‘Rajah of Ambong and Marudu’.

The beginning of Ellena colony

Finally in December 1865, Torrey with 12 Americans and around 60 Chinese founded a colony in Kimanis called ‘Ellena’.

After raising a flag of his own designed, Torrey appointed himself as the governor and Harris as his vice-governor.

The news of this colony even made it to Hong Kong China Mail. The news reported, “The progress of the enterprise will be watched with much interest, as being the first attempt of Americans to colonise away from their own continent.”

Torrey and Harris
Thomas Bradley Harris (standing) and Joseph William Torrey, founders of the US colony “Ellena” on the Island of Borneo

The downfall of Ellena

According to Frank Tatu in his paper ‘The United States Consul, the Yankee Raja, Ellena and the Constitution’, the British government was concerned with American intentions.

They asked their Minister in Washington to enquire about the issue.

In response, the British was informed that the US had not authorised any attempts to form any settlements in Borneo.

As for Moses, he simply acted on his own.

Maybe because the colony was not approved by their own government, Ellena went down as fast as it came into being.

Ellena became a target for pirates from Hong Kong and Macau.

In the same time, the colony did not have any financial backup and their workers were going hungry.

Rumours had it that it was Moses who recruited the pirates in an effort to collect the money from the company.

While Torrey was trying to find investors in Hong Kong for Ellena, Harris died of Malaria on May 22, 1866.

By the end of 1866, Ellena was abandoned.

The remaining Ellena colonists found work at nearby British-operated coal fields while others went back to Hong Kong.

As for Torrey, he buried his friend Harris on the top of a nearby hill in Ellena.

He still used his title as the ‘Rajah’ and conducted commerce in the region for several years.

Finally in 1881, Torrey sold his rights in Kimanis to Austrian Baron von Overbeck and partner Alfred Dent for $25,000.

This paved way for what we know now as the British North Borneo Company (BNBC).

What happened to Moses?

The fall of Ellena affected the life Moses who became poor after the collapse of the colony.

Tatu stated, “He frequently wrote the US State Department complaining that no consular fees were to be had, and imploring that he be accorded a salary. Receiving no favourable response, Moses was driven to desperation.

“Moses allegedly armed attacks on the burning of his consulate on Mar 25, 1867 by ‘Malay people’.
By way of demanding reparations, Moses threatened the Sultan with retaliation by American naval units ‘to fire and burn the city.’”

However, the Sultan strongly believed that Moses burned the consulate himself. He was reportedly seen removing valuables from the consulate for days before the fire.

In the meantime, Moses moved to Labuan to wait for any news especially from the US.

There, tragedy struck him again when one of his children died. He had no choice but to send his wife and surviving child back to the US.

In September 1867, Moses received the news that he had been suspended from his duties by the president.

Then in May 1868, he boarded the Barque Swallow and later reported to be lost at sea.

The rediscovery of Ellena and he rediscover the grave of Thomas Bradley Harris

Ernest Alfred Pavitt, a land surveyor for the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) was the one who found Harris’ grave in 1909.

In a note published in British North Borneo Herald, Pavitt wrote, “A good many years ago, having to go from the West Coast to the Interior of British North Borneo, accompanied by Mr. P.F. Wise, the District Officer of North Keppel, we made our starting point from Kimanis and from the principal native kampung on the river. Mr Wise pointed on a hill on which he had told me an American gentleman had, some years previously, been buried.

”This was again brought forcibly to my collection some days ago as in my examination of land at this particular place I sent a gang of coolies to clear the top of a small and prominent hill of jungle to enable me to have a look at the surrounding country.

“On my going up a few days later I found this was the resting place of evidently an old pioneer, as there still exist in a very fair state of preservation both the head and foot stone marking this interesting spot.”

A year later, while BNBC was opening the Kimanis Rubber Estate, they found that some of the hill sides had been carefully terraced.

The company believed that these terraces were probably the remains of the company’s experimental planting.

What happened to Torrey after Ellena collapsed?

A year after the collapse of Ellena, Torrey had a daughter born in 1867. He named her Elena Charlotte, most probably after his colony.

Torrey later bought his own ship which he christened as ‘Ellen’.

From 1877 to 1880, Torrey was a vice-consul at the US Consulate in Thailand.

By 1883, he returned to America. In 1885, he received the news that he had been appointed as the King of Thailand’s chief adviser.

While he was contemplating whether he should accept the post, Torrey died suddenly on June 22, 1885.

After his death, Torrey was known as the ‘Yankee Rajah’ and ‘the only American Rajah’ despite the fact his beloved colony did not even last a year.

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Elizabeth Mershon’s patronising descriptions of ‘Wild Men of Borneo’

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It is the 1920s. Imagine you are a pastor’s wife, and have sailed thousands of miles from your home to live in a very foreign country.

You don’t speak the local languages so there is no way you can understand their cultures or customs.

Your husband is always away from home preaching to people you refer to as the ‘wild men’ with hope the news of the Gospel will ‘civilise’ them.

And you stay at home with your servant girl who often clashes with you because she is not running the chores according to your American way.

The only way you could learn about this foreign place you are living in is through your husband and other Westerners around you.

By the time you return to your home country, you write a book and publish it under the title ‘With the Wild Men of Borneo’ (1922), which is what Elizabeth Mershon did.

Elizabeth and her husband Leroy Mershon were stationed in Sandakan in the 1920s as part of the Seventh-day Adventist North Borneo Mission.

Her book ‘With the Wild Men of Borneo’, obviously was by no means an anthropology book but was based on her experience here in Borneo.

For the most part, it offers a glimpse of life in Borneo before World War 2, and also the Western perspective of the ‘civilising mission’ which can be seen in Mershon’s descriptions of Borneans as part of an introduction in the third chapter of her book.

These descriptions are based on her personal opinions which Mershon seemed to have gathered from hearsay around her.

withwildmenofbor00mersiala 0009

So here are some of Elizabeth Mershon’s eyebrow-raising descriptions about the so-called ‘Wild Men of Borneo’:

1.There are ‘two classes’ of Dayaks and one of them is ‘more truthful than the other’

“There are two classes of Dyaks. Those living inland are called Land Dyaks; those living on the coast are called Sea Dyaks.”

“The Sea Dyak, unlike the Land Dyak, is truthful and fairly honest.”

2.The Ibans are descended from the Bugis?

“The Sea Dyaks are not as pure a race as the Land Dyaks, having intermarried with the Bugis from Makassar, in the Celebes.”

3.The description about Bajau people

“On the east coast of British North Borneo are found the Bajaus, or Sea Gypsies. They are a lazy, irresponsible race, building their houses over water, but living almost entirely in their boats. They are of Malay origin, although much darker and larger than the Malays. Taking each day as it comes, and never troubling about what is going to happen tomorrow, they pick up a scanty living along the seashore, catching fish, and finding turtles’ eggs, clams and sea slugs. They lead a wild roving life in the open air, plundering and robbing at every opportunity.”

4.The Bajau are not the only ‘lazy people’ in Borneo according to Mershon

“The Sulus are very lazy, independent and troublesome. Yet they are very brave, and make the best sailors and traders among the islands.”

5.Perhaps ‘the laziest people’ in Borneo according to Mershon are the Muruts

“A very low race called the Muruts live in the interior, on a mountain range near the west coast. These people simply will not work. They eat food they can put their hands on. No matter how dirty an article of food may be, and no matter how long an animal may be dead, it is all the same to the Muruts; they eat it and seem to enjoy it.”

6.The Bruneians don’t seem to be hardworking either

“The natives living in Brunei are called after the name of their country. They too are very lazy; but when they have a mind to work, they make good fishermen.”

7.Finally, the last group of ‘lazy people’ of British North Borneo

“There are also a few Malays and Javanese in British North Borneo. The former are naturally lazy and do not care to work. The Javanese make fairly good gardeners for the Europeans.”

As patronising as Mershon might sound, she did grow fond of Borneo.

In the very first paragraph of her book, “From my childhood days until I arrived in Borneo, all I knew about the country was that it was where the wild men lived, and I always imagined that they spent most of their time running around the island cutting off people’s heads… Before you finish what I am going to tell you about distant Borneo and its people, I hope you will have learned that the ‘wild man from Borneo’ is not such a bad fellow after all.”

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