The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

XII DECORATIVE ART 249
very elongate animal form to a rosette form ; we have
occasionally met with the former amongst Sarawak Kayans,
but it is a common thigh design amongst the Mendalam
Kayans ; the forms numbered b and c are unusual in
Sarawak. Of the four examples given in PI. 136—and
it may be noted that these met with the high approval of
expert tatu artists— Figs, i, 2, and 5 may be considered as
intermediate between Nieuwenhuis' very elongate example
/ and the truncated form e which is supposed to represent
the head only of a dog. Fig. 2 is characteristic of the
Uma Balubo Kayans, and is remarkable in that teeth are
shown in both jaws ; whilst, both in this example and in
Fig. 5, the eye is represented as a disc, in Figs, i and 6 the
eye is assuming a rosette-like appearance, which rosette, as
Nieuwenhuis' series shows, is destined in some cases to
Fig. 62.
increase in size until it swallows up the rest of the design.
Fig. 6 may be compared with Nieuwenhuis, Fig. ^, as it
evidently represents little more than the head of a dog.
Although a single figure of the dog is the most usual form
of tatu, we have met with an example of a double figure ;
it is shown in Fig. 7 ; it will be observed that one of the
dogs is reversed and the tails of the two figures interlock.
Fig. 8 represents a dog with pups, tuang nganak ; A is
supposed to be the young one.
The dog design figures very prominently in Kayan art,
and the fact that the dog is regarded by these people and
also by the Kenyahs with a certain degree of veneration
may account for its general representation. The design
has been copied by a whole host of tribes, with degradation
and change of name (Fig. 62).
On the deltoid region of the shoulders and on the
breast, a rosette or a star design is found (text. Figs. 63 and
64). As already stated, it seems in the highest degree