The Pagan Tribes of Borneo Part 15

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 MOTIF, from which the design is derived (Pl. 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 Pl. 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, Pl., 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 Kayan exhibit the most primitive form of tatu known in Borneo. It differs from every other form in that the tatued surface of the skin is not covered uniformly with the ink, but the design, such as it is, is merely stippled into the skin, producing an appearance of close-set irregular dots. Two aspects of the forearm of an Uma Long woman are shown on Pl. 142, Fig. 5. No other part of the body is tatued, and the practice is confined to the female s.e.x.

(B) DUSUN. -- The men only tatu. The design is simple, consisting of a band, two inches broad, curving from each shoulder and meeting its fellow on the abdomen, thence each band diverges to the hip and there ends; from the shoulder each band runs down the upper arm on its exterior aspect; the flexor surface of the forearm is decorated with short transverse stripes, and, according to one authority, each stripe marks an enemy slain [7, p. 90]. This form of tatu is found chiefly amongst the Idaan group of Dusuns; according to Whitehead [11, p. 106] the Dusuns living on the slopes of Mount Kina Balu tatu no more than the parallel transverse stripes on the forearm, but in this case no reference is made to the significance of the stripes as a head-tally. The Dusun women apparently do not tatu.

(C) MURUT. -- The Muruts of the Trusan river, North Sarawak, tatu very little; the men occasionally have a small scroll design just above the knee-cap and a simple circle on the breast; the women have fine lines tatued from the knuckles to the elbows [7, p. 93]. The Muruts of British North Borneo appear to be more generally tatued; the men are tatued like Dusuns, though, according to Hatton, they have three parallel stripes running from the shoulders to the wrists and no transverse lines on the forearm.[84] Whitehead [11, p. 76]

figures a Murut woman of the Lawas river tatued on the arms from the biceps to the knuckles with numerous fine longitudinal lines; a band of zigzag design encircles the arm just above the commencement of the longitudinal lines. The design on a man of the same tribe is given on page 73 [11], it resembles "a three-legged dog with a crocodile's head, one leg being turned over the back as if the animal was going to scratch its ear." The part of the body on which the design was tatued, is not specified and the sketch is rather inadequate, so that it is impossible to tell for certain whether the design was tatued in outline only or whether the outline was filled in uniformly; our impression is that the outline only was tatued on this individual, and that it was employed either as an experiment or from idle amus.e.m.e.nt. Zoomorphs are conspicuous by their absence from all forms of decorative art amongst the Lawas Muruts, and the particular zoomorph noted here gives every evidence of an unpractised hand.

St. John states [7, p. 92] that the Muruts of the Adang river, a tributary of the Limbang, are tatued about the arms and legs, but he gives no details.

(D) KALABIT. -- This tribe, dwelling in the watershed of the Limbang and Baram rivers, is closely akin to Muruts, but its tatu is very different. The men tatu but rarely, and then with stripes down the arms. The women, however, are decorated with most striking geometrical designs, shown on Pl. 142, Figs. 1 -- 4. On the forearm are tatued eight bold zigzag bands, one-eighth of an inch broad, which do not completely encircle the arm, but stop short of joining at points on the ulnar side of the middle line on the flexor surface. The series of lines is known as BETIK TISU, the hand pattern. In some cases two short transverse lines, called TIPALANG, cross-lines, spring from the most distal zigzag at the point where it touches the back of the wrist on the radial side; in other cases these lines are tatued across the middle of the back of the wrist and two lozenges are tatued on the metacarpals; these are known as TEPARAT (Pl. 142, Fig. 1). The legs are tatued on the back of the thigh, on the shin, and sometimes on the knee-cap. The designs can best be explained by a reference to Pl. 142, Figs. 2 -- 4; the part of the design marked A is termed BETIK BUAH, fruit pattern; B, betik lawa, trunk pattern; and C, BETIK LULUD, shin pattern. In Fig. 4, A and C are as before; D is BETIK KARAWIN; E, UJAT BATU, hill-tops; F, BETIK KALANG (Fig. 3).

Kalabit women are tatued when they are sixteen years old, whether they are married or unmarried, and the operation does not extend over a number of years as with the Long Glat and Kayans, nor is any elaborate ceremonial connected with the process.

(E) LONG UTAN. -- An extinct Klemantan tribe, once dwelling on the Tinjar river, an affluent of the Baram. We owe our knowledge of their tatu to an aged Klemantan, who was well acquainted with the tribe before their disappearance; at our behest he carved on some wooden models of arms and legs the tatu designs of these people, but he was unable to supply any information of the names or significance of the designs. The men of the tribe apparently were not tatued, and the designs reproduced on Pl. 141, Figs. 5, 6, are those of the women. The essential features of the designs are spirals and portions of intersecting circles; the intersecting circles are frequently to be met with in the decorative art of Kenyahs, E.G. on the back of sword-handles, round the top of posts, on carved bamboos, etc., and in these cases the design is supposed to be a representation of the open fruit of a species of mango, MANGIFERA SP. It is not improbable that the design had the same significance amongst the Long Utan, for we have met with one or two representations of the same fruit amongst other Klemantan tribes.

(F) BIAJAU. -- The Dutch author C. den Hamer [5, p. 451] includes under this heading the tribes living in the districts watered by the rivers Murung, Kahayan, Katingan, and Mentaja of South-west Borneo. Under this very elastic heading he would include the Ot-Danum, Siang, and Ulu Ajar of Nieuwenhuis, but we treat of these in the next section. The ethnology of the Barito, Kahayan, and Katingan river-basins sadly needs further investigation; nothing of importance has been published on this region since the appearance of Schwaner's book on Borneo more than fifty years ago. We know really very little of the distribution or const.i.tution of the tribes dwelling in these districts, and Schwaner's account of their tatu is very meagre. Such as it is, it is given here, extracted from Ling Roth's TRANSLATION OF SCHWANER'S ETHNOGRAPHICAL NOTES [7, pp. cxci. cxciv.]: The men of Pulu Petak, the right-hand lower branch of the Barito or Banjermasin river, tatu the upper part of the body, the arms and calves of legs, with elegant interlacing designs and scrolls. The people of the Murung river are said to be most beautifully tatued, both men and women; this river is really the upper part of the Barito, and according to Hamer is inhabited by the Biajau (VIDE POSTEA), who appear to be distinct from the Ngaju of Schwaner, inhabiting the lower courses of the Barito and Kapuas rivers. The men of the lower left-hand branch of the Barito and of the midcourse of that river are often not tatued at all, but such tatu as was extant in 1850 was highly significant according to Schwaner's account; thus, a figure composed of two spiral lines interlacing each other and with stars at the extremities tatued on the shoulder signified that the man had taken several heads; two lines meeting each other at an acute angle behind the finger nails signified dexterity in wood-carving; a star on the temple was a sign of happiness in love. We have no reason to consider this information inaccurate, but we do consider it lamentable that more details concerning the most interesting forms of tatu in Borneo were not obtained, for it is only too probable that such information cannot be acquired now. The women of this tribe do not tatu. In the upper Teweh river, an upper tributary of the Barito the men are tatued a good deal, especially on parts of the face, such as the forehead, the cheeks, the upper lip. The only figures that Schwaner gives are reproduced by Ling Roth [7, p. 931, they represent two Ngajus; the tatu designs are drawn on too small a scale to be of much interest, and in any case we have no information concerning them. The two figures of 'Tatued Dyaks' (? Kayans) (after Professor Veth), on p. 95 of the above-cited work cannot be referred to any tribe known to us.

Hamer in his paper [5] gives a detailed account of Biajau tatu, but, unfortunately, without any ill.u.s.trations; as abstracts of the paper have already been given by Ling Roth [7, pp. 93, 94] and by Hein [6, pp. 143 -- 147], we will pa.s.s on to the next section.

(G) OT-DANUM, ULU AJAR, AND SIANG (Kapuas river, tributaries). -- Concerning these tribes Nieuwenhuis says but little [9, p. 452], merely noting that the men are first tatued with discs on the calf and in the hollow of the knee and later over the arms, torso, and throat, whilst the women tatu the hands, knees, and shins. Two colours, red and blue, are used, and the designs are tatued free-hand, the instrument employed being a piece of copper or bra.s.s about four inches long and half an inch broad, with one end bent down at a right angle and sharpened to a point. Sometimes thread is wound round the end of the instrument just above the point, to regulate the depth of its penetration. Two specimens in the Leyden Museum are figured by Ling Roth [7, p. 85]. Hamer [5] says that the Ot-Danum women are tatued down the shin to the tarsus with two parallel lines, joined by numerous cross-lines, a modification of the Uma Tow design for the same part of 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 BARAREK, 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-cla.s.s and that of the low-cla.s.s 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-cla.s.s 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 (Pl. 142, Fig. 6); on the outside of the thigh a rather remarkable design, shown on Pl. 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 ill.u.s.trate 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."

(H) KAHAYAN. -- Our figure (Pl. 141, Fig. 3), and Pl. 81 of Dr. Nieuwenhuis' book [9], is the extent of our knowledge of the tatu of the inhabitants of the Kahayan river. The latter ill.u.s.tration 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.

(I) 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 princ.i.p.al 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, KOWIT) (Figs. 1, 2); across the back and 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, PLYCHOZOON HOMALOCEPHALUM (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 leg is shown in Fig. 73, it is termed SELONG BOw.a.n.g, the horse-mango, MANGIFERA 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 sometimes tatued a star or rosette pattern called LUKUT, antique bead, and it appears that this is of the nature of a recognition mark. In jungle warfare, where a stealthy descent on an unprepared enemy const.i.tutes the main principle of tactics, it not unfrequently happens that one body of the attacking force unwittingly stalks another, and the results might be disastrous if there was not some means of distinguishing friend from foe when at close quarters.[85] Kenyahs when on the warpath frequently tie a band of plaited palm fibre round the wrist for the same object. The tatu of the backs of the hands is avowedly copied from the Kayans, but has a different name applied to it -- KUk.u.m. The metatarsus is tatued with broad bars, IWA, very like the foot tatu of Kayan women of the slave or of the middle cla.s.s; lines known as JANGO encircle the ankle.

Tatuing is forbidden in the house; it can only be performed on the warpath, and consequently men only are the tatu artists. The covering of the body with designs is a gradual process, and it is only the most seasoned and experienced warriors who exhibit on their persons all the different designs that we have just detailed. The tatu of the legs and feet is the last to be completed, and the lines round the ankles are denied to all but the bravest veterans.

All that has been written above applies equally well to the Ukits, or at least once did apply, for now the Ukits have to a great extent adopted the tatu of the Kayan, and it is only occasionally that an old man tatued in the original, Ukit manner is met. We give a figure of a design on the back of the thigh of such a relic of better days. (Pl. 143, Fig. 5).

The Bakatan and Ukit women tatu very little, only the forearm, on the metacarpals, and on the back of the wrist; characteristic designs for these parts are shown in Fig. 74, and Pl. 143, Figs. 7, 8. The central part of the forearm design is an anthropomorphic derivative, judging by the name TEGULUN; the lines are termed KILANG, and KANAK and GEROWIT are also conspicuous; GEROWIT IS also the name of the design for the metacarpals; the two stars joined by a line on the wrist are termed LUKUT, and it is possible that their significance is the same as that of the Kayan LUKUT tatued in the same place by men, but we have no evidence that this is the case.

Nieuwenhuis figures [9, Pl. 80] a Bakatan tatued on the chest in the typical manner.

The only other designs, apparently of Kalamantan origin, are those figured by Ling Roth [7, p. 87]. Three of these are after drawings by Rev. W. Crossland, and are labelled "tatu marks on arm of Kapuas Kayan captive woman." The designs are certainly not of Kayan origin; the woman had in all probability been brought captive to Sarawak, where Mr. Crossland saw her, and it is unfortunate that exact information concerning the tribe to which she belonged was not obtained. The designs, if accurately copied, are so extremely unlike all that are known to us that we are not able to hazard even a guess at their provenance or meaning. The other design figured on the same page is copied from Carl Bock; it occurred on the shoulder of a Punan, and is said by Mr. Crossland to be commonly used by the Sea Dayaks of the Undup. We met with a similar example of it (Pl. 138, Fig. 7) on an Ukit tatued in the Kayan manner, but could get no information concerning it, and suppose that it is not an Ukit design. Hein [6, Fig. 90] figures the same design, and Nieuwenhuis [8, p. 240]

alludes to a similar. We may note here that the designs figured on page 89 of Ling Roth's book [7] as tatu designs are in our opinion very probably not tatu designs. They were collected by Dr. Wienecke in Dutch Borneo, and appear to be nothing but drawings by a native artist of such objects in daily use as hats, seat-mats, baby-slings, and so on. We communicated with Dr. J. D. E. Schmeltz of the Leyden Museum, where these "tatu" marks are deposited, and learnt from him that they are indeed actual drawings on paper; there are ninety-two of them, apparently all are different isolated designs, and they are evidently the work of one artist.[86] There is not a tribe in Borneo which can show such a variety of tatu design, and indeed we doubt if ninety-two distinct isolated tatu designs could be found throughout all the length and breadth of the island. Moreover, as can be seen by reference to the cited work, the designs are of a most complicated nature, not figures with the outlines merely filled in, as in all tatu designs known to us, but with the details drawn in fine lines and cross-hatching, which in tatu would be utterly lost unless executed on a very large scale.

Sea Dayak Tatu.

The Sea Dayaks at the present day are, as far as the men are concerned, the most extensively tatued tribe in Borneo, with the exception of the Bakatans, Ukits, Kahayans, and Biajau; nevertheless, from a long-continued and close study of their tatu, we are forced to the conclusion that the practice and the designs have been entirely borrowed from other tribes, but chiefly from the Kayans. For some time we believed that there were two characteristically Sea Dayak designs, namely, that which is tatued on the throat (Figs. 75 and 76) and that on the wrist (Pl. 143, Fig. 7), but when later we studied Bakatan tatu we met with the former in the GEROWIT pattern on the throat of men, and the latter in the LUKUT design on the wrist of the women. A Sea Dayak youth will simply plaster himself, so to speak, with numerous isolated designs; we have counted as many as five of the ASU design on one thigh alone. The same design appears two or three times on the arms, and even on the breast, though this part of the body as well as the shoulders is more usually decorated with several stars and rosettes. The backs of the hands are tatued, quite irrespective of bravery or experience in warfare; in fact we have frequently had occasion to note that a man with tatued hands is a wastrel or a conceited braggart, of no account with Europeans or with his own people. This wild and irresponsible system of tatu has been accompanied by an inevitable degradation of the designs. There is a considerable body of evidence to show that the Sea Dayaks have borrowed much in their arts and crafts from tribes who have been longer established in Borneo; but it must be confessed that in their decorative art they have often improved upon their models; their bamboo carvings and their woven cloth are indeed "things of beauty." But their tatu involves, not an intelligent elaboration of the models, but a simplification and degradation, or at best an elaboration without significance. Figs. 1 -- 6, Pl. 137, are examples of the Sea Dayaks TUANG ASU or dog design. The figures show the dog design run mad, and it is idle to attempt to interpret them, since in every case the artists have given their individual fancies free play. When the profession of the tatu-artist is hereditary, and when the practice has for its object the embellishment of definite parts of the body for definite reasons, we naturally find a constancy of design; or, if there are varieties, there is a purpose in them, in the sense that the variations can be traced to pre-existing forms, and do not depart from the original so widely that their significance is altogether lost. With the borrowing of exogenous designs arises such an alteration in their forms that the original names and significance are lost. But when the very practice of tatu has no special meaning, when the tatu-artist may be any member of the tribe, and where no original tatu design is to be found in the tribe, then the borrowed practice and the borrowed designs, unbound by any sort of tradition, run complete riot, and any sort of fanciful name is applied to the degraded designs. Amongst the Kenyah tribes the modification and degradation of the dog design has not proceeded so far as amongst the Sea Dayaks, and this may be explained by their more restrained practice of tatu and by the constant intercourse between them and the Kayans, for they always have good models before them. Pl. 137, Fig. 3, ill.u.s.trates the extreme limit of degradation of the dog design amongst Sea Dayaks; it is sometimes termed KALA, scorpion,[87] and it is noteworthy that the representation of the chelae and anterior end of the scorpion (A) was originally the posterior end of the dog, and the hooked ends of the posterior processes of this scorpion design (B), instead of facing one another as they did when they represented the open jaws of the dog, now look the same way; the rosette-like eye of the dog still persists, but of course it has no significance in the scorpion. A curious modification of this eye is seen in another Sea Dayak scorpion design figured by E. B. Haddon [4, Fig. 19]. Furness [3, p. 142] figures a couple of scorpion designs, but neither are quite as debased as that which we figure here. Furness also figures a scroll design, not unlike a Bakatan design, tatued on the forearm, and termed TAIA GASIENG, the thread of the spinning wheel; a similar one figured by Ling Roth [7, p. 88] is termed TRONG, the egg plant. On the breast and shoulders some forms of rosette or star design are tatued in considerable profusion; they are known variously as BUNGA TRONG, the egg plant flower, TANDAN BUAH, bunches of fruit, LUKUT, an antique bead, and RINGGIT SALILANG. A four-pointed star, such as that shown in Fig. 64, is termed BUAH ANDU, fruit of PLUKENETIA CORNICULATA; since this fruit is quadrate in shape with pointed angles, it is evident that the name has been applied to the pattern because of its resemblance to the fruit. Furness figures examples of these designs and also Ling Roth [7, p. 88]. We figure (Figs. 75, 76, 77) three designs for the throat known sometimes as KATAK, frogs, sometimes as TALI GASIENG, thread of the spinning wheel, and no doubt other meaningless names are applied to them. Two of the figures (Figs. 75, 77) are evidently modifications of the Bakatan GEROWIT design, but here they are represented with the tatu pigment, whilst with the Bakatans the design is in the natural colour of the skin against a background of pigment, I.E. the Dayak design is the positive of the Bakatan negative. Furness figures two examples of the throat design, one with a transverse row of stars cutting across it; the same authority also figures a design for the ribs known as TALI SABIT, waist chains, consisting of two stars joined by a double zigzag line. The same design is sometimes tatued on the wrist, when it is known as LUKUT, antique bead; it is also tatued on the throat [7, p. 88], and attention has already been drawn to the probable derivation of this design also from a Bakatan model.

It is only very seldom that Sea Dayak women tatu, and then only in small circles on the b.r.e.a.s.t.s [7, p. 83] and on the calves of the legs.

As a conclusion to the foregoing account of Bornean tatu we add a table which summarises in the briefest possible manner all our information; its chief use perhaps will lie in showing in a graphic manner the blanks in our knowledge that still remain.

We do not consider that tatu can ever be of much value in clearing up racial problems, seeing how much evidence there is of interchange of designs and rejection of indigenous designs in favour of something newer; consequently we refrain from drawing up another scheme of cla.s.sification of tatu in Borneo; at best it would be little more than a re-enumeration of the forms that we have already described in more or less detail.

Table showing the Forms of Tatu Practised by the Tribes of Borneo

Character of Designs.

Part of Body Tatued.

Cermonial.

Object of Tatu.

Kayan [male]

Isolated designs, representing the dog, a bead, rosettes and stars. Serial designs on hands.

Inside of forearm, outside of thigh, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, wrist and points of shoulders. Back of hand sometimes.

None Sign of bravery in some forms, to ward off illness in others.

[female]

Serial designs of complex nature, geometrical, anthropo- and zoomorphic.

The whole forearm, back of hand, the whole thigh, the metatarsal surface of the foot.

Very elaborate Chiefly for ornament, for use after death, for cure of illness.

Kenyah [male]

As amongst Kayans, with some degradation of design and alternation of name.

Same as with Kayans.

None Sign of bravery in some cases. Chiefly for ornament.

[female]

As amongst Kayans.

The whole forearm, back of hand, metatarsal surface of foot.

None Ornament.

Kenyah-Kalamantan.

Peng [male]