The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

222 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
tightly about the whole bundle at each end. The
web thus prepared is soaked in the dye for some
two or three days, and then dried in a shady spot.
The wrappings upon the threads are waterproof
and protect the wrapped parts from the dye. When,
after the dyeing, the web is stretched upon the
loom, it presents the desired pattern in colour upon
the undyed ground. The undyed weft is then
woven across the web in the usual way. And since
the threads of the weft do not appear on the
surface, the dyed parts of the web present a
uniformly coloured surface (PI. 121).
In most cloths two colours, as well as the
natural colour of the thread, appear on the surface
— the commonest colour being a warm brick
red (obtained from the bark of the samak tree)
and a dark purple (obtained from the leaves of
the tarum plant). Lime and gypsum are sometimes
mixed with the watery extracts as mordaunts,
but these are probably modern refinements.
When two colours are to appear, those parts of
the web which are to be of one colour (say purple)
are wrapped up during the immersion in the red
dye together with the parts that are to appear uncoloured.
When this first dyeing is completed
the web is prepared for the purple dye, by uncovering
the undyed parts which are to be purple, and
wrapping up in bundles the threads which have
already been dyed red. After being soaked in the
purple dye and dried, all the wrappings are removed
from the web, and the desired pattern in three
colours appears upon it when it is stretched.
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the operation
of dyeing is that the woman generally wraps
up the threads in the way required to produce the
pattern without any guidance, judging the length
and number of the threads to be included in each
bundle purely by memory of the design aimed at.