The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

220 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
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 Kttmut, 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 (PI. 1 17).