The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

xn DECORATIVE ART 263
later on in life the back of the thigh ; unlike the Kayans
it is not necessary that the tatu of the thighs should be
finished before child-bearing. A Long Glat woman on
each day that she is tatued must kill a black fowl as food
for the artist. They believe that after death the completely
tatued women will be allowed to bathe in the mythical
river Telang Julan, and that consequently they will be able
incompletely
to pick up the pearls that are found in its bed ;
tatued women can only stand on the river bank, whilst the
untatued will not be allowed to approach its shores at all.
This belief appears to be universal amongst the Kenyah-
Klemantan of the Upper Mahakam and Batang Kayan.
On PL 86 of Nieuwenhuis' book [9] is figured the thigh
tatu of a Long Glat woman ; the front of the thigh is
occupied with two rows of the hornbill motif to which
reference has already been made. The sides of the thigh
are tatued with a beautiful design of circles and scrolls
termed kerip kwe, flight feathers of the Argus pheasant,
and on the back of the thigh is a scroll design borrowed
from the decoration of a grave and known as kalang song
sepit} The knee is left untatued. Some other examples
of the kerip kwe design are given on PI. 90, and of the
song sepit on PL 91 ; some of the song sepit designs recall
the kalang kowit designs of the Baloi Kayans. Instead of
a hornbill motify a dog's head motif is sometimes tatued
on the thigh, an example of which is figured on PL 87,
Fig. a ; it appears to be a composition of four heads, and
in appearance is not unlike silong lejau of the Uma Lekan,
figured by us. In the Long Glat thigh-tatu the bands of
pattern are not separated by lines of ikor^ as with the
Kayans. Round the ankles the Long Glat tatu sixteen
the foot is tatued
lines, 3 mm. broad, known as tedak aking ;
much after the manner shown in our Fig. 6, PL 143. The
supinator surface of the forearm and the backs of the hands
are also tatued, but the design does not extend so far up
the arm as with the Kayans [9, PL 92] ; the forearm design
is made up of a hornbill motif but that shown in Fig. a
of the plate is termed betik kule^ leopard pattern, and is
supposed to be a representation of the spots on the leopard's
skin ; it is stated to be taken from a Long Tepai tatu-block
the knuckles are tatued with a double row of wedges, the
finger joints with quadrangles.
The Uma Luhat seem to have borrowed their tatu and
^ The names of the designs are given in Kayan.
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