The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

270 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
river. The latter illustration shows a man tatued with a
characteristic check pattern over the torso, stomach, and
arms, but there is no reference to the plate in the text.
Our figure is copied from a drawing by Dr. H. Hiller, of
Philadelphia.
{{) Bakatan and Ukit.—As Nieuwenhuis has pointed
out [9, p. 451], the tatu of these tribes is distinctive,
inasmuch as most of the designs are left in the natural
colour of the skin against a background of tatu ; that is to
say in the phraseology of the photographer, whilst the tatu
designs of Kayans, Kenyahs, etc., are positives^ those of
the Bakatans are negatives. The men were formerly most
extensively tatued, and
we figure the principal
designs (PL 143), most
of which were drawn
from a Bakatan of
the Rejang river. The
chest is covered with a
bold scroll design known
as gerowit, hooks
(Kayan, kowif) (Figs, i,
across the back and
2) ;
shoulder blades stretches
a double row of circles,
kanak, with small hooks
interposed (Fig. ; 9) on
the side of the shoulder
a pattern known as akih^
the lizard, Ptychozoon
honialocephaluni (Fam.
Geckonidae), is tatued (Figs. ; 3, 4) this lizard is used as a
haruspex by the Bakatan. Circles are tatued on the biceps,
on the back of the thigh, and on the calf of the leg ; a modification
of the scroll design of the chest occurs on the flexor
surface of the forearm. Another form of pattern for the
calf of the
bowang, the
leg is shown in Fig. 73,
horse-mango, Mangifera
it is termed selong
sp., the same fruit
as that termed by Kayans ipa olim, and of which a
representation forms the chief element in the Long Utan
tatu. A series of short lines is tatued on the jaw, and is
termed ja, lines, or kilang^ sword-pattern, and a gerowit
design occurs under the jaw ;
the pattern on the throat is
known also as gerowit (Fig. 10). On the forehead is