British North Borneo~folklore,religion & custom.

The collection of Dusun,Bajau and Illanun stories was made in the years 1910 and 1911,during parts of which Ivor H N Evans was stationed in two adjoining districts of Tuaran and Tempassuk ; while material contained in the paper ,that on customs and beliefs of the 'orang dusun' , was collected partly at the same time as the folk-stories ,partly on a short visit by Ivor to the Tempassuk district in 1915.
The Tempassuk is inhibited by three different peoples ,the Dusuns,the Bajaus and Illanuns , and it is chiefly from the first of these that the tales have been collected ; for , since both Bajaus and Illanuns are Mohamedans , their folklore is not nearly so extensive as that of their Dusun neighbors , who are pagans. The Mohamedans, roughly speaking , form the coastal and estuarine population, while the Dusuns, with the exception of those of a few large villages on the plains, which border on the Bajau zone, are confined to the foot hills and mountainous portion of the area. The Tuaran district is divided between Bajaus and Dusuns , but here Illanuns are wanting.
It would seem that the Dusuns are the original inhabitants of the country ,and that the Bajaus and Illanuns ,are later arrivals who have driven the first named inland. This is known to be a fact in the case of the Illanuns ,who are a tribe of Mindanao in the Philippines ; of whom small roving parties have settled in Borneo. The origin of the Bajaus ,[in Tempassuk they call themselves "Sama"], unknown , but they are widely spread along the coast of North Borneo. However , as far as the Tempassuk is concerned, tradition asserts that they first came in trading boats from the direction of Kudat , and eventually fought the Dusuns and formed settlements in the country.
It is often said by Europeans resident in North Borneo , without ,sufficient evidence ,that the Dusuns have a large admixture of Chinese blood . 'Orang Dusun' , which literally means 'people of the orchard' , is a name originally used by the Malays to denote large sections of natives population of British North Borneo, which they considered to be of similar habit and culture . The term is loose but useful and has consequently been adopted by Europeans.
Ivor H N Evans noted that in those parts of the country he had visited , the Dusuns ,cannot be said that they have any tribal organization, the village community being the unit .In the Tempassuk district,the Dusuns style themselves 'Tindal', while that the upcountry Tuaran natives do the same . Around Tuaran settlement,however, they seem to call themselves 'Suong Lotud',[people of the country; i.e. the developed country as opposed to the jungle]. These Tuaran villages differ somewhat in their customs from the Tempassuk natives.
It must be understood that in these writings , i merely deal with Ivor H N Evans notes of the Tempassuk district and with the villages immediately surrounding the Government post at Tuaran back in 1910 till 1915.