Part 41 (2/2)
[80] -- The drawing is taken from a rubbing of a model carved by an Uma Lekan; this will account for the asymmetry noticeable every here and there throughout the design. A print from an actual tatu-block is shown in Pl. 139, Fig. 7; this would be repeated serially in rows down the front and sides of the thigh, so that absolute uniformity would be attained; the carver of the model, which was about one-sixth life size, has not been able to keep the elements of his design quite uniform.
[81] -- For other examples of modified ASU designs employed by Kenyah tribes, see E. B. Haddon (4, pp. 117, 118).
[82] -- By this name we denote those Kenyah tribes which stand nearest to the Klemantans and furthest from the Kayans in respect of customs. Cf. Chap. XXI.
[83] -- The names of the designs are given in Kayan.
[84] -- The same author states that ”a sometime headman of Senendan had two square tattoo marks on his back. This was because he ran away in a fight, and showed his back to the enemy.” This explanation seems to us most improbable.
[85] -- As an instance of a quite opposite effect produced by a mark on the forehead, we may note here, that some Madangs who had crossed over from the Baram to the Rejang on a visit, appeared each with a cross marked in charcoal on his forehead; they supposed that by this means they were disguised beyond all recognition by evil spirits. The belief that such a trivial alteration of appearance is sufficient disguise is probably held by most tribes; Tama Bulan, a Kenyah chief, when on a visit to Kuching, discarded the leopard's teeth, which when at home he wore through the upper part of his ears, and the reason that he alleged was the same as that given by the Madang. These people believe not only that evil spirits may do them harm whilst they are on their travels, but also that, being encountered far from their homes, the spirits will take advantage of their absence to work some harm to their wives, children, or property.
[86] -- Dr. Schmeltz has kindly furnished us with an advance sheet of his forthcoming catalogue of the Borneo collection in the Leyden Museum; he catalogues these drawings as tatu marks, but in a footnote records our opinion of them made by letter. Dr. Nieuwenhuis apparently adheres to the belief that they really are tatu marks.
[87] -- Mr. E. B. Haddon (4, p. 124) writes: ”The tattoo design used by the Kayans and Kenyahs ... has been copied and adopted by the Ibans in the same way as the Kalamantans have done, the main difference being, that the Ibans call the design a scorpion. FOR THIS REASON THE PATTERN TENDS TO BECOME MORE AND MORE LIKE THE SCORPION ... .” The italics are ours. Is not this ”putting the cart before the horse”? It is only when the design resembles a scorpion that the term SCORPION is applied to it; all other modifications, even though tending towards the scorpion, are called DOG; PRAWN, or CRAB.
[88] -- The following statement, which was written by us of the Kenyahs in a former publication, holds good also of the Kayans: ”They may be said to attribute a soul or spirit to almost every natural agent and to all living things, and they pay especial regard those that seem most capable of affecting their welfare for good or ill. They feel themselves to be surrounded on every hand y spiritual powers, which appear to them to be concentrated in those objects to which their attention is directed by practical needs; adopting a mode of expression familiar to psychologists, we may say that they have differentiated from a 'continuum' of spiritual powers a number of spiritual agents with very various degrees of definiteness. Of these the less important are very vaguely conceived, but are regarded as being able to bring harm to men, who must therefore avoid giving offence to them, and must propitiate them if they should by ill-change have been offended. The more important, a.s.suming individualised and anthromorphic forms and definite functions, receive proper names, are in some cases represented by rude images, and become the recipients of prayer and sacrifice”
(JOURN. OF ANTHROP. INSt.i.tUTE, vol. x.x.xi. p. 174).
[89] -- If the dead man possessed no sufficiently presentable garments, these may be supplied by friends. This last act of respect and friends.h.i.+p has not infrequently been permitted to one of us.
[90] -- See vol. ii. p. 29.
[91] -- See vol. ii. p. 61.
[92] -- See vol. ii., p. 137.
[93] -- For the views of an individual Kayan on Laki Tenangan, see vol. ii., p. 74.
[94] -- See vol. ii., p. 53.
[95] -- See Chap. X.
[96] -- The idea of giving up a valued possession to the G.o.d or spirit in order to appease or propitiate him seems to underlie a curious rite formerly practised by the JINGKANGS, a Klemantan sub-tribe living on the great Kapuas river. These people, like most of the peoples of Borneo, value their male children more highly than their female children. If a boy seems to be at the point of death, and if all other efforts to restore him have proved unavailing, the relatives would kill an infant sister of the boy, and would cause the boy to eat a small bit of the roasted flesh. The intention seems to be to appease some malevolent spirit that is causing the sickness; and the eating of the flesh seems to be considered necessary in order to connect the sacrifice clearly with the sick child.
[97] -- Cf. vol. ii., p. 75, for the statement of a Kayan on this question.
[98] -- See vol. ii., p. 138.
[99] -- See vol. ii., p. 29, for usage of this word.
[100] -- This relation is ill.u.s.trated by the fact that among the charms and objects of virtue which the Kenyahs hang beside the heads in the galleries of their houses, or over the fireplaces in their rooms, are to be found in many houses one or two specimens of stone axe-heads. The original use of these objects is not known to the great majority of their possessors, who regard them as teeth dropped from the jaw of the thunder-G.o.d, BALINGO. It is generally claimed that some ancestor found these stones and added them to the family treasures. A man who possesses such ”teeth,” carries them with him when he goes to war. The Madang chief TAMA KAJAN ODOH, mentioned in the following note as claiming descent from Balingo, possessed the unusual number of ten such teeth. The credit of having first obtained specimens of these stones from the houses belongs to Dr. A. C. Haddon, who discovered a specimen in a Klemantan house of the Baram basin in the year 1899. The existence of such Stones in native houses in Dutch Borneo had been reported by Schwaner many years before that date.
[101] -- When questioned as to this claim, he gave us at once without hesitation the names in order of the ancestors of nineteen generations through whom he traces his descent from Balingo. It is perhaps worth while to transcribe the list as taken down from his lips in ascending order: -- KAJAN, TAMA KAJAN ODOH, SIGO, APOI, BAUM ([ERROR: unhandled ♀]), ODOH SINAN ([female]), ALONG, APOI, LAKING, LAKING GILING, GILING SINJAN, SINJAN PUTOH, PUTOH ATI, ATI AIAI JALONG, BALARI, UMBONG DOH ([female]), KUSUN PATU BALINGO. This succession of names, it will be noticed, is consistent with the custom, common to the Kenyahs and Kayans, of naming the father after his eldest child.
[102] -- There are four words used by the Kayans to express the notion of the forbidden act, MALAN, LALI, PARIT, and TULAH. All these are used as adjectives qualifying actions rather than things; but they are not strictly synonymous terms. MALAN and PARIT seem to be true Kayan words; LALI and TULAH to have been taken from the Malay, and to be used generally by Kayans in speaking with Kenyahs or men of other tribes to whom these words are more familiar than the Kayan terms.
MALAN applies rather to acts involving risks to the whole community, PARIT to those involving risk to the individual committing the forbidden act: thus, during harvest it is MALAN for any stranger to enter the house, and the whole house or village is said to be MALAN; but it is PARIT for a child to touch one of the images. Again, it is not MALAN for the proper persons to touch the dried heads on certain occasions, but it is always in some degree PARIT for the individual, and for this reason the task is generally a.s.signed to an elderly man. LALI and TULAH seem to be the LINGUA FRANCA equivalents of MALAN and of PARIT respectively.
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