The next operation, the boring of the wood, is accomplished by the

aid of a straight rod of iron about nine feet long, of slightly

smaller diameter than the bore desired for the pipe, and having one

end chisel-shaped and sharpened. One man standing on the platform holds

the iron rod vertically above the end of the wood, and brings its sharp

chisel edge down upon the centre of the flat surface. Lifting the rod

with both hands he repeats his blow again and again, slightly turning

the rod at each blow. He is aided in keeping the rod truly vertical by

two or three forked sticks fixed horizontally at different levels above

the platform in such a way that the vertical rod slides up and down in

the forks, which thus serve as guides. The rod soon bites its way into

the wood. An assistant, squatting on the platform with a bark-bucket

of water beside him, ladles water into the hole after every two or

three strokes, and thus causes the chips to float out. This operation

steadily pursued for about six hours completes the boring. In boring

the lower part, the craftsman aims at producing a slight curvature

of the tube by very slightly bending the pole and lashing it in the

bent position; the pole on being released then straightens itself,

and at the same time produces the desired slight curvature of the

bore. This curvature is necessary in order to allow for the bending

of the blow-pipe, when in use, by the weight of the spearblade which

is lashed on bayonet-fashion. If the desired degree of curvature is

not produced in this way, the wooden pipe, still in the rough state

as regards its outer surface, is suspended horizontally on loops,

and weights are hung upon the muzzle end until, on sighting through

the bore, only a half circle of daylight is visible -- this being the

degree of curvature of the bore desired. The wood is then heated with

torches, and on cooling retains the curvature thus impressed on it.

It only remains to whittle down the rough surface to a smooth cylinder

slightly tapering towards the muzzle (Pl. 114), to polish the pipe

inside and out, to lash on the spear-blade to the muzzle end with

strips of rattan, and to attach a small wooden sight to the muzzle

end opposite the spear-blade. The polishing of the bore is effected by

working to and fro within it a long piece of closely fitting rattan;

that of the outer surface, by rubbing it first with the skin of a

stingray (which, although a marine fish, sometimes ascends to the

upper reaches of the rivers), and afterwards with the leaf (EMPLAS)

which is the local substitute for emery paper.

The shaft of the poisoned dart is made from the wood of the NIBONG and

wild sago palms. It is about nine inches in length and one-sixteenth

to one-eighth of an inch in diameter (Pl. 115). On to one end of this

is fitted a small tapering cylinder of tough pith, about one inch in

length, its greatest diameter at its butt end being exactly equal to

the bore of the pipe. The pith is shaved to the required diameter by

the aid of a small wooden cylinder of the standard size (Fig. 42);

this is prolonged in a pin of the same diameter as the shaft of the

dart. A piece of pith transfixed by the pin is shaved with a sharp

knife until its surface is flush with that of the wooden gauge.

The poison is prepared from the sap of the IPOH tree, ANTIARIS

TOXICARIA. The milky sap runs out when the bark is incised, and is

collected in a bamboo cup (Pl. 88). It is then heated slowly over a

fire in a trough made from the leaf stem of a palm, until it becomes

a thick paste of dark purple brown colour (Pl. 116). When the poison

is to be applied to the darts, it is worked into a thinner paste on

a palette with a spatula. A circular groove is cut round the shaft of

the dart about two inches from its tip, and the part so marked off is

rolled in the paste and then dried before a fire. For use against large

game, pig, deer, or human beings, a larger dose of poison is required

than can be carried on the tip of the shaft. A small triangular piece

of metal is affixed by splitting the tip of the shaft, thrusting in

the base of the triangular plate, and securing it with a fine thread

of rattan or fern-stem. The poison is then applied to the surface

of this metal. The metal is obtained nowadays from imported tin or

brass ware, but formerly a slip of hard wood was used, and, possibly,

in some cases stone.

The quiver for carrying the darts is a section of bamboo about four

inches in diameter and ten inches in length, fitted with a cap of the

same which fits over the shaved lip of the main piece (Fig. 44). A

wooden hook lashed to the quiver enables it to be hung from the

belt. The darts, mostly without piths, are wrapped in a squirrel skin

and thrust tip downwards into the quiver. A small gourd tied to the

quiver carries a supply of piths all ready to be placed on the darts.

Pottery

The importation of earthenware and of cooking pots of brass and

iron has now almost put an end to the native manufacture of pottery;

but in former times simple earthenware vessels for boiling rice were

made by Kayans, Kenyahs, Ibans, and some of the Klemantans. Those who

made no pots boiled their rice and sago in bamboos. The earthenware

cooking pot is a simple egg-shaped vessel, one end of which is open

and surrounded by a low everted lip or collar (Fig. 8, p. 60).

The clay is kneaded with water on a board until it has the desired

consistency. The vessel is then built up on a hollowed base by

squeezing the clay between a smooth rounded stone held by one hand

within the vessel and a flat piece of wood, with which the clay is

beaten from without. The roughly shaped vessel is allowed to dry in

the sun and baked in the fire. In some cases the surface is smoothed

and glazed by rubbing resin over its surface while hot.

Pots of this one shape only are made, but of several sizes. The

commonest size holds about a quart; the largest about two gallons. A

pot of this sort is carried in a basket made of fine unsplit rattans

loosely woven in the form of interlacing rings.

The Manufacture of Bark-cloth

The native cloth, which was in universal use among the tribes of the

interior until largely supplanted in recent years by imported cloth, is

made from the bark of trees of several species (principally the KUMUT,

the IPOH, and the wild fig). The material used is the fibrous layer

beneath the outer bark. A large sheet of it is laid on a wooden block

and beaten with a heavy wooden club in order to render it soft and

pliable. A piece of the required size and shape is cut from the sheet,

and sewn across the direction of the fibres with needle and thread at

intervals of about an inch. This prevents the material splitting along

the direction of the fibres. Before European needles were introduced,

the stitching was done by piercing holes with a small awl and pushing

the thread through the hole after withdrawing the awl (>Pl. 117).

Spinning and Weaving and Dyeing of Cloth

The Kayans, Kenyahs, and most of the Klemantans weave no cloth; but the

Kayans claim, probably with truth, that they formerly wove a coarse

cloth. In recent years the Ibans, Muruts, and a few of the Klemantan

tribes have been the only weavers. It may be said, we think, without

fear of contradiction, that this is the only craft in which the Ibans

excel all the other peoples. Their methods are similar to those of the

Malays, and have probably been learnt from them. The weaving is done

only by the women, though the men make the machinery employed by them.

The fibre used by the Ibans is cotton, which is obtained from shrubs

planted and cultivated for the purpose. The seed is extracted from

the mass of fibre by squeezing the mass between a pair of rollers

arranged like a rude mangle, while the fibre is pulled away by hand

(Pl. 118). Next the thread is spun from the mass of fibre by the aid

of a simple wheel, turned by the right hand while the left hand twists

the fibres (Pl. 119). The dyeing precedes the weaving if a pattern

is to be produced. The web is stretched on a wooden frame about six

feet long and twenty inches in width, by winding a long thread round

it from end to end. The parts of the web corresponding to the parts

of the cloth that are to remain undyed and of the natural pale brown

colour of the thread are tied round with dried strips of a fibrous leaf

(LEMBA), the upper and lower set of threads being wrapped up together

in the same bundles (Pl. 120). If only one colour is to be applied,

the web is then slipped off the frame. The threads are held in their

relative positions by the wrappings, but are further secured by tying

a string tightly about the whole bundle at each end. The web thus

prepared is soaked in the dye for some two or three days, and then

dried in a shady spot. The wrappings upon the threads are waterproof

and protect the wrapped parts from the dye. When, after the dyeing,

the web is stretched upon the loom, it presents the desired pattern in

colour upon the undyed ground. The undyed weft is then woven across

the web in the usual way. And since the threads of the weft do not

appear on the surface, the dyed parts of the web present a uniformly

coloured surface (Pl. 121).

In most cloths two colours, as well as the natural colour of the

thread, appear on the surface -- the commonest colour being a warm

brick red (obtained from the bark of the SAMAK tree) and a dark purple

(obtained from the leaves of the TARUM plant). Lime and gypsum are

sometimes mixed with the watery extracts as mordaunts, but these

are probably modern refinements. When two colours are to appear,

those parts of the web which are to be of one colour (say purple)

are wrapped up during the immersion in the red dye together with

the parts that are to appear uncoloured. When this first dyeing is

completed the web is prepared for the purple dye, by uncovering the

undyed parts which are to be purple, and wrapping up in bundles the

threads which have already been dyed red. After being soaked in the

purple dye and dried, all the wrappings are removed from the web,

and the desired pattern in three colours appears upon it when it is

stretched. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the operation of

dyeing is that the woman generally wraps up the threads in the way

required to produce the pattern without any guidance, judging the

length and number of the threads to be included in each bundle purely

by memory of the design aimed at.

The only striking peculiarity of the loom is its extreme

simplicity. The upper ends of the web are looped over a stout bar which

is fixed to a pair of uprights about a yard above the floor. The lower

ends of the web are looped over a stout rod, to the ends of which a

loop of cord is tied. The woman sits on the ground, (see Pl. 121) with

this loop around her waist, and thus stretches the web and maintains

the necessary tension of it. The manipulation of the shuttle and of the

threads of the web is accomplished without other mechanical aids than

the rods to which the one set of webthreads is tied by short threads.

CHAPTER 12

Decorative Art

All the tribes of Borneo practise a number of decorative arts. Some

of the Klemantans, notably the Malanaus, excel all other tribes,

in that they attain a high level of achievement in a great variety

of such arts; but each tribe and sub-tribe preserves the tradition

of some one or two decorative arts in which they are especially

skilled. Thus some of the Klemantan tribes specially excel in the

finer kinds of wood-carving (E.G. the decoration of paddles); the

Kayans in tatuing and in chasing designs on steel; the Kenyahs in the

painting of shields and in the production of large designs carved

in low relief on wood and used for adorning houses and tombs; both

Kayans and Kenyahs excel in the carving of sword-handles in deer's

horn; the Barawans and Sebops in beadwork; the Kalabits and Ibans in

tracing designs on the surface of bamboo; Punans in the decorative

mat-work; Kanowits and Tanjongs in basket-work.

Wood-carving is the most generally practised and on the whole the

most important of the decorative arts. Much of it is done on very hard

wood; and the principal tools are the sword, the small knife carried

in the sword-sheath, and adzes and axes of various sizes. The blade

of the knife is some three inches in length, resembling in general

shape the blade of the sword; it is wider in proportion, but has the

same peculiar convexity of the one side and concavity of the other

in transverse section. The shaft is sunk into the end of a rod of

hard wood and secured with gutta and fine rattan lashing. The handle

of hard wood is about a foot in length, half an inch in diameter,

and slightly bowed in the plane of the blade, the convexity being

in the direction of the cutting edge of the blade. The butt end of

the handle is cunningly carved in the shape of a crocodile's head, or

prolonged in a piece of carved deer's horn. The blade of the knife is

held between the thumb and finger of the right hand, the cutting edge

directed forwards, and the long handle is gripped between the forearm

and the lower ribs; the weight of the body can thus be brought to the

assistance of the arm in cutting hard material. With this knife most

of the finer carving is done, the adze and sword being used chiefly

for rough shaping.

The adze consists of a flat blade of steel in the shape of a highly

acute-angled triangle (Pl. 111). The slightly convex base is the

cutting edge. The upper half of the triangle (which may or may not be

marked by a shoulder) is buried in the lashings by which it is attached

to the wooden haft. The haft is a small bough of tough, springy wood,

cut from a tree, together with a small block of the wood of the stem;

the latter is shaved down until it forms an oblong block continuous

with the haft and at an angle to it of 70[degree] -- 80[degree]. The

upper half of the metal blade is laid upon the distal surface of

this block and lashed firmly to it with fine strips of rattan. A

piece of skin is often placed between the metal and the lashings;

this facilitates the removal of the blade, and enables the craftsman

to alter the angle between the cutting edge and the haft. Commonly

the blade is laid in the plane of the haft, and the implement is then

what we should call a small axe; on turning the blade through go',

it is converted to a small adze; and not infrequently the blade is

turned through a smaller angle, so that its plane forms an acute

angle with that of the haft.

Carved woodwork is commonly painted with black and red paint, prepared

respectively from soot and iron oxide mixed with sugar-cane juice

or with lime; the moist pigment is applied with the finger on larger

surfaces, and the finer lines and edges are marked out with the aid

of a chisel-edged stick of wood.

Beadwork

Old beads are much valued and sought after by all the tribes except

Ibans, especially by the Kayans. There are few families of the upper

class that do not possess a certain number of them.

Many varieties are well known, and some of the Kayan women are very

expert in recognising the genuine old specimens, and in distinguishing

these varieties from one another and from modern imitations.

Formerly these old beads were one of the principal forms of currency,

and they still constitute an important part of the wealth of many

families.

Most of these valuable old beads are of foreign manufacture, though a

few made from shell and agate are of the country. The old foreign-made

beads were probably imported by Arab and Chinese traders at various

dates. Some of them are probably of Chinese manufacture, others

probably came from the near East and even from Venice. Some are of

glass curiously marked and coloured, others of stone inlaid with bits

of different colours, others of some hard substance whose composition

defies description. Certain rare kinds are especially valued and

can hardly be bought at any price; they are reckoned to be worth at

least 100 dollars apiece. The most valuable of all is known as the

LUKUT SEKALA; the ownership of each such bead is as accurately known

throughout a large district as the ownership of the masterpieces of

ancient art in our own country. The wife of a rich chief may possess

old beads to the value of thousands of pounds, and will wear a large

part of them on any occasion of display (Pl. 130). These old beads are

worn threaded together to form necklaces and girdles, being arranged

with some reference to harmony of size and colour and to value, the

most valuable being placed in the middle where they will be shown to

best advantage. A single rare bead is sometimes worn on the wrist.

A woman who possesses a good stock of such beads will seldom be seen

without some of them on her person. She will occasionally exchange

a few for other varieties, and is generally eager to add to her

collection; she may occasionally make a present of one or two to some

highly esteemed friend or relative, and will generally assign them,

but without handing them over, to various female relatives before

her death.

Besides these valuable old beads there are in use among all the tribes

many small glass beads of modern European manufacture. These are

threaded to form a variety of designs, generally in two colours,

the combination of black and yellow being the most commonly

preferred. These strips of beadwork are put to many decorative uses:

they are applied to the women's head-bands, to the centre of the

sun-hat, to sword sheaths, to cigarette boxes, to the war-coat at the

nape of the neck, and, by some Klemantans, to the jackets of the women.

The designs worked in this way are but few, and most of them are

common to all the tribes. The thread used is prepared by rolling on

the thigh fibres drawn from the leaf of the pine-apple; it is very

strong and durable. The design to be reproduced is drawn or carved in

low relief on a board. A thread is fixed across the end of the board

and others are tied to it at short intervals; on these the beads are

threaded, neighbouring threads being tied together at short intervals;

and the colours of the beads are selected according to the demands

of the pattern over which they are worked.

Besides these designs on the flat, tassels, girdles, necklaces,

ear-rings, and cigarette rings are also made of these beads. The

modern imported beads used for these purposes are sometimes improved

by being ground flat on the two surfaces that adjoin their neighbours;

this is done by fixing a number of them into the cut end of a piece

of sugar-cane and rubbing this against a smooth stone. This treatment

of the beads gives to the articles made of them a very neat and highly

finished appearance.

Bamboo Decorations

The working of designs on the surface of pieces of bamboo is

done very simply, but none the less effectively. Among the bamboo

articles generally decorated in the way to be described are the native

drinking-cup, the tobacco-box, and tubes for carrying flint and steel

and all sorts of odds and ends.

The pattern to be produced is outlined with the point of the knife

upon the surface of the bamboo, the artist working from memory of the

desired pattern and adapting it to the proportions of the surface to

be covered. The Iban works more freely than others, working out the

pattern and modifying it to meet the exigencies of his material,

section by section, as he goes along. Others plan out the design

for the whole surface before working out any part in detail. It is

probable that in no case does a man sit down and produce a new pattern;

but the freer mode of working of the Iban leads him on to greater

modifications of the traditional designs; and it is probably partly

for this reason that a much larger variety of designs is applied in

this way by them than by the other tribes, among whom they are very

limited in number. But the greater variety of designs worked by the

Ibans is due also to the readiness with which he copies and adopts

as his own the patterns used by other tribes. The Kayans and Kenyahs

use almost exclusively varieties of the dog pattern and of the hook

and circle (see Fig. 47).

The design outlined by the point of the knife is made to stand out

boldly from the ground by darkening the latter. This is achieved in

two ways: (1) the ground is covered with parallel close-set scratches,

not running continuously throughout the larger areas of the ground,

but grouped in sets of parallel lines some few millimetres in length,

the various sets meeting at angles of all degrees; (2) the hard

surface of the bamboo is wholly scraped away from the ground areas

to a depth of about half a millimetre. In either case the black or

red paint is then smeared over the whole surface with the finger, and

when it has become dried the surface is rubbed with a piece of cloth

(Kayan), or scraped lightly with a knife (Iban). The pigment is thus

removed from the intact parts and remains adherent to the lines and

areas from which the hard surface layer has been removed. The design

is thus left in very low relief, and is of the natural colour of the

bamboo upon a black or dark-red ground, or on a ground merely darkened

by the parallel scratches (Pls. 126, 127).

Lashing

Lashing with strips of rattan and with coarse fibres from the leaf-stem

of some of the palms and ferns is applied to a great variety of

purposes, and largely takes the place of our nailing and screwing

and riveting. It is carried out extremely neatly and commonly has a

decorative effect. This effect is in some cases enhanced by combining

blackened threads with those of the natural pale yellow colour;

and the finer varieties of this work deserve to be classed with the

decorative arts. The finest lashing-work is done by the Kalabits,

who cover small bamboo boxes with a layer of close-set lashing,

producing pleasing geometrical designs by the combination of yellow

and black threads. The surface of the bamboo to which the lashing is

applied is generally scraped away to a depth of about one-sixteenth of

an inch; it is thus rendered less slippery than the natural surface,

and is therefore gripped more firmly by the lashing, and the surface

of the lashing is brought flush with the unlashed natural surface. The

effect is not only a highly ornamental appearance, but also a greatly

increased durability of the box, the natural tendency of the bamboo

to split longitudinally being very effectively counteracted.

Similar fine decorative lashing is used by all the tribes for binding

together the two halves of the sword sheath, and for binding the haft

of knife or sword where it grips the metal blade, though brass wire

is sometimes used for this purpose.

Closely allied to this lashing is the production of decorative

knots. A considerable variety of knots are in common use; they are

always well tied and practically effective, but some are elaborated

for decorative purposes to form rosettes, especially by Kayans in

making their sword sheaths.

Painting

We have stated above that the carved woodwork is often painted with

black, red, and white pigments. It must be added that wooden surfaces

are often painted on the flat, especially shields, the outer surfaces

of walls of PADI huts, and tombs, also grave hats and the gunwales of

boats, and decorative planks in the inner walls of the long gallery

of the house. The Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans, especially

the Skapans and Barawans, are most skilled in, and make most use of,

this form of decoration; but it is probably practised in some degree

by all the peoples.

The three pigments mentioned above -- black, red, and white, made

respectively from soot, iron oxide, and lime -- are, so far as we

know, the only native varieties; but at the present day these are

sometimes supplemented with indigo and yellow pigments obtained from

the bazaars. The pigment is generally laid on free-hand with the

finger-tip, a few guiding points only being put in.

It may be mentioned here that individuals of all the tribes will

occasionally amuse themselves by making rude drawings with charcoal

on the plank wall of the gallery. The drawings usually depict human

and animal figures, and scenes from the life of the people, and they

generally illustrate the particular form of occupation in which the

household is employed at the time, E.G. scenes from the PADI fields,

a group of people weeding, the return of a war-party, the collection

of honey, the capture of a large fish. These drawings are invariably

very crude; their nature is sufficiently indicated by Pl. 128. There

seem to be no noteworthy differences in this respect between the

different peoples.

The Punans, having no houses and therefore no walls on which to

draw pictures, have little opportunity to indulge any such tendency;

but we have seen rude hunting scenes depicted by them on the walls

of shallow caves; the technique consisted in scratching away the

soft rotted surface of the limestone rock to produce outlines of the

figures depicted.

The Malanaus, who live in the large limestone caves during the time

of harvesting the edible nests of the swift, sometimes make rude

drawings with charcoal on the walls of the cave.

The weaving of decorative designs on cloth is almost confined to the

Sea Dayaks. Some account of the designs will be given below.

Shell-work

Shells (chiefly nassas and the flat bases of cone-shells) are sometimes

applied by the Iban women to decorate their woven coats, by Kalabits

(in concentric circles on their sunhats), and more rarely by other

tribes in the decoration of baskets (Fig. 48). Fig. 49 represents

a garment decorated in this fashion by Iban women, and worn by them

when dancing with the heads of enemies in their hands.

The Decorative Designs

The Kayans make use in their decorative art of a large number of

conventional designs. The principal applications of these designs are

in tatu, beadwork, the production of panels of wood for the adornment

of houses, tombs, boats, and PADI barns, the decoration of bamboo

boxes, and the painting of hats, and the carving of highly ornate doors

to the rooms. All these applications involve the covering of flat or

curved surfaces with patterns either in low relief only or without

relief; and many of the designs are applied in all these different

ways, and all of them together form a natural group. Besides these

surface designs, a considerable variety of designs is used in giving

decorative form to solid objects such as the handles of swords and

paddles, the ends of main roof-beams in the houses, posts used in

various rites and in the construction of tombs, the figure-heads

of war-boats. These, with the exception of those used in carving

the sword handles, which are highly peculiar, form another group of

relatives. The designs chased upon the blades of the swords constitute

a fourth natural group distinct from the other two groups. A fifth

small group of designs is carved in the form of fretwork. We propose

to say a few words about the designs of each of these five groups.

(1) The designs of the first group are the most numerous and

most widely applied. A large proportion of them obviously are

conventionalised derivatives from animal forms. Of these animal forms

the human figure, the dog, and the prawn have been the originals

of the largest number of patterns; the macaque monkey and the large

lizard (VARANUS) are also traceable. Some designs vaguely suggest a

derivation from some animal form, but cannot confidently be assigned

to any one origin.

A few seemed to be derived from vegetable forms; while some few,

for example the hookpattern, seem to be derived from no animal or

vegetable form. The hook-pattern seems to be symbolical of conjunction

and acquisition in various spheres.

Of all the designs the derivatives from or variants of the dog are the

most numerous and the most frequently applied. The name dog-pattern

(KALANG ASU) is given to a very large number; and of these some

obviously reproduce the form of the dog, while the derivation of

the others from the same original can generally be made clear by

the inspection of a number of intermediate forms, although some of

them retain but very slight indications of the form or features of

the dog. The unmistakable dog-patterns are illustrated by one of the

panels shown in Pl. 124; and in Pls. 134 ET SEQ. we reproduce a number

of dog-patterns of more or less conventionalised characters. It will

be noticed that the eye is the most constant feature about which

the rest of the pattern is commonly centred; but that the eye also

disappears from some of the most conventionalised. It seems probable

that, although the name KALANG ASU continues to be commonly used to

denote all this group of allies, many of those who use the term, and

even of those who carve or work the patterns, are not explicitly aware

in doing so that the name and the patterns refer to the dog, or are

in any way connected with it; that is to say, both the words and the

pattern have ceased to suggest to their minds the meaning of the word

dog, and mean to them simply the pattern appropriate to certain uses.

We have questioned men who have been accustomed to apply the

dog-pattern as to the significance of the parts of the pattern, and

have led them to recognise that the parts of the dog, eye, teeth,

jaws, and so on, are represented; and this recognition has commonly

been accompanied by expressions of enlightenment, as of one making

an interesting discovery.[67] This ignorance of the origin of the

pattern is naturally true only of the more conventionalised examples,

whether of the dog or other natural forms. Probably a few who have

specially interested themselves in the designs have traced out their

connections pretty fully, but this is certainly quite exceptional. Most

of the craftsmen simply copy the current forms, introducing perhaps

now and then an additional scroll, or some other slight modification.

Some men are well known as experts in the production of designs,

and such a man can produce a wonderful variety, all or most being

well-known conventions. Their mode of working frequently implies

that the artist is working to a pattern, mentally fixed and clearly

visualised, rather than working out any new design. For he will

work first on one part of the surface, then on another, producing

disconnected fragments of the pattern, and uniting them later. Although

the women use these patterns in beadwork and in tatuing, they rely

in the main on the men for the patterns which they copy; these

being drawn on wood or cloth for beadwork, or carved in low relief

for tatuing. A Kayan expert may carry in mind a great variety of

designs. One such expert produced for our benefit, during a ten days'

halt of an expedition, forty-one patterns, drawn with pencil on paper;

most of these are of considerable complexity and elaboration.

(2) The designs carved in the solid or in high relief are for

the most part conventionalised copies of human and animal forms;

but the conventionalising is not carried so far as in those of the

first class, so that the carving generally constitutes an unmistakable

representation of the original. The posts set up as altars to the gods

are generally carved in the human form, and the degree of elaboration

varies widely from the rudest possible indication of the head and limbs

to a complete representation of all the parts. But in no case (with

the possible exception of some of the figures carved by Malanaus)

is the human form reproduced with any high degree of accuracy or

artistic merit (Figs. 50 -- 53)

The animal forms are used chiefly as the figureheads of war-boats and

at the ends of the main roof-beams of the houses; and some of these

are executed with a degree of artistry that must win our admiration,

especially when we reflect that the timber used is generally one of

the harder kinds (but not iron-wood) such as the mirabo (AFZELIA

PALEMBANICA), and that the only tools used are the axe, sword,

and knife. The animals most frequently represented are the dog,

crocodile, monkey, hornbill, and bear (Pls. 122, 125, Figs. 45,

46, 54 -- 57). Carved dogs, comparatively little conventionalised,

are sometimes used as the supports of low platforms upon which the

chiefs may sit on ceremonious occasions.

(3) The handles of the swords, generally of deer's antlers, but

sometimes of wood, exhibit a group of highly peculiar closely allied

designs. All these seem to be derived from the human form, although in

many cases this can only be traced in the light of forms intermediate

between the less and the more highly conventionalised (Pls. 129,

184). In examples in which the human form is most obvious, it has

the following position and character: -- The butt end of the blade

is sunk in a piece (about six inches in length) of the main shaft

of the antler at its distal or upper end. This piece constitutes

the grip of the handle or hilt. The proximal or lowest point of the

antler projecting at an angle of some 70[degree] from the grip is cut

down to a length of some four inches, forming a spur standing in the

plane of the blade and towards its cutting edge. The grip is lashed

with fine strips of rattan. The spur and the thick end in which the

spur and the grip unite are elaborately carved. If the sword is held

horizontally, its point directed forwards and its cutting edge upwards,

the butt end is presented with the spur vertically before the face

of the observer. It will then be seen that the surface turned to

the observer presents the principal features of the human figure,

standing with arms akimbo face to face with the observer. The key

to the puzzle Is the double row of teeth. Above this are the two

eyes. Below the level of the mouth the elbows project laterally, and

a little below these and nearer the middle line are the two hands;

and below these again the two legs stand out, carved not merely in

relief, but in the solid, and bent a little at the knee. The feet

are indicated below and more laterally. From the crown of the head

projects a ring of short hair made up of tufts white, black, and red

in colour. Another short tuft projects from the region of the navel

(? pubis), and a pair of tufts project laterally a little below the

level of the mouth. The extremity of the main shaft of the antler

projects a little beyond the feet of the human figure, and is carved in

a form which is clearly an animal derivative -- probably from the dog

or possibly the crocodile. From its open jaws projects a long tuft of

hair, and a pair of short tufts project laterally from the region of

its ears. The whole of the carved part of the hilt thus represents a

man standing upon the head of a dog (or crocodile). The interpretation

of the whole is much obscured by the fact that the parts of the human

figure named above are separated from one another by areas which are

covered with a continuous scroll design in low relief, and by the

fact that all the lateral parts of the carved area bear, scattered

irregularly in relief, reduplications of the various features of the

human figure, E.G. of the hands, elbows, knees, and even of the teeth,

as well as many pairs of interlocking hooks. These last, which recur

in other decorative designs, and which (as was said above) seem to

symbolise the taking of heads, form an important and constant feature

of the whole scheme of decoration. In the more elaborate examples

they are carved out of the solid; and usually one hole (or more)

about 5 mm. in diameter perforates the thickest part of the hilt,

and contains in the middle plane a pair of these interlocking hooks.

In the most elaborate examples of these carved sword hilts all obvious

trace of the human figure is lost in a profusion of detail, which,

however, is of the same general character as that of the examples

described above, and seems to consist of the various features of

the human and animal pattern combined in wild profusion with regard

only to decorative effect, and not at all to the reproduction of the

parent forms.

With the decorative designs of the hilt of the sword must be classed

those of its sheath. The sheath consists of two slips of TAPANG wood

firmly lashed together with finely plaited rattan strips, both strips

being hollowed so that they fit closely to the blade. It is provided

with a plaited cord, which buckles about the waist. The inner piece

of the sheath is smooth inside and out. The outer surface of the

outer piece is often elaborately decorated. The decoration consists

in the main of designs carved in relief; and these are composed of

the same elements as the design upon the sword hilt, namely, hooks,

single and interlocking, elbows, teeth, etc., all woven about with

a scroll design of relieved lines.

(4) The designs reproduced in fretwork are in the main adaptations

of some of those used in decorating surfaces, especially of the dog

pattern; but they are always conventionalised in a high degree (see

Pl. 130). The hook pattern is frequently introduced to fill up odd

corners. The human form is seldom or never traceable in work of this

kind. Fretwork is chiefly used to adorn the tombs of chiefs.

(5) The designs chased on the surfaces of the blades of swords and

knives and spear-heads form a distinctive group. They are flowing

scroll patterns containing many spiral and S-shaped curves in which

no animal or plant forms can be certainly traced, though suggestions

of the KALANG ASU may be found. The lack of affinity between these

patterns and those applied to other surfaces suggests that they may

have been taken over from some other people together with the craft

of the smith; but possibly the distinctive character is due only to

the exigencies of the material. Some of the designs painted on hats

and shields exhibit perhaps some affinity with these. This work is

almost confined to the Kayans.

It is worthy of remark that the art work of the Kayans is in the

main of a public character; for example, the decorative carving about

the house is done by voluntary and co-operative effort in the public

gallery and hardly at all in the private rooms; and ornamented hats

and shields are hung in the gallery rather than in the private rooms;

again, the war-boats, which are the common property of the household,

are decorated more elaborately than those which are private property.

All these forms of art work are the products of distinctly amateur

effort; that is to say that, although certain individuals attain

special skill and reputation in particular forms of art, they do

not make their living by the practice of them, but rather, like

every one else, rely in the main upon the cultivation of PADI for

the family support; they will exchange services of this kind, and

definite payments are sometimes agreed upon, but a large amount of

such work is done for one another without any material reward.

The Kenyahs, Klemantans, and Ibans

The Kenyahs make use of all, or most, of the patterns found among

the Kayans, and there is little or nothing that distinguishes the

decorative art of the one tribe from that of the other. They use

the patterns based on the monkey rather more than the Kayans; and a

decoration commonly found in their houses is a frieze running along

the top of the main partition wall of the house, bearing in low

relief an animal design, painted in red and black, which is called

BALI SUNGEI (I.E. water-spirit) or Naga. The latter name is known

to all the tribes, and is probably of foreign origin; and it seems

possible that the design and this name are derived from the dragon

forms so commonly used in Chinese decorative art.

The various Klemantan tribes make use of many decorative designs very

similar to those of the Kayans. Different animal forms predominant

among the different tribes, E.G. among the LONG POKUNS the form of the

gibbon and of the sacred ape (SEMINOPITHECUS HOSEI) are chiefly used

in house decoration. Among the Sebops and Barawans the human figure

predominates; the Malanaus make especially elaborate crocodile images

in solid wood. The tombs of some of the Klemantans are very massive

and elaborately decorated. The Tanjongs and Kanowits and Kalabits,

who excel in basket-work, introduce a variety of patterns in black,

red, and white. The majority of these are simple geometrical designs

which arise naturally out of the nature of the material; of more

elaborate designs specially common are the hook-pattern (Fig. 58),

the pigeon's eye (Fig. 59), and the caterpillar (Fig. 60).

In wealth of decorative designs the Ibans surpass all the other

tribes. These designs are displayed most abundantly in the decoration

of bamboo surfaces and in the dyeing of cloths. The designs on bamboo

surfaces are largely foliate scrolls, especially the yam-leaf, but

also occasionally animal derivatives.

The designs dyed upon the cloths (Fig. 61) are largely animal

derivatives; but the artists themselves seldom are aware of the

derivation, even when the pattern bears the name of its animal origin;

and as to the names of all, except the most obvious animal derivatives,

even experts will differ. The frog, the young bird, the human form,

and the lizard are the originals most frequently claimed. Parts of

the animal, such as the head or eye, are commonly repeated in serial

fashion detached from the rest of its form. And in many cases it is,

of course, impossible to identify the parts of the pattern, although

it may show a general affinity with unmistakable animal patterns. One

such pattern very commonly used in dyeing is named after AGI BULAN,

the large shrew (GYMNURA); but we have not been able to trace the

slightest resemblance to the animal in any of the various examples

we have seen (Pls. 131, 132).

We are inclined to suppose that the Ibans have copied many of their

cloth-patterns from the Malays together with the crafts of dyeing and

weaving. For their technique is similar to that of the Malays all over

the peninsula, and the same is true of some of their designs. Only

in this way, we think, can we account for their possession of these

crafts, which are practised by but very few of the other inland

peoples. The fact that plant derivatives predominate greatly over

animals in their designs, whereas the reverse is true of almost all

other tribes, bears out this supposition, for the Malays are forbidden

by their religion to represent animal forms, and make use largely of

plant forms.

Tatu

Tatuing is extensively practised among the tribes of Borneo. A great

variety of patterns are used, and they are applied to many different

parts of the body. A paper embodying most of the facts hitherto

ascertained has been published by one of us (C. H.) in conjunction

with Mr. R. Shelford, formerly curator of the Sarawak Museum, who has

paid special attention to the subject; we therefore reproduce here

the greater part of the substance of that paper,[68] with some slight

modifications, and we desire to express our thanks to Mr. Shelford[69]

for his kind permission to make use of the paper in this way.

The great diversity of tribes in Borneo involves, in a study of their

tatu and tatuing methods, a good deal of research and much travel,

if first-hand information on the subject is to be obtained. Between

us we have covered a considerable area in Borneo and have closely

crossquestioned members of nearly every tribe inhabiting Sarawak

on their tatu, but we cannot claim to have exhausted the subject by

any means; there are tribes in the interior of Dutch Borneo and in

British North Borneo whom we have not visited, and concerning whom

our knowledge is of the scantiest.

The practice of tatu is so widely spread throughout Borneo that it

seems simpler to give a list of the tribes that do not tatu, than of

those who do. We can divide such a list into two sections: the first

including those tribes that originally did not tatu, though nowadays

many individuals are met with whose bodies are decorated with designs

copied from neighbouring tribes; the second including the tribes

(mostly Klemantan) that have given up the practice of tatu owing to

contact with Mohammedan and other influences.

A.

1. Punan.

2. Maloh.

3. Land Dyak.

B.

4. Malanau.

5. Miri.

6. Dali.

7. Narom.

8. Sigalang (down-river tribes of Ukit stock).

9. Siduan

10. Tutong.

11. Balait.

12. Bekiau (traces of a former practice of tatu occasionally

found).

13. Bisaya.

14. Kadayans.

The patterns once employed by the tribes included in the second

section of this list, most of which have adopted Malay dress and to

some extent Malay customs, are lost beyond recall. The Land Dayaks

display absolute ignorance of tatu, and aver that they never indulged

in the practice. Maloh and Punan men ornamented with Kayan tatu designs

we have often encountered; but they have no designs of their own,

and attach no special significance to their borrowed designs.[70]

We may note here that the ornamentation of the body by means of raised

scars and keloids is not known in Borneo. Both men and women of several

tribes will test their bravery and indifference to pain by setting

fire to a row of small pieces of tinder placed along the forearm, and

the scars caused by these burns are often permanent, but should not be

mistaken for decorative designs. Carl Bock (2, Pl. 16)[71] figures some

Punan women with rows of keloids on the forearms, but states (p. 71)

that these are due to a form of vaccination practised by these people.

The Kayans are, with one or two exceptions, the most tatued race in

Borneo, and perhaps the best tatued from an artistic point of view;

the designs used in the tatu of the men have been widely imitated,

and much ceremonial is connected with the tatu of the women, an account

of which we give below. Generally speaking, the true Klemantan designs

are quite simple, and it is noteworthy that although the Kenyah tribes

most nearly akin to Kayans have borrowed the Kayan tatu patterns, the

majority of Kenyah and Klemantan tribes employ quite simple designs,

whilst the primitive Kenyahs of the Batang Kayan river hardly tatu at

all. A remarkable exception to the general simplicity of the Klemantan

patterns is furnished by the Ukits, Bakatan, and Biadjau, who tatu very

extensively in the most complex designs; the Long Utan, an extinct

tribe, probably of Klemantan stock, also used highly decorative and

complex designs. Since so many tribes owe much of their knowledge

of tatu and the majority of their designs to the Kayans, it will be

well to commence with an account of the art of tatu as practised by

these people.

Kayan Tatu.

Dr. Nieuwenhuis [9, p. 450] agrees with us in stating that amongst

these people the men tatu chiefly for ornament, and that no special

significance is attached to the majority of designs employed; nor is

there any particular ceremonial or tabu connected with the process

of tatuing the male sex. There is no fixed time of life at which

a man can be tatued, but in most cases the practice is begun early

in boyhood. Nieuwenhuis [9, p. 456] remarks that the chiefs of the

Mendalam Kayans scarcely tatu at all.

Amongst the Sarawak Kayans, if a man has taken the head of an enemy

he can have the backs of his hands and fingers covered with tatu

(Pl. 141, Fig. 1), but, if he has only had a share in the slaughter,

one finger only, and that generally the thumb, can be tatued. On the

Mendalam river, the Kayan braves are tatued on the left thumb only,

not on the carpals and backs of the fingers, and the thigh pattern

is also reserved for head-taking heroes [9, p. 456]. Of the origin

of tatu the Kayans relate the following story: -- Long ago when the

plumage of birds was dull and sober, the coucal (CENTROPUS SINENSIS)

and the argus pheasant (ARGUSIANUS GRAYI) agreed to tatu each other;

the coucal began on the pheasant first, and succeeded admirably,

as the plumage of the pheasant bears witness at the present day; the

pheasant then tried his hand on the coucal, but being a stupid bird

he was soon in difficulties; fearing that he would fail miserably to

complete the task, he told the coucal to sit in a bowl of SAMAK tan,

and then poured the black dye over him, and flew off, remarking that

the country was full of enemies and he could not stop; that is why

the coucal to this day has a black head and neck with a tan-coloured

body. Nieuwenhuis [9, p. 456] relates substantially the same story,

the crow (CORONE MACRORHYNDYUS), however, being substituted for the

coucal and the incident of the bowl of SAMAK tan omitted.

Among Kayans isolated designs are found on the following parts of the

bodies of the men: -- The outside of the wrist, the flexor surface of

the forearm, high up on the outside of the thigh, on the breasts and

on the points of the shoulders, and, as already stated, in the case

of warriors on the backs of the hands and fingers. But not all the

men are tatued on all these parts of the body. The design tatued on

the wrist (Pl. 139, Figs. 8 -- 10) is termed LUKUT, the name of an

antique bead much valued by Kayans; the significance of this design

is of some interest. When a man is ill, it is supposed that his

soul has escaped from his body; and when he recovers it is supposed

that his soul has returned to him; to prevent its departure on some

future occasion the man will "tie it in" by fastening round his wrist

a piece of string on which is threaded a LUKUT[72] or antique bead,

some magic apparently being considered to reside in the bead. However,

the string can get broken and the bead lost, wherefore it seems safer

to tatu a representation of the bead on the part of the wrist which

it would cover if actually worn. It is of interest also to note that

the LUKUT, from having been a charm to prevent the second escape of

the soul, has come to be regarded as a charm to ward off all disease;

and the same applies to its tatued representation.

A design just below the biceps of a Punan tatued in the Kayan manner

is shown on Pl. 142, Fig. 10, and we were informed by the Punan that

this also was a LUKUT, an excellent example of the indifference paid

to the significance of design by people with whom such design is

not indigenous.

On the forearm and thigh the UDOH ASU or dog pattern is tatued,

and four typical examples are shown on Pl. 136, Figs. 1, 2, 5,

6. Nieuwenhuis has figured a series of these designs [9, Pl. 82][73]

showing a transition from a very elongate animal form to a rosette

form; we have occasionally met with the former amongst Sarawak Kayans,

but it is a common thigh design amongst the Mendalam Kayans; the

forms numbered B and C are unusual in Sarawak. Of the four examples

given in Pl. 136 -- and it may be noted that these met with the high

approval of expert tatu artists -- Figs. 1, 2, and 5 may be considered

as intermediate between Nieuwenhuis' very elongate example F and

the truncated form E which is supposed to represent the head only

of a dog. Fig. 2 is characteristic of the Uma Balubo Kayans, and is

remarkable in that teeth are shown in both jaws; whilst, both in this

example and in Fig. 5, the eye is represented as a disc, in Figs. 1

and 6 the eye is assuming a rosette-like appearance, which rosette,

as Nieuwenhuis' series shows, is destined in some cases to increase

in size until it swallows up the rest of the design. Fig. 6 may be

compared with Nieuwenhuis, Fig. E, as it evidently represents little

more than the head of a dog. Although a single figure of the dog is

the most usual form of tatu, we have met with an example of a double

figure; it is shown in Fig. 7; it will be observed that one of the

dogs is reversed and the tails of the two figures interlock. Fig. 8

represents a dog with pups, TUANG NGANAK; A is supposed to be the

young one.

The dog design figures very prominently in Kayan art, and the fact

that the dog is regarded by these people and also by the Kenyahs

with a certain degree of veneration may account for its general

representation. The design has been copied by a whole host of tribes,

with degradation and change of name (Fig. 62).

On the deltoid region of the shoulders and on the breast, a rosette or

a star design is found (text, Figs. 63 and 64). As already stated, it

seems in the highest degree probable that the rosette is derived from

the eye in the dog pattern, and it is consequently of some interest

to find that the name now given to the rosette pattern is that of the

fruit of a plant which was introduced into Borneo certainly within the

last fifty or sixty years. The plant is PLUKENETIA CORNICULATA, one of

the Euphorbiaceae, and it is cultivated as a vegetable; its Kayan name

is JALAUT. We have here a good example of the gradual degradation of

a design leading to a loss of its original significance and even of

its name, another name, which originated probably from some fancied

resemblance between pattern and object, being applied at a subsequent

date. IPA OLIM, I.E., open fruit of a species of MANGIFERA, is another

name occasionally applied to the rosette pattern, but JALAUT is in

more general use (cf. Pl. 140, Fig. 4, Pl. 141, Fig. 7, and Pl. 142,

Fig. 9).

On Pl. 141, Fig. 1, is shown a hand tatued in the Kayan manner; the

figures on the phalanges are known as TEGULUN,[74] representations

of human figures or as SILONG, faces, and they are evidently

anthropomorphic derivatives. The triangles on the carpal knuckles

are termed SONG IRANG, shoots of bamboo, and the zigzag lines are

IKOR, lines.

Kayan women are tatued in complicated serial[75] designs over the whole

forearm, the backs of the hands, over the whole of the thighs and

to below the knees, and on the metatarsal surfaces of the feet. The

tatuing of a Kayan girl is a serious operation, not only because of

the considerable amount of pain caused, but also on account of the

elaborate ceremonial attached to this form of body ornamentation. The

process is a long one, lasting sometimes as much as four years,

since only a small piece can be done at a sitting, and several long

intervals elapse between the various stages of the work. A girl when

about ten years old will probably have had her fingers and the upper

part of her feet tatued, and about a year later her forearms should

have been completed; the thighs are partially tatued during the

next year, and in the third or fourth year from the commencement,

I.E. about puberty, the whole operation should have been accomplished.

A woman endeavours to have her tatu finished before she becomes

pregnant, as it is considered immodest to be tatued after she has

become a mother. If a woman has a severe illness after any portion of

her body has been tatued, the work is not continued for some little

time; moreover, according to Nieuwenhuis (9, p. 453), a woman cannot

be tatued during seed time nor if a dead person is lying unburied in

the house, since it is LALI to let blood at such times; bad dreams,

such as a dream of floods, foretelling much blood-letting, will

also interrupt the work. A tatued woman may not eat the flesh of

the monitor lizard (VARANUS) or of the scaly manis (MANIS JAVANICA),

and her husband also is included in the tabu until the pair have a

male and a female child. If they have a daughter only they may not

eat the flesh of the monitor until their child has been tatued; if

they have a son only they cannot eat the monitor until they become

grandparents. Should a girl have brothers, but no sisters, some of

her tatu lines must not be joined together, but if she has brothers

and sisters, or sisters only, all the lines can be joined.

Tatu amongst Kayan women is universal; they believe that the designs

act as torches in the next world, and that without these to light

them they would remain for ever in total darkness; one woman told

Dr. Nieuwenhuis that after death she would be recognised by the

impregnation of her bones with the tatu pigment. The operation of

tatuing amongst Kayans is performed by women, never by men, and

it is always the women who are the experts on the significance and

quality of tatu designs, though the men actually carve the designs

on the tatu blocks. Nieuwenhuis states (9, p. 452) that the office of

tatuer is to a certain extent hereditary, and that the artists, like

smiths and carvers, are under the protection of a tutelary spirit,

who must be propitiated with sacrifices before each operation. As

long as the children of the artist are of tender age she is debarred

from the practice of her profession. The greater the number of

sacrifices offered, or in other words, the greater the experience of

the artist, the higher is the fee demanded. She is also debarred from

eating certain food. It is supposed that if an artist disregards the

prohibitions imposed upon her profession, the designs that she tatus

will not appear clearly, and she herself may sicken and die.

The tools used by a tatu artist are simple,[76] consisting of two

or three prickers, ULANG or ULANG BRANG, and an iron striker, TUKUN

or PEPAK, which are kept in a wooden case, BUNGAN. The pricker is a

wooden rod with a short pointed head projecting at right angles at one

end; to the point of the head is attached a lump of resin in which

are embedded three or four short steel needles, their points alone

projecting from the resinous mass (Fig. 68). The striker is merely a

short iron rod, half of which is covered with a string lashing. The

pigment is a mixture of soot, water, and sugar-cane juice, and it is

kept in a double shallow cup of wood, UIT ULANG; it is supposed that

the best soot is obtained from the bottom of a metal cooking-pot,

but that derived from burning resin or dammar is also used. The tatu

designs are carved in high relief on blocks of wood, KELINGE[77]

(Fig. 62), which are smeared with the ink and then pressed on the

part to be tatued, leaving an impression of the designs. As will be

seen later, the designs tatued on women are in longitudinal rows or

transverse bands, and the divisions between the rows or bands are

marked by one or more zigzag lines termed IKOR.

The subject who is to be tatued lies on the floor, the artist and

an assistant squatting on either side of her; the artist first dips

a piece of fibre from the sugar-palm (ARENGA SACCHARIFERA) into the

pigment and, pressing this on to the limb to be tatued, plots out the

arrangement of the rows or bands of the design; along these straight

lines the artist tatus the IKOR, then taking a tatu block carved with

the required design, she smears it with pigment and presses it on to

the limb between two lines. The tatuer or her assistant stretches with

her feet the skin of the part to be tatued, and, dipping a pricker

into the pigment, taps its handle with the striker, driving the

needle points into the skin at each tap. The operation is painful,

and the subject can rarely restrain her cries of anguish; but the

artist is quite unmoved by such demonstrations of woe, and proceeds

methodically with her task. As no antiseptic precautions are taken, a

newly tatued part often ulcerates, much to the detriment of the tatu;

but taking all things into consideration, it is wonderful how seldom

one meets with a tatu pattern spoilt by scar tissues.

It is against custom to draw the blood of a friend (PESU DAHA), and

therefore, when first blood is drawn in tatuing, it is customary to

give a small present to the artist. The present takes the form of

four antique beads, or of some other object worth about one dollar;

it is termed LASAT MATA, for it is supposed that if it were omitted

the artist would go blind, and some misfortune would happen to the

parents and relations of the girl undergoing the operation of tatu.

When the half of one IKOR has been completed the tattier stops and

asks for SELIVIT; this is a present of a few beads, well-to-do people

paying eight yellow beads of the variety known as LAVANG, valued at

one dollar apiece, whilst poor people give two beads. It is supposed

that if SELIVIT was not paid the artist would be worried by the dogs

and fowls that always roam about a Kayan house, so that the work

would not be satisfactorily done; however, to make assurance doubly

sure, a curtain is hung round the operator and her subject to keep

off unwelcome intruders. After SELIVIT has been paid a cigarette is

smoked, and then work recommences in earnest, there being no further

interruptions for the rest of the day except for the purpose of taking

food. The food of the artist must be cooked and brought to her,

as she must not stop to do other work than tatuing, and her tools

are only laid aside for a few minutes while she consumes a hurried

meal. Fowls or a pig are killed for the artist by the parents of

the girl who is being tatued. The fees paid to the artist are more

or less fixed; for the forearms a gong, worth from eight to twenty

dollars, according to the workmanship required; for the thighs a large

TAWAK, worth as much as sixty dollars if the very best workmanship is

demanded, from six to twenty dollars if only inferior workmanship is

required.[78] For tatuing the fingers the operator receives a MALAT

or short sword. Nieuwenhuis (8, p. 236) states that it is supposed

that the artist will die within a year if her charges are excessive;

but we have not met with this belief amongst the Kayans of the Rejang

and Baram rivers.

The knee-cap is the last part to be tatued, and before this is touched

the artist must be paid; as this part of the design is the keystone,

as it were, of the whole, the required fee is always forthcoming. A

narrow strip down the back of the thigh is always left untatued;

it is supposed that mortification of the legs would ensue if this

strip was not left open.

The time at which to begin tatuing a girl is about the ninth day after

new moon, this lunar phase being known as BUTIT HALAP, the belly of the

HALAP fish (BARBUS BRAMOIDES); as the skin of the girl being tatued

quickly becomes very tender, it is often necessary to stop work for

a few days, but it is a matter of indifference at what lunar phase

work recommences, so long as it was originally begun at BUTIT HALAP.

A Kayan chief of the Mendalam river informed Dr. Nieuwenhuis [9,

p. 4551 that in his youth only the wives and daughters of chiefs were

permitted the thigh tatu, women of lower rank had to be content with

tatu of the lower part of the shin and of the ankles and feet. The

designs were in the form of quadrangular blotches divided by narrow

untatued lines, and were known as TEDAK DANAU, lake tatu. The

quadrangles were twelve in number, divided from each other by four

longitudinal and two transverse untatued lines, 6 millimetres broad,

two of the longitudinal lines running down each side of the front of

the leg, and two down each side of the calf, approximately equidistant;

the forearm was tatued in the same style. This manner of tatu is

obsolete now, but Dr. Nieuwenhuis was fortunate in finding one very

old woman so tatued.

Nowadays the class restrictions as regards tatu are not so closely

observed, but it is always possible to distinguish between the

designs of a chiefs daughter, an ordinary free-woman, and a slave,

by the number of lines composing the figures of the designs, -- the

fewer these lines, the lower being the rank of the woman. Moreover,

the designs of the lower-class women are not nearly so complex as

those of the higher class, and they are generally tatued free-hand.

A very typical design for the forearm of a woman of high rank is shown

on Pl. 140, Fig. 3; it is taken from a Kayan of the Uma Pliau sub-tribe

dwelling on the Baram river, and may be compared with the somewhat

similar designs of the Mendalam river Kayans figured by Nieuwenhuis

[9, Pl. 85], one of which is a design for a chiefs daughter, the

other for a slave. The zigzag lines bounding the pattern on both

surfaces of the forearm are the IKOR, and these, as already stated,

are marked out with a piece of fibre dipped in the tatu ink before the

rest of the pattern is impressed by a wood-block or KLINGE. Taking

the flexor surface of the forearm first, the units of the designs

are: three bands of concentric circles (AAA) termed BELILING BULAN

or full moons; a triangle (B) each, limb formed by several parallel

lines, DULANG HAROK, the bows of a boat; spirals (CC) ULU TINGGANG,

the head of the hornbill. On the supinator surface BELILING BULAN

and ULU TINGGANG occur again, but instead of DULANG HAROK, there are

two other elements, a bold transverse zigzag known as DAUN WI (D),

rattan leaves, and at the proximal end of the pattern an interlacing

design, TUSHUN TUVA (E), bundles of tuba root (DERRIS ELLIPTICA). The

fingers are very simply tatued with a zigzag on the carpal knuckles

and transverse lines across the joints; the thumb is decorated in

a slightly different way. In Dr. Nieuwenhuis' designs cited above,

we find much the same elements; in one of them the BELILING BULAN are

more numerous and more closely set together, so that the concentric

circles of one set have run into those of the next adjoining; the

TUSHUN TUVA pattern is termed POESOENG, evidently the same as TUSHUN;

the spirals are much degraded in one example and are called KROWIT,

or hooks, whilst in the more elaborate example they are known as MANOK

WAK, or eyes of the SCOPS owl; the PEDJAKO PATTERN is an addition,

but the meaning of the word is not known; the pattern on the fingers

is much more complex than in the Uma Pliau example, and is perhaps

a degraded hornbill design.

Nieuwenhuis [8, Pl. XXIV.] figures the hand of a low-class woman

tatued with triangular and quadrangular blotches, and with some rude

designs that appear to have been worked in free-hand.

On Pl. 140, Fig. 1, is shown the design on the forearm of a high-class

woman of the Uma Lekan Kayans of the Batang Kayan river, Dutch Borneo;

in our opinion these elegant designs are quite in the front rank of

the tatu designs of the world. In spite of the elaboration, it is quite

possible to distinguish in these the same elements as in the Uma Pliau

specimen, viz.: BELILING BULAN ULU TINGGANG DAUN WI and TUSHUN TUVA;

but the DULANG HAROK is absent, and the SILONG or face pattern appears.

Nieuwenhuis [9, Pl. 93, b] figures the arm-tatu (supinator surface

only) of a Kayan woman of the Blu-u river, a tributary of the Upper

Mahakkam; the main design is evidently a hornbill derivative, the

knuckles are tatued with quadrangular and rectangular blotches. The

hornbill plays an important part in the decorative art of the Long

Glat, a Klemantan tribe of the Mahakkam river, and we suspect that,

if these Blu-u Kayans are of true Kayan stock, they have borrowed

the hornbill design from their neighbours.

With regard to the thigh patterns, it is usual to find the back of

the thigh occupied with two strips of an intersecting line design,

or some modification thereof; the simplest form is shown on Pl. 138,

Fig. 1; it is known as IDA TELO, the three-line pattern, and is used

by slaves; a more elaborate example from the Rejang river is shown in

Fig. 3, and is used both by slaves and free-women. Pl. 138, Fig. 2,

and Pl. 139, Fig. 6, are termed IDA PAT, the four-line pattern, and

are for free-women, not for slaves. The latter figure is a combination

of IDA PAT and IDA TELO. The wives and daughters of chiefs would

employ similar designs with the addition of another line, when they

are termed IDA LIMA, the five-line pattern, or else a design, known

as IDA TUANG, the underside pattern, two examples of which are given

on Pl. 139, Figs. 1 and 2. If these two latter designs are compared

with the hornbill design of the Long Glat, a figure of which, taken

from Nieuwenhuis [9, Pl. 86] is given (Pl. 139, Fig. 3) a certain

similarity in the MOTIF of the designs can be recognised. It must

be remembered that the Long Glat design is tatued in rows down the

front and sides of the thigh, whilst these Kayan designs have been

modified to form more or less of a sinuous line design for the back

of the thigh; or, in other words, the hornbill elements in the Long

Glat design, though they are serially repeated, are quite separate

and distinct one from the other, whilst in the Kayan designs the

hornbill elements are fused and modified to produce the sinuous

line pattern that in one form or another is generally employed for

the decoration of the back of the thigh. In this connection Pl. 139,

Fig. 5, is instructive; it is taken from a tatu block which, together

with those from which Figs. 1 and 2 are taken, was collected many

years ago by Mr. Brooke Low, amongst the Kayans of the Upper Rejang;

it also appears to be a doc, derivative, and no doubt was used for the

tatu of the front of a woman's thigh,[79] being serially repeated in

three or four rows as with the Long Glat. Yet it was unknown as a tatu

design to some Kayans of the Baram river to whom it was shown recently;

they informed us that the name of the design was TUANG BUVONG ASU,

pattern of dog without tail, and they stated that a somewhat similar

design was engraved by them on sword blades. Pl. 139, Fig. 4, is

taken from a tatu-block of uncertain origin, and the same name was

also applied to this by the Baram Kayans, though with some hesitation

and uncertainty; the hornbill MOTIF is here quite obvious.

We have stated that an interlacing line design is generally employed

for the back of the thigh; we figure, however, a remarkable exception

from the Baloi river (Pl. 140, Fig. 5); this is known as KALONG KOWIT,

hook pattern; A is a representation of an antique bead, BALALAT

LUKUT, B is known as KOWIT, hooks. Between the two strips of line

design at the back of the thigh runs a narrow line of untatued skin,

the supposed object of which has been described above. The front and

sides of the thigh in highclass women will be covered with three or

more strips of pattern such as are shown on Pl. 138, Figs. 4 and 5;

in the latter TUSHUN TUVA, DULANG HAROK, ULU TINGGANG and BELILING

BULAN can again be recognised; the ULU TINGGANG in this example are

less conventionalised than in the spirals of the forearm pattern,

and a spiral form of TUSHUN TUVA IS shown in addition to the angular

form. The other example exhibits IDA LIMA, TUSHUN TUVA JALAUT, KOWIT

(the interlocking spirals) and ULU TINGGANG. All these strips of

pattern are separated by the IKOR. The knee-cap is the last part

of the leg to be tatued, and the design covering it is called the

KALONG NANG, the important pattern, good examples of which are shown

in Figs. 70, 71; Fig. 72 represents the design on the front and sides

of the thigh of an Uma Semuka Kayan of the slave class, which also

is termed TUSHUN TUVA.

The admirable Uma Lekan patterns (Pl. 140, Fig. 2) represent on the

back of the thigh (AA) BELILING BULAN, on the front and sides (BB)

SILONG, faces or SILONG LEJAU, tigers' faces; the latter is evidently

an anthropomorph; the knee-cap design is particularly worthy of

notice.[80] Nieuwenhuis [9, Pl. 83, and 8, Pl. XXVII.] figures the

thigh tatu of a Mendalam woman of the PANJIN or free-woman class; the

back of the thigh is occupied by two strips of the four line pattern,

here termed KETONG PAT, and a somewhat crude anthropomorphic design,

known as KOHONG KELUNAN, human head, covers the front and sides of

the thigh (text Fig. 69); the centre of the knee-cap is occupied

by a very similar anthropomorph, known however as NANG KLINGE, the

important design, and extending in a semicircle round the upper part

of it is a design made up of intersecting zigzags and known as KALANG

NGIPA, the snake design; below the knee-cap is a transverse band of

hour-glass shaped figures termed PEDJAKO. Nieuwenhuis also figures

[9, Pl. 841 the thigh pattern of a chiefs daughter from the same

river; this only differs from the preceding example in the greater

elaboration of the KOHONG KELUNAN; the back of the thigh is covered

by a form of the IDA PAT pattern not by the IDA LIMA pattern. Some

of the tatu-blocks employed by the Mendalam Kayan women are figured

in the same works [9, Pl. 82, and 8, Pl. XXVIII.].

A comparison of the figures here given lends strong support to

the supposition that the tuba-root pattern is merely a degraded

anthropomorph. Fig. 69 is a recognisable anthropomorph such as is

tatued in rows on the thigh, and some such name as TEGULUN, SILONG,

or KOHONG is applied to it. Fig. 70 is a knee-cap design, evidently

anthropomorphic in nature, but termed NANG KLINGE, the important

design, since it is the last part of all to be tatued. Fig.71 is

termed TUSHUN TUVA, but a distinct face is visible in the centre

of the pattern; the general similarity between this last design and

the examples of TUSHUN TUVA shown in the designs on Pl. 138, Figs. 4

and 5, is quite obvious; the lower of the two TUSHUN TUVA designs in

Fig. 5, Pl. 138, is Cornposed of angular lines, thus reverting to the

angularity of the lines in text, Fig. 69; at E, Fig. 3, Pl. 140, the

lines are partly angular, partly curved, and the bilateral symmetry

is entirely lost; finally, in Fig. 72, the relationship of the TUSHUN

TUVA design to an anthropomorph is entirely lost.

A typical form of tatu on the foot of a low-class woman is shown on

Pl. 138, Fig. 6; a chiefs daughter would have some modification of

the principal element of the thigh design tatued on this part.

Kenyah Tatu.

The culture of the Sarawak Kenyahs is closely allied to that of the

Kayans, and their tatu may be considered separately from that of the

Kenyah-Klemantan tribes whose tatu is much more original in design.

The men of such Kenyah tribes as the Lepu Jalan, Lepu Tau, Lepu Apong,

etc., if tatued at all, are tatued in the Kayan manner, that is, with

some form of dog design on the forearms and thighs, and with rosettes

or stars on the shoulders and breasts. The dog design is usually known

as USANG ORANG, the prawn pattern; the teeth of the dog are held to

represent the notched border of the prominent rostrum characteristic

of the prawns of the genus PALAEMAN, that occur so plentifully in

the fresh-water streams of Borneo. An extreme modification of the dog

design to form a prawn is shown in Pl. 137, Fig. 9; Pl. 136, Fig. 4,

is a dog design, and is so termed. Pl. 136, Fig. 10, is known as

TOYU, a crab; A is the mouth, BA; B the claw, KATIP; C the back,

LIKUT; D the tail, IKONG. Pl. 136, Fig. 9, is termed LIPAN KATIP,

jaws of the centipede. All these are tatued on the flexor surface

of the forearm or on the outside of the thigh.[81] An example of a

star design termed USONG DIAN, durian pattern, is shown in Pl. 141,

Fig. 7. The women of these tribes tatu in the same way, and employ

the same designs as the Kayans, except that they never tatu on the

thighs. Amongst the Baram Kenyahs there appears to be very little

ceremonial connected with the process of tatuing.

Kenyah-Klemantan[82] Tatu.

Amongst this rather heterogeneous assemblage of tribes considerable

diversity of tatu design is found. The men are seldom tatued, but

when they are it is in the Kayan manner. The Peng or Pnihing of the

Koti basin have an elaborate system of male tatu, but it seems to be

dying out; the only examples that we have met are shown on Pl. 141,

Figs. 2 and 3. These represent the arms of Peng men; unfortunately we

have no information as to the significance of the designs. The only

other Peng design that we are acquainted with is a large disc tatued

on the calf of the leg. Dr. Nieuwenhuis states that Peng women are

tatued with isolated dog designs on the arms and legs like the men

of Kayan tribes [9, p. 461].

The Kenyah women of the Baram district exhibit a very primitive

style of tatu on the arms and hands (Pl. 141, Fig. 4); a broad band

encircles the middle of the forearm, and a narrow band an inch or so

distant of this also surrounds the arm; from this narrow band there run

over the metacarpals to the base of the fingers eight narrow lines,

the outermost on the radial side bifurcating; the design is known as

BETIK ALLE or line tatu. No other part of the body is tatued.

Nieuwenhuis figures [9, Pl. 95] a somewhat similar design employed

by the Lepu Tau women of the Batang Kayan; but in this case, instead

of eight longitudinal lines stopping short at the knuckles, there

are five broad bands running to the finger nails, interrupted at the

knuckles by a 2 cm.-broad strip of untatued skin. Moreover, with these

people the front and sides of the thigh and the shin are tatued with

primitive-looking designs made up of series of short transverse lines,

curved lines, and broad bands; the names of the designs are not given;

these designs are said to be characteristic of the slave-class, the

higher-class women copying the more elaborate designs of the Uma Lekan.

Amongst the Batang Kayan Kenyahs tatuing cannot be executed in the

communal house, but only in a hut built for the purpose. The males of

the family, to which the girl undergoing the operation belongs, must

dress in bark-cloth, and are confined to the house until the tatu is

completed; should any of the male members be travelling in other parts

of the island tatu cannot be commenced until they return. Amongst the

Uma Tow (or Lepu Tau) the daughter of a chief must be tatued before

any of the other females of the house; should the chiefs daughter

(or daughters) die before she has been tatued, all the other women

of the house are debarred from this embellishment (Nieuwenhuis [9,

pp. 453, 454]).

Nieuwenhuis, in his great work on Borneo, which we have cited so

often, gives a good account of the tatu of the Long Glat. According

to this authority, girls when only eight years old have the backs of

the fingers tatued, at the commencement of menstruation the tatu of

the fingers is completed, and in the course of the following year

the tatu is carried over the backs of the hand to the wrist; the

feet are tatued synchronously with the hands. At the age of eighteen

to twenty the front of the thigh is tatued, and later on in life the

back of the thigh; unlike the Kayans it is not necessary that the tatu

of the thighs should be finished before child-bearing. A Long Glat

woman on each day that she is tatued must kill a black fowl as food

for the artist. They believe that after death the completely tatued

women will be allowed to bathe in the mythical river Telang Julan,

and that consequently they will be able to pick up the pearls that

are found in its bed; incompletely tatued women can only stand on

the river bank, whilst the untatued will not be allowed to approach

its shores at all. This belief appears to be universal amongst the

Kenyah-Klemantan of the Upper Mahakam and Batang Kayan. On Pl. 86 of

Nieuwenhuis' book [9] is figured the thigh tatu of a Long Glat woman;

the front of the thigh is occupied with two rows of the hornbill MOTIF

to which reference has already been made. The sides of the thigh are

tatued with a beautiful design of circles and scrolls termed KERIP

KWE, flight feathers of the Argus pheasant, and on the back of the

thigh is a scroll design borrowed from the decoration of a grave

and known as KALANG SONG SEPIT.[83] The knee is left untatued. Some

other examples of the KERIP KWE design are given on Pl. 90, and of

the SONG SEPIT on Pl. 91; some of the SONG SEPIT designs recall the

KALANG KOWIT designs of the Baloi Kayans. Instead of a hornbill MOTIF,

a dog's head MOTIF is sometimes tatued on the thigh, an example of

which is figured on Pl. 87, Fig. A; it appears to be a composition

of four heads, and in appearance is not unlike SILONG LEJAU of the

Uma Lekan, figured by us. In the Long Glat thigh-tatu the bands of

pattern are not separated by lines of IKOR, as with the Kayans. Round

the ankles the Long Glat tatu sixteen lines, 3 mm. broad, known as

TEDAK AKING; the foot is tatued much after the manner shown in our

Fig. 6, Pl. 143. The supinator surface of the forearm and the backs

of the hands are also tatued, but the design does not extend so far up

the arm as with the Kayans [9, Pl. 92]; the forearm design is made up

of a hornbill MOTIF, but that shown in Fig. A of the plate is termed

BETIK KULE, leopard pattern, and is supposed to be a representation

of the spots on the leopard's skin; it is stated to be taken from a

Long Tepai tatu-block; the knuckles are tatued with a double row of

wedges, the finger joints with quadrangles.

The Uma Luhat seem to have borrowed their tatu and designs very largely

if not entirely from the Long Glat; with them the back of the thigh

is tatued before the front, which is exceptional. Half of the knee

is tatued. Their designs are modifications of the hornbill and dog's

head designs of the Long Glat. Nieuwenhuis figures several examples

[9, Pl. 87, Fig. B, Plate 88, Pl. 89, Pl. 93, Fig. A, Pl. 94], which

should be consulted, as they are of the greatest interest.

The Long Wai seem to tatu in much the same way as the Uma Luhat [2,

Pl., p. 189 and 7, p. 91].

Tatu of Muruts and Klemantans.

A number of tribes have adopted more or less the tatu of the

Kayans. Thus the men of the following Sarawak tribes, Sibops, Lirongs,

Tanjongs, Long Kiputs, Barawans, and Kanowits, are often, though not

universally, tatued like Kayans. The shoulder pattern of the Barawans

is distinctive, in that the rosette nearly always bears a scroll

attached to it, a relic of the dog MOTIF, from which the design is

derived (Pl. 138, Fig. 6). E. B. Haddon [4, Fig. 17] figures another

form of the dog MOTIF, which is tatued on the thigh or forearm, and

Ling Roth [7, p. 86] figures three rosette designs for the breast;

we figure two modifications of the dog design on Pl. 137, Figs. 7 and

8. The women of these tribes very rarely tatu; we have seen a Tanjong

woman with a circle of star-shaped figures round her wrist and one

on the thumb. The Tring women of Dutch Borneo are tatued on the hands

and thighs like Kayans; Carl Bock [2, Pl., p. 187] gives some figures

of them. In our opinion all of these tribes owe their tatu entirely

to foreign influences; for we have failed to find a single example

of an original design; the practice is by no means universal, and

great catholicity of taste is shown by those who do tatu. The men,

moreover, do not tatu as a sign of bravery in battle or adventure,

but merely from a desire to copy the more warlike Kayan.

We shall now treat of those tribes that have a distinctive and original

tatu, but it is well to bear in mind, that amongst many of these people

also the Kayan designs are coming into vogue more and more, ousting the

old designs. No tatu-blocks are employed for the indigenous patterns,

all the work being done free-hand.

(A) UMA LONG. -- The Uma Long women of the Batang Kayan exhibit

the most primitive form of tatu known in Borneo. It differs from

every other form in that the tatued surface of the skin is not

covered uniformly with the ink, but the design, such as it is, is

merely stippled into the skin, producing an appearance of close-set

irregular dots. Two aspects of the forearm of an Uma Long woman are

shown on Pl. 142, Fig. 5. No other part of the body is tatued, and

the practice is confined to the female sex.

(B) DUSUN. -- The men only tatu. The design is simple, consisting

of a band, two inches broad, curving from each shoulder and meeting

its fellow on the abdomen, thence each band diverges to the hip and

there ends; from the shoulder each band runs down the upper arm on

its exterior aspect; the flexor surface of the forearm is decorated

with short transverse stripes, and, according to one authority, each

stripe marks an enemy slain [7, p. 90]. This form of tatu is found

chiefly amongst the Idaan group of Dusuns; according to Whitehead

[11, p. 106] the Dusuns living on the slopes of Mount Kina Balu tatu

no more than the parallel transverse stripes on the forearm, but in

this case no reference is made to the significance of the stripes as

a head-tally. The Dusun women apparently do not tatu.

(C) MURUT. -- The Muruts of the Trusan river, North Sarawak, tatu

very little; the men occasionally have a small scroll design just

above the knee-cap and a simple circle on the breast; the women have

fine lines tatued from the knuckles to the elbows [7, p. 93]. The

Muruts of British North Borneo appear to be more generally tatued;

the men are tatued like Dusuns, though, according to Hatton, they

have three parallel stripes running from the shoulders to the wrists

and no transverse lines on the forearm.[84] Whitehead [11, p. 76]

figures a Murut woman of the Lawas river tatued on the arms from the

biceps to the knuckles with numerous fine longitudinal lines; a band

of zigzag design encircles the arm just above the commencement of the

longitudinal lines. The design on a man of the same tribe is given

on page 73 [11], it resembles "a three-legged dog with a crocodile's

head, one leg being turned over the back as if the animal was going to

scratch its ear." The part of the body on which the design was tatued,

is not specified and the sketch is rather inadequate, so that it is

impossible to tell for certain whether the design was tatued in outline

only or whether the outline was filled in uniformly; our impression is

that the outline only was tatued on this individual, and that it was

employed either as an experiment or from idle amusement. Zoomorphs

are conspicuous by their absence from all forms of decorative art

amongst the Lawas Muruts, and the particular zoomorph noted here

gives every evidence of an unpractised hand.

St. John states [7, p. 92] that the Muruts of the Adang river,

a tributary of the Limbang, are tatued about the arms and legs,

but he gives no details.

(D) KALABIT. -- This tribe, dwelling in the watershed of the Limbang

and Baram rivers, is closely akin to Muruts, but its tatu is very

different. The men tatu but rarely, and then with stripes down the

arms. The women, however, are decorated with most striking geometrical

designs, shown on Pl. 142, Figs. 1 -- 4. On the forearm are tatued

eight bold zigzag bands, one-eighth of an inch broad, which do not

completely encircle the arm, but stop short of joining at points

on the ulnar side of the middle line on the flexor surface. The

series of lines is known as BETIK TISU, the hand pattern. In some

cases two short transverse lines, called TIPALANG, cross-lines,

spring from the most distal zigzag at the point where it touches the

back of the wrist on the radial side; in other cases these lines are

tatued across the middle of the back of the wrist and two lozenges

are tatued on the metacarpals; these are known as TEPARAT (Pl. 142,

Fig. 1). The legs are tatued on the back of the thigh, on the shin,

and sometimes on the knee-cap. The designs can best be explained by

a reference to Pl. 142, Figs. 2 -- 4; the part of the design marked

A is termed BETIK BUAH, fruit pattern; B, betik lawa, trunk pattern;

and C, BETIK LULUD, shin pattern. In Fig. 4, A and C are as before;

D is BETIK KARAWIN; E, UJAT BATU, hill-tops; F, BETIK KALANG (Fig. 3).

Kalabit women are tatued when they are sixteen years old, whether

they are married or unmarried, and the operation does not extend

over a number of years as with the Long Glat and Kayans, nor is any

elaborate ceremonial connected with the process.

(E) LONG UTAN. -- An extinct Klemantan tribe, once dwelling on the

Tinjar river, an affluent of the Baram. We owe our knowledge of their

tatu to an aged Klemantan, who was well acquainted with the tribe

before their disappearance; at our behest he carved on some wooden

models of arms and legs the tatu designs of these people, but he

was unable to supply any information of the names or significance

of the designs. The men of the tribe apparently were not tatued,

and the designs reproduced on Pl. 141, Figs. 5, 6, are those of the

women. The essential features of the designs are spirals and portions

of intersecting circles; the intersecting circles are frequently to

be met with in the decorative art of Kenyahs, E.G. on the back of

sword-handles, round the top of posts, on carved bamboos, etc., and

in these cases the design is supposed to be a representation of the

open fruit of a species of mango, MANGIFERA SP. It is not improbable

that the design had the same significance amongst the Long Utan,

for we have met with one or two representations of the same fruit

amongst other Klemantan tribes.

(F) BIAJAU. -- The Dutch author C. den Hamer [5, p. 451] includes under

this heading the tribes living in the districts watered by the rivers

Murung, Kahayan, Katingan, and Mentaja of South-west Borneo. Under this

very elastic heading he would include the Ot-Danum, Siang, and Ulu

Ajar of Nieuwenhuis, but we treat of these in the next section. The

ethnology of the Barito, Kahayan, and Katingan river-basins sadly

needs further investigation; nothing of importance has been published

on this region since the appearance of Schwaner's book on Borneo more

than fifty years ago. We know really very little of the distribution or

constitution of the tribes dwelling in these districts, and Schwaner's

account of their tatu is very meagre. Such as it is, it is given here,

extracted from Ling Roth's TRANSLATION OF SCHWANER'S ETHNOGRAPHICAL

NOTES [7, pp. cxci. cxciv.]: The men of Pulu Petak, the right-hand

lower branch of the Barito or Banjermasin river, tatu the upper part

of the body, the arms and calves of legs, with elegant interlacing

designs and scrolls. The people of the Murung river are said to be most

beautifully tatued, both men and women; this river is really the upper

part of the Barito, and according to Hamer is inhabited by the Biajau

(VIDE POSTEA), who appear to be distinct from the Ngaju of Schwaner,

inhabiting the lower courses of the Barito and Kapuas rivers. The men

of the lower left-hand branch of the Barito and of the midcourse of

that river are often not tatued at all, but such tatu as was extant

in 1850 was highly significant according to Schwaner's account; thus,

a figure composed of two spiral lines interlacing each other and with

stars at the extremities tatued on the shoulder signified that the

man had taken several heads; two lines meeting each other at an acute

angle behind the finger nails signified dexterity in wood-carving;

a star on the temple was a sign of happiness in love. We have no

reason to consider this information inaccurate, but we do consider it

lamentable that more details concerning the most interesting forms

of tatu in Borneo were not obtained, for it is only too probable

that such information cannot be acquired now. The women of this

tribe do not tatu. In the upper Teweh river, an upper tributary of

the Barito the men are tatued a good deal, especially on parts of

the face, such as the forehead, the cheeks, the upper lip. The only

figures that Schwaner gives are reproduced by Ling Roth [7, p. 931,

they represent two Ngajus; the tatu designs are drawn on too small a

scale to be of much interest, and in any case we have no information

concerning them. The two figures of 'Tatued Dyaks' (? Kayans) (after

Professor Veth), on p. 95 of the above-cited work cannot be referred

to any tribe known to us.

Hamer in his paper [5] gives a detailed account of Biajau tatu, but,

unfortunately, without any illustrations; as abstracts of the paper

have already been given by Ling Roth [7, pp. 93, 94] and by Hein [6,

pp. 143 -- 147], we will pass on to the next section.

(G) OT-DANUM, ULU AJAR, AND SIANG (Kapuas river, tributaries). --

Concerning these tribes Nieuwenhuis says but little [9, p. 452],

merely noting that the men are first tatued with discs on the

calf and in the hollow of the knee and later over the arms, torso,

and throat, whilst the women tatu the hands, knees, and shins. Two

colours, red and blue, are used, and the designs are tatued free-hand,

the instrument employed being a piece of copper or brass about four

inches long and half an inch broad, with one end bent down at a right

angle and sharpened to a point. Sometimes thread is wound round the

end of the instrument just above the point, to regulate the depth

of its penetration. Two specimens in the Leyden Museum are figured

by Ling Roth [7, p. 85]. Hamer [5] says that the Ot-Danum women are

tatued down the shin to the tarsus with two parallel lines, joined

by numerous cross-lines, a modification of the Uma Tow design for the

same part of the limb. On the thigh is tatued a design termed SOEWROE,

said to resemble a neck ornament. A disc tatued on the calf of the

leg is termed BOENTOER, and from it to the heel runs a barbed line

called IKOEH BAJAN, tail of the monitor lizard; curiously enough,

though this is the general name of the design, it is on the right leg

also termed BARAREK, on the left DANDOE TJATJAH. Warriors are tatued

on the elbowjoint with a DANDOE TJATJAH and a cross called SARAPANG

MATA ANDAU.

A Maloh who had lived for many years amongst these people gave us

the following information about their tatu: -- There is with these

people a great difference between the tatu of the high-class and

that of the low-class individuals: amongst the former the designs are

both extensive and complicated, too complicated for our informant to

describe with any degree of accuracy, but they seem to be much the

same as those described by Hamer. The low-class people have to be

content with simpler designs; the men are tatued on the breast and

stomach with two curved lines ending in curls, and on the outside

of each arm with two lines also ending in curls (Pl. 142, Fig. 6);

on the outside of the thigh a rather remarkable design, shown on

Pl. 142, Fig. 7, is tatued; it is termed LINSAT, the flying squirrel,

PTEROMYS NITIDUS, and on the back of the calf is tatued a disc termed

KALANG BABOI, the wild pig pattern. The women are tatued as described

by Hamer down the front of the shin with two parallel lines connected

by transverse cross-bars; according to our informant the design was

supposed to represent a flat fish, such as a sole. (Pl. 142, Fig. 8.)

Of these people, as of so many others, the melancholy tale of

disappearance of tatu amongst the present generation and replacement

of indigenous by Kayan designs was told, and it seems only too likely

that within the next decade or two none will be left to illustrate

a once flourishing and beautiful art.

Schwaner can add nothing to the facts that we have collected, except

the statement that "the BILIANS (priestesses) have brought the art

of tatuing to the present degree of perfection through learning the

description of the pretty tatued bodies of the [mythical] Sangsangs."

(H) KAHAYAN. -- Our figure (Pl. 141, Fig. 3), and Pl. 81 of

Dr. Nieuwenhuis' book [9], is the extent of our knowledge of the tatu

of the inhabitants of the Kahayan river. The latter illustration

shows a man tatued with a characteristic check pattern over the

torso, stomach, and arms, but there is no reference to the plate

in the text. Our figure is copied from a drawing by Dr. H. Hiller,

of Philadelphia.

(I) BAKATAN AND UKIT. -- As Nieuwenhuis has pointed out [9, p. 451],

the tatu of these tribes is distinctive, inasmuch as most of the

designs are left in the natural colour of the skin against a background

of tatu; that is to say in the phraseology of the photographer,

whilst the tatu designs of Kayans, Kenyahs, etc., are POSITIVES,

those of the Bakatans are NEGATIVES. The men were formerly most

extensively tatued, and we figure the principal designs (Pl. 143),

most of which were drawn from a Bakatan of the Rejang river. The chest

is covered with a bold scroll design known as GEROWIT, hooks (Kayan,

KOWIT) (Figs. 1, 2); across the back and shoulder blades stretches a

double row of circles, KANAK, with small hooks interposed (Fig. 9);

on the side of the shoulder a pattern known as AKIH, the lizard,

PLYCHOZOON HOMALOCEPHALUM (Fam. Geckonidae), is tatued (Figs. 3, 4);

this lizard is used as a haruspex by the Bakatan. Circles are tatued

on the biceps, on the back of the thigh, and on the calf of the leg;

a modification of the scroll design of the chest occurs on the flexor

surface of the forearm. Another form of pattern for the calf of the

leg is shown in Fig. 73, it is termed SELONG BOWANG, the horse-mango,

MANGIFERA SP., the same fruit as that termed by Kayans IPA OLIM, and

of which a representation forms the chief element in the Long Utan

tatu. A series of short lines is tatued on the jaw, and is termed JA,

lines, or KILANG, sword-pattern, and a GEROWIT design occurs under the

jaw; the pattern on the throat is known also as GEROWIT (Fig. 10). On

the forehead is sometimes tatued a star or rosette pattern called

LUKUT, antique bead, and it appears that this is of the nature of

a recognition mark. In jungle warfare, where a stealthy descent

on an unprepared enemy constitutes the main principle of tactics,

it not unfrequently happens that one body of the attacking force

unwittingly stalks another, and the results might be disastrous if

there was not some means of distinguishing friend from foe when at

close quarters.[85] Kenyahs when on the warpath frequently tie a band

of plaited palm fibre round the wrist for the same object. The tatu of

the backs of the hands is avowedly copied from the Kayans, but has a

different name applied to it -- KUKUM. The metatarsus is tatued with

broad bars, IWA, very like the foot tatu of Kayan women of the slave

or of the middle class; lines known as JANGO encircle the ankle.

Tatuing is forbidden in the house; it can only be performed on the

warpath, and consequently men only are the tatu artists. The covering

of the body with designs is a gradual process, and it is only the

most seasoned and experienced warriors who exhibit on their persons

all the different designs that we have just detailed. The tatu of

the legs and feet is the last to be completed, and the lines round

the ankles are denied to all but the bravest veterans.

All that has been written above applies equally well to the Ukits,

or at least once did apply, for now the Ukits have to a great extent

adopted the tatu of the Kayan, and it is only occasionally that

an old man tatued in the original, Ukit manner is met. We give a

figure of a design on the back of the thigh of such a relic of better

days. (Pl. 143, Fig. 5).

The Bakatan and Ukit women tatu very little, only the forearm, on the

metacarpals, and on the back of the wrist; characteristic designs

for these parts are shown in Fig. 74, and Pl. 143, Figs. 7, 8. The

central part of the forearm design is an anthropomorphic derivative,

judging by the name TEGULUN; the lines are termed KILANG, and KANAK

and GEROWIT are also conspicuous; GEROWIT IS also the name of the

design for the metacarpals; the two stars joined by a line on the

wrist are termed LUKUT, and it is possible that their significance is

the same as that of the Kayan LUKUT tatued in the same place by men,

but we have no evidence that this is the case.

Nieuwenhuis figures [9, Pl. 80] a Bakatan tatued on the chest in the

typical manner.

The only other designs, apparently of Kalamantan origin, are those

figured by Ling Roth [7, p. 87]. Three of these are after drawings

by Rev. W. Crossland, and are labelled "tatu marks on arm of Kapuas

Kayan captive woman." The designs are certainly not of Kayan origin;

the woman had in all probability been brought captive to Sarawak, where

Mr. Crossland saw her, and it is unfortunate that exact information

concerning the tribe to which she belonged was not obtained. The

designs, if accurately copied, are so extremely unlike all that are

known to us that we are not able to hazard even a guess at their

provenance or meaning. The other design figured on the same page

is copied from Carl Bock; it occurred on the shoulder of a Punan,

and is said by Mr. Crossland to be commonly used by the Sea Dayaks

of the Undup. We met with a similar example of it (Pl. 138, Fig. 7)

on an Ukit tatued in the Kayan manner, but could get no information

concerning it, and suppose that it is not an Ukit design. Hein

[6, Fig. 90] figures the same design, and Nieuwenhuis [8, p. 240]

alludes to a similar. We may note here that the designs figured on

page 89 of Ling Roth's book [7] as tatu designs are in our opinion

very probably not tatu designs. They were collected by Dr. Wienecke in

Dutch Borneo, and appear to be nothing but drawings by a native artist

of such objects in daily use as hats, seat-mats, baby-slings, and so

on. We communicated with Dr. J. D. E. Schmeltz of the Leyden Museum,

where these "tatu" marks are deposited, and learnt from him that they

are indeed actual drawings on paper; there are ninety-two of them,

apparently all are different isolated designs, and they are evidently

the work of one artist.[86] There is not a tribe in Borneo which can

show such a variety of tatu design, and indeed we doubt if ninety-two

distinct isolated tatu designs could be found throughout all the length

and breadth of the island. Moreover, as can be seen by reference to the

cited work, the designs are of a most complicated nature, not figures

with the outlines merely filled in, as in all tatu designs known to

us, but with the details drawn in fine lines and cross-hatching, which

in tatu would be utterly lost unless executed on a very large scale.

Sea Dayak Tatu.

The Sea Dayaks at the present day are, as far as the men are concerned,

the most extensively tatued tribe in Borneo, with the exception

of the Bakatans, Ukits, Kahayans, and Biajau; nevertheless, from

a long-continued and close study of their tatu, we are forced to

the conclusion that the practice and the designs have been entirely

borrowed from other tribes, but chiefly from the Kayans. For some time

we believed that there were two characteristically Sea Dayak designs,

namely, that which is tatued on the throat (Figs. 75 and 76) and that

on the wrist (Pl. 143, Fig. 7), but when later we studied Bakatan tatu

we met with the former in the GEROWIT pattern on the throat of men, and

the latter in the LUKUT design on the wrist of the women. A Sea Dayak

youth will simply plaster himself, so to speak, with numerous isolated

designs; we have counted as many as five of the ASU design on one thigh

alone. The same design appears two or three times on the arms, and even

on the breast, though this part of the body as well as the shoulders

is more usually decorated with several stars and rosettes. The backs

of the hands are tatued, quite irrespective of bravery or experience

in warfare; in fact we have frequently had occasion to note that a man

with tatued hands is a wastrel or a conceited braggart, of no account

with Europeans or with his own people. This wild and irresponsible

system of tatu has been accompanied by an inevitable degradation of

the designs. There is a considerable body of evidence to show that the

Sea Dayaks have borrowed much in their arts and crafts from tribes who

have been longer established in Borneo; but it must be confessed that

in their decorative art they have often improved upon their models;

their bamboo carvings and their woven cloth are indeed "things of

beauty." But their tatu involves, not an intelligent elaboration

of the models, but a simplification and degradation, or at best an

elaboration without significance. Figs. 1 -- 6, Pl. 137, are examples

of the Sea Dayaks TUANG ASU or dog design. The figures show the dog

design run mad, and it is idle to attempt to interpret them, since

in every case the artists have given their individual fancies free

play. When the profession of the tatu-artist is hereditary, and when

the practice has for its object the embellishment of definite parts

of the body for definite reasons, we naturally find a constancy of

design; or, if there are varieties, there is a purpose in them, in

the sense that the variations can be traced to pre-existing forms,

and do not depart from the original so widely that their significance

is altogether lost. With the borrowing of exogenous designs arises such

an alteration in their forms that the original names and significance

are lost. But when the very practice of tatu has no special meaning,

when the tatu-artist may be any member of the tribe, and where no

original tatu design is to be found in the tribe, then the borrowed

practice and the borrowed designs, unbound by any sort of tradition,

run complete riot, and any sort of fanciful name is applied to the

degraded designs. Amongst the Kenyah tribes the modification and

degradation of the dog design has not proceeded so far as amongst

the Sea Dayaks, and this may be explained by their more restrained

practice of tatu and by the constant intercourse between them and

the Kayans, for they always have good models before them. Pl. 137,

Fig. 3, illustrates the extreme limit of degradation of the dog design

amongst Sea Dayaks; it is sometimes termed KALA, scorpion,[87] and

it is noteworthy that the representation of the chelae and anterior

end of the scorpion (A) was originally the posterior end of the dog,

and the hooked ends of the posterior processes of this scorpion design

(B), instead of facing one another as they did when they represented

the open jaws of the dog, now look the same way; the rosette-like eye

of the dog still persists, but of course it has no significance in the

scorpion. A curious modification of this eye is seen in another Sea

Dayak scorpion design figured by E. B. Haddon [4, Fig. 19]. Furness

[3, p. 142] figures a couple of scorpion designs, but neither are

quite as debased as that which we figure here. Furness also figures a

scroll design, not unlike a Bakatan design, tatued on the forearm, and

termed TAIA GASIENG, the thread of the spinning wheel; a similar one

figured by Ling Roth [7, p. 88] is termed TRONG, the egg plant. On the

breast and shoulders some forms of rosette or star design are tatued

in considerable profusion; they are known variously as BUNGA TRONG,

the egg plant flower, TANDAN BUAH, bunches of fruit, LUKUT, an antique

bead, and RINGGIT SALILANG. A four-pointed star, such as that shown in

Fig. 64, is termed BUAH ANDU, fruit of PLUKENETIA CORNICULATA; since

this fruit is quadrate in shape with pointed angles, it is evident that

the name has been applied to the pattern because of its resemblance to

the fruit. Furness figures examples of these designs and also Ling Roth

[7, p. 88]. We figure (Figs. 75, 76, 77) three designs for the throat

known sometimes as KATAK, frogs, sometimes as TALI GASIENG, thread of

the spinning wheel, and no doubt other meaningless names are applied

to them. Two of the figures (Figs. 75, 77) are evidently modifications

of the Bakatan GEROWIT design, but here they are represented with the

tatu pigment, whilst with the Bakatans the design is in the natural

colour of the skin against a background of pigment, I.E. the Dayak

design is the positive of the Bakatan negative. Furness figures two

examples of the throat design, one with a transverse row of stars

cutting across it; the same authority also figures a design for the

ribs known as TALI SABIT, waist chains, consisting of two stars joined

by a double zigzag line. The same design is sometimes tatued on the

wrist, when it is known as LUKUT, antique bead; it is also tatued on

the throat [7, p. 88], and attention has already been drawn to the

probable derivation of this design also from a Bakatan model.

It is only very seldom that Sea Dayak women tatu, and then only in

small circles on the breasts [7, p. 83] and on the calves of the legs.

As a conclusion to the foregoing account of Bornean tatu we add a table

which summarises in the briefest possible manner all our information;

its chief use perhaps will lie in showing in a graphic manner the

blanks in our knowledge that still remain.

We do not consider that tatu can ever be of much value in clearing up

racial problems, seeing how much evidence there is of interchange of

designs and rejection of indigenous designs in favour of something

newer; consequently we refrain from drawing up another scheme of

classification of tatu in Borneo; at best it would be little more

than a re-enumeration of the forms that we have already described in

more or less detail.

Table showing the Forms of Tatu Practised by the Tribes of Borneo

Character of Designs.

Part of Body Tatued.

Cermonial.

Object of Tatu.

Kayan

[male]

Isolated designs, representing the dog, a bead, rosettes and

stars. Serial designs on hands.

Inside of forearm, outside of thigh, breasts, wrist and points of

shoulders. Back of hand sometimes.

None

Sign of bravery in some forms, to ward off illness in others.

[female]

Serial designs of complex nature, geometrical, anthropo- and

zoomorphic.

The whole forearm, back of hand, the whole thigh, the metatarsal

surface of the foot.

Very elaborate

Chiefly for ornament, for use after death, for cure of illness.

Kenyah

[male]

As amongst Kayans, with some degradation of design and alternation

of name.

Same as with Kayans.

None

Sign of bravery in some cases. Chiefly for ornament.

[female]

As amongst Kayans.

The whole forearm, back of hand, metatarsal surface of foot.

None

Ornament.

Kenyah-Kalamantan.

Peng

[male]

Geometrical serial designs, discs, ? isolated designs.

Arm from shoulders to wrist; calf of leg.

?

? Ornament.

[female]

Designs employed by Kayan [male] [male]

Forearms and legs.

?

? Ornament.

Lepu Lutong

[female]

Simple geometrical design.

Forearm and back of hand.

?

?

Uma Tow

[male]

? ? same as Kayan designs.

?

?

?

[female]

Simple geometrical designs (low-class [female]

[female]), anthropomorphic designs, copied

from other tribes (high-class [female] [female]).

Forearm and back of hand, front and sides of the thigh and the shin.

Some.

?

Long Glat and Uma Luhat.

[male]

? not at all.

?

[female]

Complicated serial designs, chiefly of zoomorphic MOTIF.

As with Kayan [female] [female], but also with lines

round the ankles. Tatu of forearms

not so extensive.

Chiefly ornament, for use in the next world.

Kalamantan.

Uma Long

[female]

Simple geometrical design ("stippled")

Forearm and back of hand.

?

?

Dusun

[male]

Lines

Stomach, breast, arm.

None

Partly as tally of enemies slain.

Murut

[male]

Scroll designs and circles

Above the knee-cap; on the breast (Practice obsolescent).

None.

?

[female]

Parallel lines.

Arm and back of hand.

? None.

? Ornament.

Kalabit

[male]

As with Dusuns

As with Dusuns

?

?

[female]

Zigzags and chevrons.

Forearms, the lower part of the leg.

Very little.

?

Long Utan

[female]

Complicated serial geometrical designs.

As with Long Glat.

?

?

Biajau

[male]

Complicated serial geometrical designs, scrolls, zoomorphs, etc.

Almost the whole body including the face amongst some of the

sub-tribes.

?

With some sub-tribes to signify success in war and love, manual

dexterity, etc.

[female]

? ?

? ? as with Long Glat.

?

?

Ot-Danum, Ulu Ajar, etc.

[male]

Curved lines, discs, and simple geometrical designs.

On breast, stomach, outside of arms and thighs, calf of leg.

? None.

In some cases a sign of bravery.

[female]

Simple designs like those of the Uma Tow Kenyahs (low-class

[female] [female]). High-class [female] [female] like Long Glat?

Shin, thigh, and calf of leg.

?

?

Kahayan

[male]

Chequer design.

On breast, stomach, throat, arms.

?

?

Bakatan and Ukit

[male]

Chiefly scroll and circle designs. Nearly all represented in

"negative."

Jaws, throat, breast, back, shoulders, forearms, thighs, calf of leg,

ankles, feet and backs of hands.

Obsolete.

Sign of bravery and experience in war, symbol of maturity.