The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

i66 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
Dusuns, who have the domesticated buffalo, use a
shield of buffalo-hide attached to the forearm by a
strap—a feature unknown in all the other types,
which are borne by the handle only. The Sea
Dayaks nowadays make a greater variety of shields,
copying those of the other tribes with variations of
their own. The shield
originally used by them
before coming into contact
with many other
FiG. 28.
tribes, but now discarded,
was made of
strips of bamboo plaited
together and stiffened
with a longitudinal strip
of wood (Fig. 28). It
was of two shapes, both
oblong, one with
rounded, the other with
pointed ends.
The Land Dayaks still
use a shield of tough
bark (Fig. 29), and it is
not improbable that these
were used by other tribes
at no distant date.
Every Kayan household
possesses, beside the
many smaller boats, one
or more boats especially
designed for use in war. A typical war- boat is
about 100 feet in length, from six to seven feet
wide in its middle part, and tapers to a width of
about three and a half feet at bow and stern. In
some cases the length of the war-boat, which is
always made from a single log, is as much as
145 feet in length (PI. 96), but so large a boat is
unwieldy in use, and its construction costs an exces-