The gypsies of Sarawak (Punans
This short note by E. L. Andreini (1924) records a visit to a Punan encampment in Sarawak, describing the group’s physical characteristics, subsistence practices, beliefs, and social organisation.
Andreini describes the Punans as stockily built, of a peculiar white colouring, and entirely dependent on blowpipe hunting with poisoned darts, supplemented by women’s sago production and jungle fruit gathering (p. 77). He notes the apparent absence of old people, attributing it to chest troubles, and observes that the group is “fast dying out as a race” (p. 77). Their beliefs centre on spirits inhabiting large trees, stones, rivers, and mountains, along with certain pigs and a charm wood that attracts game; the dead are simply left in their shelter and the group moves on (p. 77). Andreini records the Murut origin myth that the first Punans were two lazy Muruts who fled into the jungle, and notes that the group roams between two large rivers following wild sago (p. 77). He identifies their distribution in Sarawak as between the Apoh and Tutoh, in the Ulu Rejang, in the Bintulu District, and near Bukit Batu, and observes that their language is nearly identical across these districts (p. 77).