The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

264 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
designs very largely if not entirely from the Long Glat
with them the back of the thigh is tatued before the front,
which is exceptional. Half of the knee is tatued. Their
designs are modifications of the hornbill and dog's head
designs of the Long Glat. Nieuwenhuis figures several
examples [9, PI. 87,
Fig. a^ PI. 94], which
of the greatest interest.
Fig. b,
should
Plate 88, PL 89, PI.
be consulted, as they
93,
are
The Long Wai seem to tatu in much the same way as
the Uma Luhat [2, PI., p. 189 and 7, p. 91].
iv. Tatu of Muruts and Klemantans.
A number of tribes have adopted more or less the tatu
of the Kayans. Thus the men of the following Sarawak
tribes, Sibops, Lirongs, Tanjongs, Long Kiputs, Barawans,
and Kanowits, are often, though not universally, tatued like
Kayans. The shoulder pattern of the Barawans is distinctive,
in that the rosette nearly always bears a scroll attached
to it, a relic of the dog motifs from which the design is
derived (PI. 138, Fig. 6). E. B. Haddon [4, Fig. 17]
figures another form of the dog motif, which is tatued on
the thigh or forearm, and Ling Roth [7, p. 86] figures three
rosette designs for the breast ; we figure two modifications
of the dog design on PI. 137, Figs. 7 and 8. The women
of these tribes very rarely tatu ; we have seen a Tanjong
woman with a circle of star-shaped figures round her wrist
and one on the thumb. The Tring women of Dutch Borneo
are tatued on the hands and thighs like Kayans ; Carl Bock
[2, PI., p. 187] gives some figures of them. In our opinion
all of these tribes owe their tatu entirely to foreign influences
; for we have failed to find a single example of an
original design ; the practice is by no means universal, and
great catholicity of taste is shown by those who do tatu.
The men, moreover, do not tatu as a sign of bravery in
battle or adventure, but merely from a desire to copy the
more warlike Kayan.
We shall now treat of those tribes that have a distinctive
and original tatu, but it is well to bear in mind, that
amongst many of these people also the Kayan designs are
coming into vogue more and more, ousting the old designs.
No tatu-blocks are employed for the indigenous patterns,
all the work being done free-hand.
{a) Uma Long,—The Uma Long women of the Batang
;