Mt. Kina Balu, a Dusun legend of its name
C.F. Skinner presents a Dusun legend, originally told by Mentri Babu, Paramount Chief of Putatan, concerning the etymology of “Kinabalu” and the supposed origin of the Dusun race (p. 63).
Summary
The legend recounts how a Chinese prince, an outlaw from his country, sailed up a great Borneo river in a large junk and camped among the Murut head-hunters for a year. Upon his departure, a catastrophic earthquake and storm wrecked his ship, killed his crew, and shrank the mighty river to a mere stream, destroying the lake (danau) through which it had flowed. The prince alone survived and was rescued by the Muruts, who debated whether to kill him as a sacrificial offering or treat him as a god. He was ultimately accepted, intermarried with the Muruts, and took two wives. When both wives died, they were buried at the foot of the sacred mountain, and their graves became known as Kina punya Balu—“the widows of the Chinese (prince)“—from which the mountain took its name (pp. 63–65).
Skinner adds a brief geographical note identifying the danau in the legend with the Ranau plain and the river with the Labuk, whose source descends from Kinabalu (p. 65).