The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

252 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
according to Nieuwenhuis (9, p. 453), a woman cannot be
tatued during seed time nor if a dead person is lying
unburied in the house, since it is lali to let blood at such
times ; bad dreams, such as a dream of floods, foretelling
much blood-letting, will also interrupt the work. A tatued
woman may not eat the flesh of the monitor lizard
( Varanus) or of the scaly manis {Manis javanicd)^ and
her husband also is included in the tabu until the pair
have a male and a female child. If they have a daughter
only they may not eat the flesh of the monitor until their
child has been tatued ; if they have a son only they cannot
eat the monitor until they become grandparents. Should
a girl have brothers, but no sisters, some of her tatu lines
must not be joined together, but if she has brothers and
sisters, or sisters only, all the lines can be joined.
Tatu amongst Kayan women is universal ; they believe
that the designs act as torches in the next world, and that
without these to light them they would remain for ever in
total darkness ; one woman told Dr. Nieuwenhuis that after
death she would be recognised by the impregnation of her
bones with the tatu pigment. The operation of tatuing
amongst Kayans is performed by women, never by men, and
it is always the women who are the experts on the significance
and quality of tatu designs, though the men actually
carve the designs on the tatu blocks. Nieuwenhuis states
(9, p. 452) that the office of tatuer is to a certain extent
hereditary, and that the artists, like smiths and carvers, are
under the protection of a tutelary spirit, who must be propitiated
with sacrifices before each operation. As long as
the children of the artist are of tender age she is debarred
from the practice of her profession. The greater the
number of sacrifices offered, or in other words, the greater
the experience of the artist, the higher is the fee demanded.
She is also debarred from eating certain food. It is
supposed that if an artist disregards the prohibitions
imposed upon her profession, the designs that she tatus
will not appear clearly, and she herself may sicken and
die.
The tools used by a tatu artist are simple,^ consisting of
two or three prickers, ulang or ulang bra7ig^ and an iron
striker, tukun or pepak^ which are kept in a wooden case,
bungan. The pricker is a wooden rod with a short pointed
head projecting at right angles at one end ; to the point of
^ Cf. Ling Roth (7, p. 34) and Nieuwenhuis (9, PI. 32).