The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

256 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
termed beliling bulan or full moons ; a triangle (b) each,
limb formed by several parallel lines, dulang harok, the
bows of a boat ; spirals (cc) ulu tinggang, the head of the
hornbill. On the supinator surface beliling bulan and ulu
tinggang occur again, but instead of dulang harok, there are
two other elements, a bold transverse zigzag known as
daun wi (d), rattan leaves, and at the proximal end of the
pattern an interlacing design, tushun tuva (e), bundles of
tuba root {Derris ellipticd). The fingers are very simply
tatued with a zigzag on the carpal knuckles and transverse
lines across the joints ;
the thumb is decorated in a slightly
different way. In Dr. Nieuwenhuis' designs cited above,
we find much the same elements ; in one of them the
beliling bulan are more numerous and more closely set
together, so that the concentric circles of one set have run
into those of the next adjoining ; the tushun tuva pattern
is termed poesoeng, evidently the same as tushun ; the
spirals are much degraded in one example and are called
krowit, or hooks, whilst in the more elaborate example
they are known as manok wak, or eyes of the Scops owl
the pedjako pattern is an addition, but the meaning of the
word is not known ; the pattern on the fingers is much
more complex than in the Uma Pliau example, and is
perhaps a degraded hornbill design.
Nieuwenhuis [8, PI. XXIV.] figures the hand of a
low-class woman tatued with triangular and quadrangular
blotches, and with some rude designs that appear to have
been worked in free-hand.
On PI. 140, Fig. I, is shown the design on the forearm
of a high-class woman of the Uma Lekan Kayans of the
Batang Kayan river, Dutch Borneo ; in our opinion these
elegant designs are quite in the front rank of the tatu
designs of the world. In spite of the elaboration, it is
quite
as in
possible to distinguish in these the same elements
the Uma Pliau specimen, viz. : beliling bulan ulu
tinggang daun wi and tushun tuva ; but the dulang harok
is absent, and the silong or face pattern appears.
Nieuwenhuis [9, PI. 93, b] figures the arm-tatu (supinator
surface only) of a Kayan woman of the Blu-u river,
a tributary of the Upper Mahakkam ; the main design
is evidently a hornbill derivative, the knuckles are tatued
with quadrangular and rectangular blotches. The hornbill
plays an important part in the decorative art of the
Long Glat, a Klemantan tribe of the Mahakkam river,
;