Note 101 — Chapter XII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century one of the inland tribes, called the Idaans, dwelling in the interior of north Borneo, is said to have looked upon the Muhammadans of the coast with very great respect, as having a religion which they themselves had not yet got.101 Dalrymple, who obtained his information on the Idaans of Borneo during his visit to Sulu from 1761 to 1764, tells us that they “entertain a just regret of their own ignorance, and a mean idea of themselves on that account; for, when they come into the houses, or vessels, of the Mahometans, they pay them the utmost veneration, as superior intelligences, who know their Creator; they will not sit down where the Mahometans sleep, nor will they put their fingers into the same chunam, or betel box, but receive a portion with the utmost humility, and in every instance denote, with the most abject attitudes and gesture, the veneration they entertain for a God unknown, in the respect they pay to those who have a knowledge of Him.”102 These people appear since that time to have embraced the Muhammadan faith,103 one of the numerous instances of the powerful impression that Islam produces upon tribes that are low down in the scale of civilisation. From time to time other accessions have been gained in the persons of the numerous colonists, Arabs, Bugis and Malays, as well as Chinese (who have had settlements here since the seventh century),104 and of the slaves introduced into the island from different countries; so that at the present day the Muhammadans of Borneo are a very mixed race.105 Many of these foreigners were still heathen when they first came to Borneo, and of a higher civilisation than the Dyaks whom they conquered or drove into the interior, where they mostly still remain heathen, except in the western part of the island, in which from time to time small tribes of Dyaks embrace Islam.106 When the pagan Dyaks change their faith, it is more commonly the case that they yield to the persuasions of the Muhammadan rather than to those of the Christian missionary, or, having first embraced Christianity they then pass over to Islam, and the Muhammadans are making zealous efforts to win converts both from among the heathen and the Christian Dyaks.107