Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalof404219041905roya).pdf/241

 Various methods of computing the time for planting among the races of Borneo.

Agriculture, even if rude, is at once a token and a cause of primitive culture. The native of Borneo has no special reason to pay attention to the phenomena among which he lives, unless he is a farmer. He may, like the Punan, know the lie of the land for miles around, and be able to judge the slightest indications of the jungle, but that is hardly knowledge which leads to civilization. The farmer, on the other hand, has to study the course of the seasons, the nature of the soil and the variability of animals and plants.

There are certain special problems which have presented themselves to the uncultured farmer in Borneo, which would not cause the least difficulty to an European in a temperate climate. In the tropics as everywhere else, agriculture is performed with the yearly regularity which is so familiar that to us it seems in no way remarkable. Near the equator, of course, seasons have not as a rule the same striking character that they have in higher latitudes. In Borneo from October to April the wind is usually from the north-east, and brings rain, more to some districts than to others, while during the rest of the year the monsoon is reversed, but there is little else to distinguish one month's weather from another. It is almost impossible to tell the time of year from temperature or moisture, and quite impossible to do so with any accuracy.

The farmers have found, nevertheless, that certain seasons are more favourable than others to their operations. It is not so much the crop which requires to be sown and reaped at particular times, as the ground, whose preparation is difficult in