committed, the culprit has his legs chained for the period of a year. For their sacrifice they choose the time when there is no moon; they fill a bowl with wine and eatables and let it float away on the surface of the water; in the eleventh month they have a great sacrifice. They get corals from the sea, and they have a bird called s'ari, which can talk." A later reference to the same place says: "They carry the teeth of wild beasts in their ears, and wrap a piece of cotton round their loins; cotton is a plant of which they collect the flowers to make cloth of them; the coarser kind is called KUPA, and the finer cloth T'IEH. They hold their markets at night, and cover their faces…. At the east of this country is situated the land of the Rakshas, which has the same customs as Poli."[7]

This is an interesting account in many ways, and tallies very closely with what other evidence would lead one to suspect. For there is reason to think that Bruni, before it became Mohammedan, was a Bisaya kingdom under Buddhist sovereigns and Hindu influence; and nearly all the particulars given with regard to the people of Borneo are true of one or other of the races allied to Bisayas and living near Bruni to-day. The discus-knife, a wooden weapon, is not now in use, but is known to have been used formerly. The wild Kadayans sacrifice after every new moon, and are forbidden to eat a number of things until they have done so. The Malanaus set laden rafts afloat on the rivers to propitiate the spirits of the sea. The very names of the two kinds of cotton, then evidently a novelty to the Chinese, are found in Borneo: KAPOK is a well-known Malay word; but TAYA is the common name for cotton among the Sea Dayaks, though it is doubtful whether it is found in Sumatra at all, and is not given in Marsden's great Dictionary. The use of teeth as ear-ornaments may refer to Kenyahs. If these identities are sufficient to show that Poli was old Bruni, we have an almost unique illustration here of the antiquity of savage customs. That an experience of fourteen hundred years should have failed to convince people of the futility of feeding salt waves is a striking demonstration of the widespread fallacy, that what is old must needs be good.

Poli had already attained a certain measure of civilisation, and even of luxury. The kingly dignity was hereditary, and the Buddhist monarch was served with much ceremony. He was clad in flowered silk or cotton, adorned with pearls, and sat on a golden throne attended by servants with white dusters and fans of peacock feathers. When he went out of his palace, his chariot, canopied with feathers and embroidered curtains, was drawn by elephants, whilst gongs, drums, and conches made inspiriting music. As Hindu ornaments have been found at Santubong together with Chinese coins of great antiquity, as the names of many offices of state in Bruni are derived from Sanskrit, and the people of Sarawak have only lately ceased to speak of "the days of the Hindus,"[8] there is nothing startling in the statement that the kings of Poli were Buddhist.

Whatever Poli may or may not have been, there is little question that Puni, 45 days from Java, 40 from Palembang, 30 from Champa, in each case taking the wind to be fair, was Bruni. The Chinese, who have neither B nor double consonants in their impoverished language, still call the Bornean capital Puni. Groeneveldt says that the Chinese consider Puni to have been on the west coast of Borneo. This state is mentioned several times in the annals of the Sung dynasty, which, though only ruling over Southern China, had a complete monopoly[9] of the ocean trade for three centuries (960 to 1279 A.D.). Puni was at that time a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, protected by a stockade of timber. The king's palace, like the houses of modern Bruni, was thatched with palm leaves, the cottages of the people with grass. Warriors carried spears and protected themselves with copper armour. When any native died, his corpse was exposed in the jungle, and once a year for seven years sacrifices were made to the departed spirit. Bamboos and palm leaves, thrown away after every meal, sufficed for crockery. The products of the country, or at least such as were sent as tribute, were camphor, tortoiseshell, and ivory.[10]

In the year 977, we are told, Hianzta, king of Puni, sent envoys to China, who presented tribute with the following words: "May the emperor live thousands and tens of thousands of years, and may he not disapprove of the poor civilities of my little country." The envoys presented a letter from the king. This was written on' what looked like the very thin bark of a tree; it was glossy, slightly green, several feet long, and somewhat broader than one inch; the characters in which it was written were small, and had to be read horizontally. In all these particulars the letter resembled the books of magic which are still written by the Battas of inland Sumatra.[11] The message ran: "The king of Puni, called Hianzta, prostrates himself before the most august emperor, and hopes that the emperor may live ten thousands of years. I have now sent envoys to carry tribute; I knew before that there was an emperor, but I had no means of communication. Recently there was a merchant called Pu Lu, whose ship arrived at the mouth of my river; I sent a man to invite him to my place, and he told me that he came from China. The people of my country were much delighted at this, and preparing a ship, asked this stranger to guide them to the court. The envoys I have sent only wish to see Your Majesty in peace, and I intend to send people with tribute every year. But when I do so I fear that my ships may occasionally be blown to Champa, and I therefore hope Your Majesty will send an edict to that country with orders that, if a ship of Hianzta arrives there, it must not be detained. My country has no other articles,[12] and I pray Your Majesty not to be angry with me." The envoys were entertained and sent home with presents. In 1082 A.D., a hundred years later, Sri Maja, king of Puni, sent tribute again, but the promise of yearly homage was not kept. Gradually the Sung dynasty declined in power, and East Indian potentates became less humble.

In the thirteenth and the early part of the fourteenth centuries Bruni owed allegiance alternately to two powers much younger than herself, Majapahit in Java, and Malacca on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Both these states were founded in the thirteenth century.[13] Majapahit, originally only one of several Javan kingdoms, rapidly acquired strength and subjugated her neighbours and the nearest portions of the islands around. Malacca, formed when the Malay colony of Singapore was overwhelmed by Javanese, became the great commercial depot of the Straits and the chief centre of Mohammedanism in the Archipelago. The two powers therefore stood for two faiths and two cultures: Majapahit for Brahminism and Hindu influence, Malacca for Islam and the more practical civilisation of Arabia.

In the earliest years of the fourteenth century Bruni was a dependency of Majapahit, but seems to have recovered its independence during the minority of the Javan king. It is to this time that the tradition of the Kapuas Malays ascribes the arrival of the Kayans in Borneo.[14] Then Angka Wijaya extended the power of Majapahit over Palembang in Sumatra, Timor, Ternate, Luzon, and the coasts of Borneo. Over Banjermasin he set his natural son. In 1368 Javanese soldiers drove from Bruni the Sulu marauders who had sacked the town. A few years later the ungrateful king transferred his allegiance to China, and not long afterwards, with calculating humility, paid tribute[15] to Mansur Shah, who had succeeded to the throne of Malacca in 1374 A.D.

An extraordinary incident occurred at the beginning of the fifteenth century, which again — and for the last time — draws our attention to the Chinese court. The great Mongol conquerors, Genghis and Kublai Khan, had little to do with the