Part 14 (1/2)
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 s.e.x. 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 (ARGUSIa.n.u.s 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 subst.i.tuted 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 a.s.suming 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 p.u.b.erty, 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 (VARa.n.u.s) 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 p.r.i.c.kers, ULANG or ULANG BRANG, and an iron striker, TUKUN or PEPAK, which are kept in a wooden case, BUNGAN. The p.r.i.c.ker 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 ma.s.s (Fig. 68). The striker is merely a short iron rod, half of which is covered with a string las.h.i.+ng. 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 a.s.sistant 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 a.s.sistant stretches with her feet the skin of the part to be tatued, and, dipping a p.r.i.c.ker 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 a.s.surance 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 workmans.h.i.+p required; for the thighs a large TAWAK, worth as much as sixty dollars if the very best workmans.h.i.+p is demanded, from six to twenty dollars if only inferior workmans.h.i.+p 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.