The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

XII DECORATIVE ART 269
the limb. On the thigh is tatued a design termed soewroe,
said to resemble a neck ornament. A disc tatued on the calf
of the leg is termed boentoer^ and from it to the heel runs
a barbed line called ikoeh bajan, tail of the monitor lizard ;
curiously enough, though this is the general name of the
design, it is on the right leg also termed barareky on the
left dandoe tjatjah. Warriors are tatued on the elbowjoint
with a dandoe tjatjah and a cross called sarapang
mata andau.
A Maloh who had lived for many years amongst these
people gave us the following information about their tatu :
—There is with these people a great difference between the
tatu of the high-class and that of the low-class individuals :
amongst the former the designs are both extensive and
complicated, too complicated for our informant to describe
with any degree of accuracy, but they seem to be much
the same as those described by Hamer. The low-class
people have to be content with simpler designs ; the men
are tatued on the breast and stomach with two curved lines
ending in curls, and on the outside of each arm with
two lines also ending in curls (PI. 142, Fig. ; 6) on the
outside of the thigh a rather remarkable design, shown on
PI. 142, Fig. 7, is tatued ; it is termed linsat, the flying
squirrel, Pteromys nitidus, and on the back of the calf is
tatued a disc termed kalang baboi, the wild pig pattern. The
women are tatued as described by Hamer down the front
of the shin with two parallel lines connected by transverse
cross-bars ; according to our informant the design
was supposed to represent a flat fish, such as a sole.
(PL 142, Fig. 8.)
Of these people, as of so many others, the melancholy
tale of disappearance of tatu amongst the present generation
and replacement of indigenous by Kayan designs was told,
and it seems only too likely that within the next decade or
two none will be left to illustrate a once flourishing and
beautiful art.
Schwaner can add nothing to the facts that we
have collected, except the statement that "the bilians
(priestesses) have brought the art of tatuing to the present
degree of perfection through learning the description of
the pretty tatued bodies of the [mythical] Sangsangs."
(Ji) Kahayan.—Our figure (PI. 141, Fig. 3), and PI.
81 of Dr. Nieuwenhuis' book [9], is the extent of our
knowledge of the tatu of the inhabitants of the Kahayan