According to Bunak folk history in the northwest, they originally migrated from the east to the region south of Maliana and the present Indonesian districts of Lamaknen and Raihat. There they mingled peacefully with the local peoples, these being, according to source, the local Tetun or Atoin Meto people. The existing village names of Austronesian origin support these accounts. Legends of the Bunak people from the upper Lamaknen district, however, report that their forefathers had either expelled or killed the Melus (Timor) people when they came into the region. Research so far has not clarified whether the Melus were Tetun, Atoin Meto or another people. Investigations of the Bunak dialects suggest that the Bunak from the northeast and southwest met and settled in Lamaknen district. According to oral tradition, the region around Lamaknen district was an autonomous region of the Wehali Tetun people, bordering on the kingdom of Likusa. This influence can still be seen today as the Lamaknen dialect uses loanwords for ritual formulations from Tetum language.