Part 14 (2/2)

The time at which to begin tatuing a girl is about the ninth day after new moon, this lunar phase being known as BUt.i.t 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 BUt.i.t 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 s.h.i.+n 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 This manner of tatu is obsolete now, but Dr.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 cla.s.s 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-cla.s.s women are not nearly so complex as those of the higher cla.s.s, 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-cla.s.s 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-cla.s.s 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 highcla.s.s 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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s; 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-gla.s.s 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 relations.h.i.+p of the TUSHUN TUVA design to an anthropomorph is entirely lost.

A typical form of tatu on the foot of a low-cla.s.s woman is shown on Pl. 138, Fig. 6; a chiefs daughter would have some modification of the princ.i.p.al 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s. 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 a.s.semblage 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 s.h.i.+n 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-cla.s.s, the higher-cla.s.s 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 sh.o.r.es 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.

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