The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

DECORATIVE ART 233
The weaving of decorative
designs on cloth is almost
confined to the Sea Dayaks.
Some account of the designs
will be given below.
Shell-work
Shells (chiefly nassas and
the flat bases of cone-shells)
are sometimes applied by the
I ban women to decorate their
woven coats, by Kalabits (in
concentric circles on their
sunhats), and more rarely by
other tribes in the decoration
of baskets (Fig. 48). Fig.
49 represents a garment decorated
in this fashion by
I ban women, and worn by
them when dancing with the
heads of enemies in their
hands.
The Decorative Designs
The Kayans make use in
their decorative art of a large
number of conventional de-
signs. The principal appli-
cations of these designs are
in tatu, beadwork, the production
of panels of wood for
the adornment of houses,
tombs, boats, dind padi barns,
the decoration of bamboo
boxes, and the painting of
hats, and the carving of highly
Fig. 49.