[29]
All these peoples, with the exception of the Punans and similar nomads,
live in village communities situated with few exceptions on the banks
of the rivers. The populations of these villages vary from 20 or 30
persons only in the smallest, to 1500 or even more in a few of the
largest; while the average village comprises about 30 families which,
with a few slaves and dependants, make a community of some 200 to 300
persons. Each such community is presided over by a chief. A number of
villages of one people are commonly grouped within easy reach of one
another on the banks of a river. But no people exclusively occupies
or claims exclusive possession of any one territory or waterway. With
the exception of the Sea Dayaks, all these different peoples may here
and there be found in closely adjoining villages; and in some rivers
the villages of the different peoples are freely intermingled over
considerable areas. The segregation of the Sea Dayak villages seems
to be due to the truculent treacherous nature of the Sea Dayak,
which renders him obnoxious as a neighbour to the other peoples,
and leads him to feel the need of the support of his own people in
large numbers. All find their principal support and occupation in the
cultivation of PADI (rice), and all supplement this with the breeding
of a few pigs and fowls and, in the north of the island, buffalo,
with hunting and fishing, and with the collection of jungle produce
-- gutta-percha, rubber, rattan canes, camphor, sago.
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