The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 13

Lashing with strips of rattan and with coa.r.s.e fibres from the leaf-stem of some of the palms and ferns is applied to a great variety of purposes, and largely takes the place of our nailing and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g and riveting. It is carried out extremely neatly and commonly has a decorative effect. This effect is in some cases enhanced by combining blackened threads with those of the natural pale yellow colour; and the finer varieties of this work deserve to be cla.s.sed with the decorative arts. The finest lashing-work is done by the Kalabits, who cover small bamboo boxes with a layer of close-set lashing, producing pleasing geometrical designs by the combination of yellow and black threads. The surface of the bamboo to which the lashing is applied is generally sc.r.a.ped away to a depth of about one-sixteenth of an inch; it is thus rendered less slippery than the natural surface, and is therefore gripped more firmly by the lashing, and the surface of the lashing is brought flush with the unlashed natural surface. The effect is not only a highly ornamental appearance, but also a greatly increased durability of the box, the natural tendency of the bamboo to split longitudinally being very effectively counteracted.

Similar fine decorative lashing is used by all the tribes for binding together the two halves of the sword sheath, and for binding the haft of knife or sword where it grips the metal blade, though bra.s.s wire is sometimes used for this purpose.

Closely allied to this lashing is the production of decorative knots. A considerable variety of knots are in common use; they are always well tied and practically effective, but some are elaborated for decorative purposes to form rosettes, especially by Kayans in making their sword sheaths.

Painting

We have stated above that the carved woodwork is often painted with black, red, and white pigments. It must be added that wooden surfaces are often painted on the flat, especially shields, the outer surfaces of walls of PADI huts, and tombs, also grave hats and the gunwales of boats, and decorative planks in the inner walls of the long gallery of the house. The Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans, especially the Skapans and Barawans, are most skilled in, and make most use of, this form of decoration; but it is probably practised in some degree by all the peoples.

The three pigments mentioned above -- black, red, and white, made respectively from soot, iron oxide, and lime -- are, so far as we know, the only native varieties; but at the present day these are sometimes supplemented with indigo and yellow pigments obtained from the bazaars. The pigment is generally laid on free-hand with the finger-tip, a few guiding points only being put in.

It may be mentioned here that individuals of all the tribes will occasionally amuse themselves by making rude drawings with charcoal on the plank wall of the gallery. The drawings usually depict human and animal figures, and scenes from the life of the people, and they generally ill.u.s.trate the particular form of occupation in which the household is employed at the time, E.G. scenes from the PADI fields, a group of people weeding, the return of a war-party, the collection of honey, the capture of a large fish. These drawings are invariably very crude; their nature is sufficiently indicated by Pl. 128. There seem to be no noteworthy differences in this respect between the different peoples.

The Punans, having no houses and therefore no walls on which to draw pictures, have little opportunity to indulge any such tendency; but we have seen rude hunting scenes depicted by them on the walls of shallow caves; the technique consisted in scratching away the soft rotted surface of the limestone rock to produce outlines of the figures depicted.

The Malanaus, who live in the large limestone caves during the time of harvesting the edible nests of the swift, sometimes make rude drawings with charcoal on the walls of the cave.

The weaving of decorative designs on cloth is almost confined to the Sea Dayaks. Some account of the designs will be given below.

Sh.e.l.l-work

Sh.e.l.ls (chiefly na.s.sas and the flat bases of cone-sh.e.l.ls) are sometimes applied by the Iban women to decorate their woven coats, by Kalabits (in concentric circles on their sunhats), and more rarely by other tribes in the decoration of baskets (Fig. 48). Fig. 49 represents a garment decorated in this fashion by Iban women, and worn by them when dancing with the heads of enemies in their hands.

The Decorative Designs

The Kayans make use in their decorative art of a large number of conventional designs. The princ.i.p.al applications of these designs are in tatu, beadwork, the production of panels of wood for the adornment of houses, tombs, boats, and PADI barns, the decoration of bamboo boxes, and the painting of hats, and the carving of highly ornate doors to the rooms. All these applications involve the covering of flat or curved surfaces with patterns either in low relief only or without relief; and many of the designs are applied in all these different ways, and all of them together form a natural group. Besides these surface designs, a considerable variety of designs is used in giving decorative form to solid objects such as the handles of swords and paddles, the ends of main roof-beams in the houses, posts used in various rites and in the construction of tombs, the figure-heads of war-boats. These, with the exception of those used in carving the sword handles, which are highly peculiar, form another group of relatives. The designs chased upon the blades of the swords const.i.tute a fourth natural group distinct from the other two groups. A fifth small group of designs is carved in the form of fretwork. We propose to say a few words about the designs of each of these five groups.

(1) The designs of the first group are the most numerous and most widely applied. A large proportion of them obviously are conventionalised derivatives from animal forms. Of these animal forms the human figure, the dog, and the prawn have been the originals of the largest number of patterns; the macaque monkey and the large lizard (VARa.n.u.s) are also traceable. Some designs vaguely suggest a derivation from some animal form, but cannot confidently be a.s.signed to any one origin.

A few seemed to be derived from vegetable forms; while some few, for example the hookpattern, seem to be derived from no animal or vegetable form. The hook-pattern seems to be symbolical of conjunction and acquisition in various spheres.

Of all the designs the derivatives from or variants of the dog are the most numerous and the most frequently applied. The name dog-pattern (KALANG ASU) is given to a very large number; and of these some obviously reproduce the form of the dog, while the derivation of the others from the same original can generally be made clear by the inspection of a number of intermediate forms, although some of them retain but very slight indications of the form or features of the dog. The unmistakable dog-patterns are ill.u.s.trated by one of the panels shown in Pl. 124; and in Pls. 134 ET SEQ. we reproduce a number of dog-patterns of more or less conventionalised characters. It will be noticed that the eye is the most constant feature about which the rest of the pattern is commonly centred; but that the eye also disappears from some of the most conventionalised. It seems probable that, although the name KALANG ASU continues to be commonly used to denote all this group of allies, many of those who use the term, and even of those who carve or work the patterns, are not explicitly aware in doing so that the name and the patterns refer to the dog, or are in any way connected with it; that is to say, both the words and the pattern have ceased to suggest to their minds the meaning of the word dog, and mean to them simply the pattern appropriate to certain uses.

We have questioned men who have been accustomed to apply the dog-pattern as to the significance of the parts of the pattern, and have led them to recognise that the parts of the dog, eye, teeth, jaws, and so on, are represented; and this recognition has commonly been accompanied by expressions of enlightenment, as of one making an interesting discovery.[67] This ignorance of the origin of the pattern is naturally true only of the more conventionalised examples, whether of the dog or other natural forms. Probably a few who have specially interested themselves in the designs have traced out their connections pretty fully, but this is certainly quite exceptional. Most of the craftsmen simply copy the current forms, introducing perhaps now and then an additional scroll, or some other slight modification.

Some men are well known as experts in the production of designs, and such a man can produce a wonderful variety, all or most being well-known conventions. Their mode of working frequently implies that the artist is working to a pattern, mentally fixed and clearly visualised, rather than working out any new design. For he will work first on one part of the surface, then on another, producing disconnected fragments of the pattern, and uniting them later. Although the women use these patterns in beadwork and in tatuing, they rely in the main on the men for the patterns which they copy; these being drawn on wood or cloth for beadwork, or carved in low relief for tatuing. A Kayan expert may carry in mind a great variety of designs. One such expert produced for our benefit, during a ten days'

halt of an expedition, forty-one patterns, drawn with pencil on paper; most of these are of considerable complexity and elaboration.

(2) The designs carved in the solid or in high relief are for the most part conventionalised copies of human and animal forms; but the conventionalising is not carried so far as in those of the first cla.s.s, so that the carving generally const.i.tutes an unmistakable representation of the original. The posts set up as altars to the G.o.ds are generally carved in the human form, and the degree of elaboration varies widely from the rudest possible indication of the head and limbs to a complete representation of all the parts. But in no case (with the possible exception of some of the figures carved by Malanaus) is the human form reproduced with any high degree of accuracy or artistic merit (Figs. 50 -- 53)

The animal forms are used chiefly as the figureheads of war-boats and at the ends of the main roof-beams of the houses; and some of these are executed with a degree of artistry that must win our admiration, especially when we reflect that the timber used is generally one of the harder kinds (but not iron-wood) such as the mirabo (AFZELIA PALEMBANICA), and that the only tools used are the axe, sword, and knife. The animals most frequently represented are the dog, crocodile, monkey, hornbill, and bear (Pls. 122, 125, Figs. 45, 46, 54 -- 57). Carved dogs, comparatively little conventionalised, are sometimes used as the supports of low platforms upon which the chiefs may sit on ceremonious occasions.

(3) The handles of the swords, generally of deer's antlers, but sometimes of wood, exhibit a group of highly peculiar closely allied designs. All these seem to be derived from the human form, although in many cases this can only be traced in the light of forms intermediate between the less and the more highly conventionalised (Pls. 129, 184). In examples in which the human form is most obvious, it has the following position and character: -- The b.u.t.t end of the blade is sunk in a piece (about six inches in length) of the main shaft of the antler at its distal or upper end. This piece const.i.tutes the grip of the handle or hilt. The proximal or lowest point of the antler projecting at an angle of some 70[degree] from the grip is cut down to a length of some four inches, forming a spur standing in the plane of the blade and towards its cutting edge. The grip is lashed with fine strips of rattan. The spur and the thick end in which the spur and the grip unite are elaborately carved. If the sword is held horizontally, its point directed forwards and its cutting edge upwards, the b.u.t.t end is presented with the spur vertically before the face of the observer. It will then be seen that the surface turned to the observer presents the princ.i.p.al features of the human figure, standing with arms akimbo face to face with the observer. The key to the puzzle Is the double row of teeth. Above this are the two eyes. Below the level of the mouth the elbows project laterally, and a little below these and nearer the middle line are the two hands; and below these again the two legs stand out, carved not merely in relief, but in the solid, and bent a little at the knee. The feet are indicated below and more laterally. From the crown of the head projects a ring of short hair made up of tufts white, black, and red in colour. Another short tuft projects from the region of the navel (? pubis), and a pair of tufts project laterally a little below the level of the mouth. The extremity of the main shaft of the antler projects a little beyond the feet of the human figure, and is carved in a form which is clearly an animal derivative -- probably from the dog or possibly the crocodile. From its open jaws projects a long tuft of hair, and a pair of short tufts project laterally from the region of its ears. The whole of the carved part of the hilt thus represents a man standing upon the head of a dog (or crocodile). The interpretation of the whole is much obscured by the fact that the parts of the human figure named above are separated from one another by areas which are covered with a continuous scroll design in low relief, and by the fact that all the lateral parts of the carved area bear, scattered irregularly in relief, reduplications of the various features of the human figure, E.G. of the hands, elbows, knees, and even of the teeth, as well as many pairs of interlocking hooks. These last, which recur in other decorative designs, and which (as was said above) seem to symbolise the taking of heads, form an important and constant feature of the whole scheme of decoration. In the more elaborate examples they are carved out of the solid; and usually one hole (or more) about 5 mm. in diameter perforates the thickest part of the hilt, and contains in the middle plane a pair of these interlocking hooks.

In the most elaborate examples of these carved sword hilts all obvious trace of the human figure is lost in a profusion of detail, which, however, is of the same general character as that of the examples described above, and seems to consist of the various features of the human and animal pattern combined in wild profusion with regard only to decorative effect, and not at all to the reproduction of the parent forms.

With the decorative designs of the hilt of the sword must be cla.s.sed those of its sheath. The sheath consists of two slips of TAPANG wood firmly lashed together with finely plaited rattan strips, both strips being hollowed so that they fit closely to the blade. It is provided with a plaited cord, which buckles about the waist. The inner piece of the sheath is smooth inside and out. The outer surface of the outer piece is often elaborately decorated. The decoration consists in the main of designs carved in relief; and these are composed of the same elements as the design upon the sword hilt, namely, hooks, single and interlocking, elbows, teeth, etc., all woven about with a scroll design of relieved lines.

(4) The designs reproduced in fretwork are in the main adaptations of some of those used in decorating surfaces, especially of the dog pattern; but they are always conventionalised in a high degree (see Pl. 130). The hook pattern is frequently introduced to fill up odd corners. The human form is seldom or never traceable in work of this kind. Fretwork is chiefly used to adorn the tombs of chiefs.

(5) The designs chased on the surfaces of the blades of swords and knives and spear-heads form a distinctive group. They are flowing scroll patterns containing many spiral and S-shaped curves in which no animal or plant forms can be certainly traced, though suggestions of the KALANG ASU may be found. The lack of affinity between these patterns and those applied to other surfaces suggests that they may have been taken over from some other people together with the craft of the smith; but possibly the distinctive character is due only to the exigencies of the material. Some of the designs painted on hats and shields exhibit perhaps some affinity with these. This work is almost confined to the Kayans.

It is worthy of remark that the art work of the Kayans is in the main of a public character; for example, the decorative carving about the house is done by voluntary and co-operative effort in the public gallery and hardly at all in the private rooms; and ornamented hats and shields are hung in the gallery rather than in the private rooms; again, the war-boats, which are the common property of the household, are decorated more elaborately than those which are private property.

All these forms of art work are the products of distinctly amateur effort; that is to say that, although certain individuals attain special skill and reputation in particular forms of art, they do not make their living by the practice of them, but rather, like every one else, rely in the main upon the cultivation of PADI for the family support; they will exchange services of this kind, and definite payments are sometimes agreed upon, but a large amount of such work is done for one another without any material reward.

The Kenyahs, Klemantans, and Ibans

The Kenyahs make use of all, or most, of the patterns found among the Kayans, and there is little or nothing that distinguishes the decorative art of the one tribe from that of the other. They use the patterns based on the monkey rather more than the Kayans; and a decoration commonly found in their houses is a frieze running along the top of the main part.i.tion wall of the house, bearing in low relief an animal design, painted in red and black, which is called BALI SUNGEI (I.E. water-spirit) or Naga. The latter name is known to all the tribes, and is probably of foreign origin; and it seems possible that the design and this name are derived from the dragon forms so commonly used in Chinese decorative art.

The various Klemantan tribes make use of many decorative designs very similar to those of the Kayans. Different animal forms predominant among the different tribes, E.G. among the LONG POKUNS the form of the gibbon and of the sacred ape (SEMINOPITHECUS HOSEI) are chiefly used in house decoration. Among the Sebops and Barawans the human figure predominates; the Malanaus make especially elaborate crocodile images in solid wood. The tombs of some of the Klemantans are very ma.s.sive and elaborately decorated. The Tanjongs and Kanowits and Kalabits, who excel in basket-work, introduce a variety of patterns in black, red, and white. The majority of these are simple geometrical designs which arise naturally out of the nature of the material; of more elaborate designs specially common are the hook-pattern (Fig. 58), the pigeon's eye (Fig. 59), and the caterpillar (Fig. 60).

In wealth of decorative designs the Ibans surpa.s.s all the other tribes. These designs are displayed most abundantly in the decoration of bamboo surfaces and in the dyeing of cloths. The designs on bamboo surfaces are largely foliate scrolls, especially the yam-leaf, but also occasionally animal derivatives.

The designs dyed upon the cloths (Fig. 61) are largely animal derivatives; but the artists themselves seldom are aware of the derivation, even when the pattern bears the name of its animal origin; and as to the names of all, except the most obvious animal derivatives, even experts will differ. The frog, the young bird, the human form, and the lizard are the originals most frequently claimed. Parts of the animal, such as the head or eye, are commonly repeated in serial fashion detached from the rest of its form. And in many cases it is, of course, impossible to identify the parts of the pattern, although it may show a general affinity with unmistakable animal patterns. One such pattern very commonly used in dyeing is named after AGI BULAN, the large shrew (GYMNURA); but we have not been able to trace the slightest resemblance to the animal in any of the various examples we have seen (Pls. 131, 132).

We are inclined to suppose that the Ibans have copied many of their cloth-patterns from the Malays together with the crafts of dyeing and weaving. For their technique is similar to that of the Malays all over the peninsula, and the same is true of some of their designs. Only in this way, we think, can we account for their possession of these crafts, which are practised by but very few of the other inland peoples. The fact that plant derivatives predominate greatly over animals in their designs, whereas the reverse is true of almost all other tribes, bears out this supposition, for the Malays are forbidden by their religion to represent animal forms, and make use largely of plant forms.

Tatu

Tatuing is extensively practised among the tribes of Borneo. A great variety of patterns are used, and they are applied to many different parts of the body. A paper embodying most of the facts. .h.i.therto ascertained has been published by one of us (C. H.) in conjunction with Mr. R. Shelford, formerly curator of the Sarawak Museum, who has paid special attention to the subject; we therefore reproduce here the greater part of the substance of that paper,[68] with some slight modifications, and we desire to express our thanks to Mr. Shelford[69]

for his kind permission to make use of the paper in this way.

The great diversity of tribes in Borneo involves, in a study of their tatu and tatuing methods, a good deal of research and much travel, if first-hand information on the subject is to be obtained. Between us we have covered a considerable area in Borneo and have closely crossquestioned members of nearly every tribe inhabiting Sarawak on their tatu, but we cannot claim to have exhausted the subject by any means; there are tribes in the interior of Dutch Borneo and in British North Borneo whom we have not visited, and concerning whom our knowledge is of the scantiest.

The practice of tatu is so widely spread throughout Borneo that it seems simpler to give a list of the tribes that do not tatu, than of those who do. We can divide such a list into two sections: the first including those tribes that originally did not tatu, though nowadays many individuals are met with whose bodies are decorated with designs copied from neighbouring tribes; the second including the tribes (mostly Klemantan) that have given up the practice of tatu owing to contact with Mohammedan and other influences.

A.

1. Punan.

2. Maloh.

3. Land Dyak.

B.

4. Malanau.

5. Miri.

6. Dali.

7. Narom.

8. Sigalang (down-river tribes of Ukit stock).

9. Siduan 10. Tutong.