camphor within it. If he gives a favourable opinion, the tree is cut
down and broken in pieces as described above. On cutting down the tree,
an oil which smells strongly of camphor sometimes pours out and is
collected. The party remains LALI until the collection of the camphor
is completed; no stranger may enter their hut or speak with them. The
practice of collecting camphor in this way is probably a very ancient
one,[56] whereas the collection of gutta and rubber has been undertaken
only in recent years in response to the demands of the European market.

Many varieties of the rattan palm grow luxuriantly in the forests of
Borneo, some attaining a length of 150 to 200 feet. It is a creeper
which makes its way towards the light, suspending itself to branches
and twigs by means of the curved spines which prolong the midribs of
the leaves. The cane is collected by cutting through the stem near its
root, and hauling on it, several men combining their t'efforts. The
piece cut down is dragged through the jungle to the river-bank. There
it is cut into lengths of fifteen feet, I.E. two and a half spans, and
dried in the sun. If the sap is thoroughly dried out, the cane assumes
a permanent yellow colour; but if any is left, the cane darkens when
soaked in water. When a large number of bundles has been collected,
they are bound together to form a raft. On this a hut is erected,
and two or three men will navigate the raft down river to the Chinese
bazaar, which is to be found in the lower part of every large river.

The small yellow fruit of the rattan is gathered in large quantities
and subjected to prolonged boiling. The fluid becomes of a bright
crimson colour; this, boiled down till it has the consistency of
beeswax, is known as dragon's blood, and is used by the people as a
colouring matter and also exported for the same purpose.

Honey and beeswax are found in nests which are suspended by the
wild bee from high branches of the MINGRIS (COOMPASSIA) and TAPANG
(ARBOURIA) trees, sometimes many nests on one tree. To reach the nest
the men climb the tree by the aid of a ladder somewhat in the fashion
of a steeple-jack. A large number of sharpened pegs of ironwood are
driven into the softer outer layers of the stem in a vertical row
about two feet apart, and bamboos are lashed in a single vertical row
to the pegs and to one another and to the lower branches. The ladder
is built up until at some sixty or eighty feet from the ground it
reaches a branch bearing a nest. The taking of the nests is usually
accomplished after nightfall. A man ascends the ladder carrying in
one hand a burning torch of bark, which gives off a pungent smoke,
and on his back a large hollow cone of bark. Straddling out along
the bough, he hangs his cone of bark beneath the nest, smokes out
the bees, and cuts away the nest from the bough with his sword,
so that it falls into the cone of bark. Then, choosing a piece of
comb containing grubs, he munches it with gusto, describing from his
position of advantage to his envious friends the delicious quality of
the grubs. After thus gathering two or three nests he lets down the
cone with a cord to his eagerly expectant comrades, who then feast
upon the remaining grubs and squeeze out the honey into jars. The
tree having been cleared of nests in this way, the wax is melted in
an iron pot and moulded in balls. The honey is eaten in the houses;
the wax is sold to the Chinese traders at about a shilling a pound.

Vegetable tallow is procured from the seeds of the ENGKABONG tree
(SHOREA). The seeds are crushed and the tallow melted out and gathered
in bamboos. It is used as a food, generally smeared on hot rice. It
is sometimes a principal feature of the Punan's diet for considerable
periods.

Wild sago is abundant and is much used by Punans, and occasionally
by most of the other peoples when their supply of PADI is short. The
sago tree is cut down and its stem is split into several pieces with
wedges. The pith is knocked out with a bamboo mallet. The sago is
prepared from the pith by the women, who stamp it on coarse mats,
pouring water upon it. The fine grains of sago are carried through on
to a trough below. It is then washed and boiled in water, when it forms
a viscid mass; this is eaten with a spoon or with a strip of bamboo
bent double, the two ends of which are turned round in the sago and
withdrawn with a sticky mass adherent; this is plunged in the gravy OF
pork and carried to the mouth. It is generally considered a delicacy.

Many varieties of the forest trees exude resins, which are collected
and used for torches and for repairing boats, as well as brought to
the bazaars, where the best kinds fetch very good prices. Sometimes
the resin is found in large masses on the ground where it has dripped
from the trees.

A curious and valuable natural product is the bezoar stone. These
stones are found in the gall-bladder and intestines of the
long-tailed monkey SEMNOPITHECUS (most frequently of S. HOSEI and
S. RUBICUNDUS). They are formed of concentric layers of a hard,
brittle, olive-green substance, very bitter to the taste. A soft brown
variety is found in the porcupine. Both kinds are highly valued by
the Chinese as medicine. The monkeys and porcupines are hunted for
the sake of these stones. A similar substance, also highly valued as
a medicine by the Chinese, is sometimes found as an accretion formed
about the end of a dart which has been broken off in the flesh of
S. HOSEI and has remained there for some long period.

The most important of the natural products gathered by the people
are the edible nests of three species of swift: COLLOCALIA FUCIPHAGA,
whose nest is white; C. LOWII, whose nest is blackish; and C. LINCHII,
whose nest contains straw and moss as well as gelatine. All three
kinds are collected, but those of the first kind are much more valuable
than the others. The nest, which is shaped like that of our swallow,
consists wholly of a tough, gelatinous, translucent substance, which
exudes from the bill of the bird as it builds. We do not understand
the physiology of this process. The people generally believe that
the substance of the nest is dried seafoam which the birds bring from
the sea on returning from their annual migration.

The nests are built always on the roofs and walls of large caves:
the white nests in low-roofed caves, generally in sandstone rock; the
black in the immense lofty caves formed in the limestone rocks. The
latter are reached by means of tall scaffoldings of strong poles
of bamboo, often more than a hundred feet in height. The nests are
swept from the rock with a pole terminating in a small iron spatula,
and carrying near the extremity a wax candle; falling to the ground,
which is floored with guano several feet thick, they are gathered
up in baskets. The white nests are gathered three times in the year
at intervals of about a month, the black nests usually only twice;
as many as three tons of black nests are sometimes taken from one
big cave in the course of the annual gathering. Each cave, or, in
the case of large caves, each natural subdivision of it, is claimed
as the property of some individual, who holds it during his lifetime
and transmits it to his heirs. During the gathering of the nests of
a large cave, the people live in roofless huts built inside it. The
nests are sold to Chinese traders -- the black nests for about a
hundred dollars a hundredweight, and the white nests for as much as
thirty or forty shillings per pound.

CHAPTER 10

War

The Kayans are perhaps less aggressive than any other of the interior
peoples with the exception of the Punans. Nevertheless prowess in
war has made them respected or feared by all the peoples; and during
the last century they established themselves in the middle parts of
the basins of all the great rivers, driving out many of the Klemantan
communities, partly by actual warfare, partly by the equally effective
method of appropriating to their own use the tracts of jungle most
suitable for the cultivation of PADI.

The fighting quality of the individual Kayan, the loyalty and obedience
of each household to its chief, the custom of congregating several long
houses to form a populous village upon some spot carefully chosen for
its tactical advantages (generally a peninsula formed by a deep bend
of the river), and the strong cohesion between the Kayans of different
and even widely separated villages, -- all these factors combine to
render the Kayans comparatively secure and their villages immune from
attack. But though a Kayan village is seldom attacked, and though
the Kayans do not wantonly engage in bloodshed, yet they will always
stoutly assert their rights, and will not allow any injury done to any
member of the tribe to go unavenged. The avenging of injuries and the
necessity of possessing heads for use in the funeral rites are for them
the principal grounds of warfare; and these are generally combined,
the avenging of injuries being generally postponed, sometimes for
many years, until the need for new heads arises. Though an old dried
head will serve all the purposes of the rites performed to terminate a
period of mourning, yet it is felt that a fresh head (or heads) is more
desirable, especially in the case of mourning for an important chief.

When an old head is used in these rites, it is customary to borrow
it from another house or village, and it is brought to the house by
a party of warriors in the full panoply of war, who behave both on
setting out and returning as though actually on the war-path.

It may be said generally that Kayans seldom or never wage war on
Kayans, and seldom attack others merely to secure heads or in sheer
vainglory, as the Ibans not infrequently do. Nor do they attack others
merely in order to sustain their prestige, as is sometimes done by
the Kenyahs, who in this respect carry to an extreme the principle
that attack is the most effective mode of defence.

War is generally undertaken by the Kayans very deliberately, after much
preparation and in large well-organised parties, ranging in numbers
from fifty to a thousand or more warriors, made up in many cases from
several neighbouring villages, and under the supreme command of one
chief of acknowledged eminence.

The weapons and war-dress are similar among all the peoples. The
principal weapon is the sword known as PARANG ILANG, or MALAT, a heavy
blade (Pl. 91) of steel mounted in a handle of horn or hardwood. The
blade, about twenty-two inches in length, has the cutting edge slightly
bowed and the blunt back edge slightly hollowed. The edges diverge
slightly from the handle up to a point about five inches from the tip,
where the blade attains its maximum width of nearly two inches. At this
point the back edge bends sharply forward to meet the cutting edge at
the tip. A very peculiar feature of the blade is that it is slightly
hollowed on the inner surface (I.E. the thumb side or left side in the
case of the PARANG, of a right-handed man, the right side in case of
one made for a left-handed man), and is convex in transverse section
to a corresponding degree on the other surface. This peculiar shape
of the blade is said to render the PARANG, more efficient in sinking
into or through either limbs or wood, and is more easily withdrawn
after a successful blow. This weapon is carried in a wooden sheath
suspended by a plaited waist-strap, and is the constant companion
of every man; for it is used not only in warfare, but also for a
variety of purposes, such as the hewing down of jungle undergrowth,
cutting rattans and bamboos, the rough shaping of wooden implements.

The weapon second in importance is the spear (Pl. 92). It consists of
a flat steel blade, about one foot in length, of which the widest part
(between one and two inches) is about four inches from the tip. The
tip and lateral edges of the blade are sharp, and its haft is lashed
with strips of rattan to the end of a wooden shaft. The extremity
of the haft is bent outwards from the shaft, to prevent its being
dragged off from the latter. The shaft is of tough wood and about
seven feet in length; its butt end is usually shod with iron. The
spear is used not only for thrusting, but also as a javelin and as a
parrying stick for warding off the spears hurled by the foe. It is
always carried in the boat when travelling on the river, or in the
hand during excursions in the jungle.

The blow-pipe, which projects a poisoned dart, is used by many of
the Kayans in hunting, but is hardly regarded as a weapon for serious
use in warfare.

Beside the principal spear, two or three short spears or javelins,
sometimes merely pointed bars of hardwood, are usually carried in
the left hand when an attack is being made.

Beside the sword and the spears the only weapons commonly used are
heavy bars of ironwood, sharpened at both ends and flung so as to
twirl rapidly in the air. They are chiefly used in defending houses
from attack, a store of them being kept in the house. For the defence
of a house against an expected attack, short sharp stakes of split
bamboo are thrust slantingly into the ground, so as to present the
fire-hardened tip towards the feet of the oncoming foe.

The interior peoples have long possessed a certain number of
European-made muskets (mostly flint-locks) and small Bruni-made brass
cannon, obtained from the Malay and Chinese traders. The latter were
chiefly valued for the defence of the house, but were sometimes mounted
in the bows of the war-boats. The difficulty of obtaining supplies of
gunpowder has always restricted greatly the use of firearms, and in
recent years the European governments have strictly limited the sale
of gunpowder and firearms; and even at the present day any war-party
commissioned by one of the governments to execute any police measure,
such as apprehending, or burning the house of, people who have wantonly
killed others, has to rely in the main on its native weapons.

The equipment of the fighting-man consists, in addition to his weapons,
of a war-cap and war-coat and shield (Pl. 93 and Fig. 26). The former
is a round closely-fitting cap woven of stout rattans split in halves
longitudinally. It affords good protection to the skull against the
stroke of the sword. It is adorned with two of the long black-and-white
barred feathers of the hornbill's tail in the case of, any man who
has earned this distinction by taking part in successful expeditions.

The war-coat is made of the skin of the goat, the bear, or (in case
of distinguished chiefs) of the tiger-cat. The whole of the skin in
one piece is used, except that the skin of the belly and of the lower
parts of the forelimbs are cut away. A hole for the warrior's head is
made in the mid-dorsal line a little behind the skin of the head, which
is flattened out and hangs over the chest, descending to the level of
the navel; while the skin of the back, flanks, and hind limbs in one
large flap, covers the back and hind parts of the warrior as far as
the bend of the knees. A large pearly shell usually adorns the lower
end of the anterior flap. The warrior's arms are thus left free, but
unprotected. In the finest coats there is a patch of brightly coloured
beadwork at the nape of the neck, and the back-flap is adorned with
rows of loosely dangling hornbills' feathers; but these again are
considered appropriate only to the coats of warriors of proved valour.

The Kayan shield is an oblong plate cut from a single piece of soft
wood. Its ends are pointed more or less acutely; the length between
the points is about four feet. The inner surface forms a flat hollow;
the outer is formed by two flat surfaces meeting in a flat obtuse
angle or ridge extending from point to point. The grain of the wood
runs longitudinally, and a downward falling PARANG is liable to split
the wood and become wedged fast in it. In order to prevent the shield
becoming divided in this way, and to hold fast the blade of the sword,
it is bound across with several stout strips of rattan which are laced
closely to the wood with finer strips. The handle, carved out of the
same solid block of wood as the body of the shield, is in the middle of
the concave surface; it is a simple vertical bar for the grasp of the
left hand. The Kayan shield is commonly stained red with iron oxide,
and touched up with black pigment, but not otherwise decorated.

Wooden shields of this kind are used by almost all the tribes, but
some of them decorate their shields elaborately. The two surfaces
of almost all Kenyah shields (Fig. 27) are covered with elaborate
designs picked out in colours, chiefly red and black. The designs
are sketched out on the wood with the point of a knife, and the
pigment is applied with the finger and a chisel-edged stick. The
principal feature of the designs on the outer surface is in all
cases a large conventionalised outline of a face with large eyes,
indicated by concentric circles in red and black, and a double row
of teeth with two pairs of canines projecting like huge tusks. This
face seems to be human, for, although in some shields there is nothing
to indicate this interpretation, in others the large face surmounts
the highly conventionalised outline of a diminutive human body, the
limbs of which are distorted and woven into a more or less intricate
design. Each extremity of the outer surface is covered by a similarly
conventionalised face-pattern on a smaller scale. On the inner side
each longitudinal half is covered with an elaborate scroll-pattern,
generally symmetrical in the two halves; the centre of this pattern
is generally a human figure more or less easily recognisable; the
two halves sometimes bear male and female figures respectively.

The shields most prized by the Kenyahs are further decorated with
tufts of human hair taken from the heads of slain enemies. It is put
on in many rows which roughly frame the large face with locks three
or four inches in length on scalp, cheeks, chin, and upper lip; and
the smaller faces at the ends are similarly surrounded with shorter
hair. The hair is attached by forcing the ends of the tufts into
narrow slits in the soft wood and securing it with fresh resin.

The Klemantan shields are, in the main, variations on the Kenyah
patterns. The Murut shields closely resemble those of the Kayans,
though the Dusuns, who have the domesticated buffalo, use a shield of
buffalo-hide attached to the forearm by a strap -- a feature unknown
in all the other types, which are borne by the handle only. The Sea
Dayaks nowadays make a greater variety of shields, copying those of
the other tribes with variations of their own. The shield originally
used by them before coming into contact with many other tribes,
but now discarded, was made of strips of bamboo plaited together and
stiffened with a longitudinal strip of wood (Fig. 28). It was of two
shapes, both oblong, one with rounded, the other with pointed ends.

The Land Dayaks still use a shield of tough bark (Fig. 29), and it is
not improbable that these were used by other tribes at no distant date.

Every Kayan household possesses, beside the many smaller boats, one or
more boats especially designed for use in war. A typical war-boat is
about 100 feet in length, from six to seven feet wide in its middle
part, and tapers to a width of about three and a half feet at bow
and stern. In some cases the length of the war-boat, which is always
made from a single log, is as much as 145 feet in length (Pl. 96),
but so large a boat is unwieldy in use, and its construction costs an
excessive amount of labour. The ordinary war-boat carries from sixty
to seventy men seated two abreast on the cross-benches. It is steered
by the paddles of the two bow-men and the four next the stern. One
of these war-boats, manned by sixty or seventy paddlers, can maintain
a pace about equal to that of our University racing eights.[57]

War is only undertaken after formal consultation and many discussions
between the chief or chiefs and all the leading men. If the village
primarily concerned does not feel itself strong enough to achieve its
ends, it will seek the help of some neighbouring village, usually,
but not always one of its own tribe. The discussion may be renewed
day after day for some little time, before the decision to fight is
taken and the time for the expedition is fixed.

The next step is to seek favourable omens, and two men are told off for
this work. They repair to some spot in the jungle, or more commonly
on the bank of the river, where they build a small hut; they adorn
it by fraying the poles of its framework, and so secure themselves
against interruptions by passing acquaintances. The sight or sound
of certain birds and beasts is favourable, of others unfavourable;
but the favourable creatures must be observed in a certain order,
if the omens are to be entirely satisfactory. If very bad omens are
observed, the men return home to report the fact, and will make another
attempt after a few days. If the omens are of mixed character, they
will persist for some time, hoping to get a sufficient number of good
omens to counteract or nullify the bad. When seeking for their place
of observation, their choice is determined by seeing a spider-hunter
(ARACHNOTHERA) flying across the river, chirping as it flies. When this
is seen they stop the boat, calling out to the bird, "O friend ISIT,
protect us and give us success." One of the men lands on the bank,
hews out a pole about eight feet long, cuts upon it bunches of shavings
without detaching (Pl. 97) them from the pole, and thrusts one end of
it into the ground so that it remains sloping towards the abode of the
foe. While this is being done on the bank, fire of some sort (if only
a cigarette) is lighted in the boat, and the position is explained
more fully to the bird, but without any mention of the name of the
enemy. The observers then erect a hut near the omen-pole for their
shelter, and pass the night there before looking out for the omen-bird
next desired. This is the trogan (HARPACTES DUVAUCELII), which has
a peculiar soft trilling note and a brilliant red chest. When this
bird appears, it is addressed in the same way as the spider-hunter;
and this second step of the process is also marked by a feathered stick
thrust into the ground before the hut. Then they spend another night in
the hut hoping for significant dreams. To dream of abundance of fruit
(which symbolises heads) is favourable; any dream of a disagreeable
or fearful situation is unfavourable. After a favourable dream comes
the most important stage of the business, the observation of the
hawks. They look for LAKI NEHO from the door of their hut about nine
o'clock in the morning. As soon as a hawk is seen, they light a fire
and call on him to go to the left, waving a feathered stick in that
direction, and, shouting at the top of his voice, one of them pours
out a torrent of words addressed to the hawk. If he goes out of sight
towards the right, they console themselves by remarking that he is one
of low degree, and they sit down to wait for another. If two hawks are
seen to fight in the air, that foretells much bloodshed. They are not
satisfied until they see a hawk sail far away out of sight towards
the left. Then a break is made; after which they observe the hawks
again, until they see one sail out of sight towards the right. If
all this is accomplished without the intervention of unfavourable
omens, they return home to report progress; but immediately return
to the hut and remain there. Then for one, two, or even three days,
all the men of the house stay at home quietly, busying themselves in
preparing boats and weapons. The chief, or some deputy, then performs
the rites before the altar-post of the war-god that stands before
the house in the way described in Chap. XV. The omens given by the
hawks on this occasion are guarantees for the safety of the house
and those left in it, and against accidents and sickness incidental
to the journey; they have no reference to the actual fighting.[58]
All the men of the war-party then proceed in their war-boats to the
spot where the war-omens have been observed, and camp round about
it in roughly built huts. Here they will remain at least two days,
establishing their connection with the favourable omen-birds. From
this encampment they may not return to the house, and, if they are
expecting a party of allies, they may await them here. By this time
the war-fever is raging among them, and rumours of the preparations
of the enemy are circulating. Spies or scouts may be sent out to
seek information about the enemy; but usually such information is
sought from the liver of a pig with the customary ceremony. A sharp
ridge on the liver dividing their own region from that of the enemy
is unfavourable, a low soft ridge is favourable.

From the moment of leaving the village the men of the war-party must
observe many tabus until their return home. They may not eat the head
of a fish; they must use only their home-made earthen pots; fire must
be made only by friction (see Pl. 89); they must not smoke; boys may
not lie down, but must sleep sitting. The people who remain at home
are not expected to observe these tabus; they may go to the farms, but
must keep quiet, and undertake nothing outside the ordinary routine.

If the object of the attack is a village in their own river, the
expedition paddles steadily day after day until it reaches the mouth
of some small stream at a distance of some miles from the enemy's
village. Forcing their boats some two or three miles up this stream
they make a camp. Here two solid platforms are built about twenty feet
apart, and a large beam is laid from one to the other. The chiefs
and principal men take their seats on the platforms, and then every
man of the party in turn approaches this beam, the fighting leader,
who is usually not one of the chiefs, coming first. If he is willing
to go through with the business, I.E. to take part in the attack, he
slashes a chip from the beam with his PARANG and passes under it. On
the far side of the beam stands a chief holding a large frond of fern,
and, as each man passes under, he gives him a bit of the leaf, while
an assistant cuts a notch on a tally-stick for each volunteer. If
for any reason any man is reluctant to go farther, he states his
excuse, perhaps a bad dream or illness, or sore feet, and returns
to the boats, amid the jeers of those who have passed the ordeal,
to form one of a party to be left in charge of the camp and boats.

Next, all the left-handed men are sorted out to form a party whose
special duty is to ambush the enemy, if possible, at some favourable
spot. These are known as the hornets (SINGAT). If any swampy ground
or other obstruction intervenes between their camp and the enemy's
village, a path is made through or over it to facilitate retreat
to the boats. A password is agreed upon, which serves as a means
of making members of the party known to one another upon any chance
meeting in the dark.

Scouts are sent out at dusk and, if their reports are favourable, the
attack is made just before dawn. About half the warriors are provided
with large bundles of dry shavings, and some will carry torches. When
the attacking party has quietly surrounded the house or houses, the
bundles of shavings are ignited, and their bearers run in and throw
them under the house among the timbers on which it is supported. Then
ensues a scene of wild confusion. The calm stillness of the tropical
dawn is broken by the deep war-chorus of the attacking party, by the
shouts and screams of the people of the house suddenly roused from
sleep, by the cries and squeals of the frightened animals beneath the
house, and the beating of the alarm signal on the TAWAK. If the house
is ignited, the encircling assailants strive to intercept the fleeing
inhabitants. These, if the flames do not drive them out before they
have time to take any concerted measures, will hurl their javelins
and discharge their firearms (if they have any) at their assailants;
then they will descend, bringing the women and children with them, and
make a desperate attempt to cut their way through and escape to the
jungle or, sometimes, to their boats. Kayans conducting a successful
attack of this kind will make as many prisoners as possible, and will
as a rule kill only those men who make desperate resistance, though
occasionally others, even women and children, may be wantonly killed
in the excitement of the moment. It is not unusual in the case of an
able-bodied man who has surrendered, but shown signs of attempting to
escape or of renewing his resistance, to deal him a heavy blow on the
knee-cap, and so render him lame for some time. It usually happens
that the greater part of the fugitives escape into the jungle; and
they are not pursued far, if the victors have secured a few heads and
a few prisoners. The head is hacked off at once from the body of any
one of the foe who falls in the fight; the trunk is left lying where
it fell. If any of the assailants are killed in the course of the fray,
their heads are not taken by their friends, and their corpses are left
upon the field covered with boughs, or at most, in the case of chiefs,
are dragged into the jungle and covered up with boughs and twigs, in
order to prevent their heads being taken by the enemy. If any of the
enemy remain so badly wounded that they are not likely to recover,
their heads are taken; and if no other heads have been secured,
the head of one of the more seriously wounded captives is taken,
or of one who is deformed or incapacitated in any way. If a captive
dies of his wounds his head is taken; but it is a rare exception for
Kayans to kill any of their captives after the short excitement of
the battle is over. The attacking party, even though it has gained a
decisive victory, usually returns with all speed, but in good order,
to its boats, carrying with it through the jungle all the loot that
is not too cumbersome for rapid portage, especially old beads, gongs,
and brass-ware; for they are always in danger of being cut off by
a party of their enemies, rallied and reinforced by parties from
neighbouring friendly villages. Still more are they liable to be
pursued and cut off, if the attack on the village has failed through
the defenders having been warned; for an attack upon a strong house or
village has little chance of success if the defenders are prepared for
and expecting it. The pursuit of the retreating party may be kept up
throughout one or two days, and, if the pursuers come up with them,
a brisk and bloody battle is the natural outcome; and it is under
these circumstances that the most severe fighting takes place. But
here again it is seldom that any large proportion of either party is
slain; for the dense jungle everywhere offers abundant opportunities
of concealment to those who condescend to seek its shelter, and there
are few, even among the Kayans and Kenyahs, who will fight to the
bitter end, if the alternative of flight is open to them.

A successful war-party returning home makes no secret of its
success. The boats are decorated with palm leaves (DAUN ISANG),
and a triumphal chorus is raised from time to time, especially on
passing villages. As the villagers come out to gaze on them, those who
have taken heads stand up in the boats. The heads, slightly roasted,
are wrapped up in palm leaves and placed in baskets in the stern of
the boat. If the return home involves a journey of several days,
the victors will, if possible, pass the nights in the houses of
friendly villages, where they are made much of, especially those
who have taken heads; and on these occasions the glamour of victory
is apt to turn the heads of some of the women and to break down the
reserve that modesty normally imposes upon them.

On approaching their own village, whither the rumour of their
success usually precedes them, the war-party is received with loud
acclamations, the people coming down to the riverside to receive
them. Before they ascend to the house, the heads have to be safely
lodged in a small hut specially built for their reception; and the
young boys are brought down to go through their first initiation in
the arts of war. Each child is made to hold a sword and, with the
assistance of some aged warrior, to strike a blow at one of the newly
captured heads. The older boys, some nine or ten years of age, who
are ripe for their second participation in mock warfare, also strike
at a head in a similar way, but engage also in mimic battles with one
another, using wooden swords and spears, and, curiously enough, small
roughly made bows and arrows.[59] It is customary for the victorious
warriors to spend the first night after their return encamped before
the house. A strip of green DAUN ISANG is tied about the left wrist
of each man who has taken part in the expedition, and also of each of
the young boys. Those who have taken heads adorn also their war-caps
with the same leaf and with feathered sticks. On the following day
a tall post of bamboo (BALAWING) is erected near the figure of the
war-god. It is covered with frayed palm leaves (DAUN ISANG), and from
its tip a single head, also wrapped in leaves, is suspended by a long
cord (Pl. 66). Before the altar-post of the war-god several shorter
thicker posts are erected, and to each of these two or three small
pieces of human flesh, brought home from the corpses of the slain
enemies for this purpose, are fastened with skewers. These pieces of
flesh seem to be thank-offerings to the hawks to whom the success is
largely attributed. These bits of flesh are dried over a fire at the
first opportunity on the return journey, in order to preserve them.[60]

As soon as the news of the taking of heads reaches the house, the
people go out of mourning, I.E. they shave the parts of the scalp
surrounding the crown and pull out eyebrows and eyelashes (which have
been allowed to grow during mourning); they put off their bark-cloth
garments and resume their cotton-cloths and ornaments.

If, as is usually the case on the return of a war-party, mourning for
a chief is to be terminated, one of the heads is carried down river
to his tomb, followed by most of the men, while the women wail in
the house. The head is first brought before the house, but not into
it. An old man shoots a dart into the air in the direction of the
enemy, and then, pattering out a long formula in the usual way, he
slaughters a fowl and puts a part of the carcase upon a short stick
thrust into the earth. The men of the party then march past, each
touching the carcase with his knee, and saying as he does so, "Cast
out sickness, make me strong and healthy, exalt me above my enemies,
etc. etc." Beside the tomb a tall pole is set up, and the head dressed
in leaves is suspended by a cord from its upper end. A number of pigs
will already have been slain in preparation for the feast, and their
lower jaws are hung about the tomb on poles. The deep war-chorus is
shouted by the party as it travels to and from the tomb. In returning
the whole party bathes in the river, and while they are in the water
an old man waves over them some of the ISANG leaves with which the
head has been decorated, wishing them health and long life.

A few days (not less than four) after the return of the war-party,
the heads are brought into the house with much rejoicing and
ceremony. Every family kills a pig and roasts its flesh,[61] brings
out stores of rice-spirit, and prepares cakes of rice-flour. The pigs'
livers are examined, and their blood is smeared upon the altar-post
of the war-god with a sort of brush (PLA) made by fraying the end of
a stick in a more than usually elaborate manner. Each head, adorned
with a large bunch of DAUN ISANG, is carried by an elderly man or
woman into the house, followed by all the people of the house -- men,
women, and children -- in long procession. The procession marches
up and down the whole length of the gallery many times, the people
shouting, singing, stamping, and pounding on the floor with PADI
pestles, or playing the KELURI. This is followed by a general feast
and drinking bout, each family preparing its feast in its own chamber,
and entertaining friends and neighbours who come to take part in the
general rejoicing. In the course of the feasting the women usually
take temporary possession of the heads, and perform with them a wild,
uncouth dance, waving the heads to and fro, and chanting in imitation
of the men's war-song (Pl. 102). The procession may be resumed at
intervals until the heads are finally suspended beside the old ones
over the principal hearth of the gallery. The heads have usually
been prepared by removal of the brain through the great foramen,
by drying over a fire, and by lashing on the lower jaw with strips of
rattan. The suspension of the head is effected by piercing a round hole
in the crown, and passing through it from below, by way of the great
foramen, a rattan knotted at the end. The free end of the rattan is
passed through and tied in a hole in the lower edge of a long beam
suspended parallel to the length of the gallery from the beams of
the roof (Pl. 68). The Kenyahs suspend the heads in the same way as
the Kayans, but most of the Klemantans and Ibans use in place of the
long beam a strong basket-work in the shape of a cone, the apex being
attached to the roof beams, and the heads tied in two or three tiers
in the wall of the cone. In either case the heads hang some five or
six feet above the floor, where they are out of reach of the dogs.

Defence

Since every Bornean long-house is, or until recently was, liable
at almost any time to a night attack of the kind described above,
the situation of the house is chosen with an eye to defence. The site
chosen is in nearly all cases on the bank of a river or stream large
enough for the navigation of small boats; a high and steep river-bank
is commonly preferred; and spits of land between two converging streams
or peninsulas formed by sharp bends of the rivers are favoured spots.

Beside the natural situation, the prime defence of the house is its
elevation some 10 to 30 feet above the level of the ground, joined
with the difficulty of access to the house by means of narrow ladders
easily drawn up or thrown down. This elevation of the house serves
also to secure its contents against sudden risings of the river,
and also against the invasion of evil odours from the refuse which
accumulates below it; but its primary purpose is undoubtedly defence
against human enemies. The interval between the low outer wall of the
gallery and the lower edge of the roof is the only aperture through
which missiles can be hurled into the house, and this is so narrow
as to render the entry of any missiles well-nigh impossible.

When a household gets wind of an intended attack, they generally put
the house into a state of defence by erecting a fence of vertical
stakes around it, some three yards outside the posts on which it is
supported and some six to eight feet in height. This fence is rendered
unclimbable by a frieze consisting of a multitude of slips of bamboo;
each of these is sharpened at both ends, bent upon itself, and thrust
between the poles of the palisade so that its sharp points (Pl. 100)
are directed outwards. This dense jungle of loosely attached spikes
constitutes an obstacle not easily overcome by the enemy; for the
loosely fitting bamboo slips can neither be hacked away nor removed
individually without considerable expenditure of time, during which
the attackers are exposed to a shower of missiles from the house. A
double ladder in the form of a stile is placed across the fence
to permit the passage of the people of the house. If there is any
definite pathway leading to the house, a log is sometimes suspended
above it by a rattan passing over a branch of a tree and carried to
the house. This can be allowed to fall upon the approaching enemy by
severing the rattan where it is tied within the house (Klemantan).

A further precaution is to stick into the ground round about the house
a large number of slips of bamboo. Each slip is some six inches in
length, and its sharp, fire-hardened point projects upwards and a
little outwards.

If the attacking party is likely to approach by the river, a trap
may be arranged at some point where, by reason of rapids or rocks,
the boats are likely to be delayed. Here a large tree overhanging
the river is chosen for the trap. Stout rattans are made fast to its
branches, brought over the branches of a neighbouring tree, and made
fast in some spot within reach of a hidden watcher. The stem of the
overhanging tree is then cut almost through, so that a few blows of
a sword, severing the supporting rattans, may cause the tree to fall
upon the passing boat.

When a hostile war-party enters a section of a river in which there
is a number of villages of one tribe or of friendly tribes, its
approach may be signalled throughout the district by the beating
of the TAWAK. The same peculiar rhythm is used for this purpose by
all the tribes, though it probably has been copied from the Kayans
by all the others. It consists in a rapid series of strokes of
increasing rate upon the boss, followed by one long deep note, and
two shorter ones struck upon the body and once repeated. Whenever
this war-alarm is heard in a village, it is repeated, and so passed
on from village to village. The people working in the farms or in the
jungle, or travelling on the river, return at once to their villages on
hearing the alarm, and the houses are prepared for defence. When the
news of the approach of a hostile party has been spread in this way
throughout the river, it has little chance of successfully attacking
a house or village, and it will, unless very numerous, content itself
with attempting to cut off some of the people returning home from
the farms. If the invading party is very strong, it may surround a
house whose defenders have been warned of their coming, and attempt
to starve them into submission. In the old days it was not uncommon
for a strong party of Kayans to descend upon a settlement of the more
peaceable coastwise people, and to extort from them a large payment of
brass-ware as the price of their safety. If the unfortunate household
submitted to this extortion, the Kayans would keep faith with them,
and would ratify a treaty of peace by making the headman of the
village blood-brother of their chief.

Some features of the tactics adopted by the Kayans are worthy of
more detailed description. If a strong party determines to attack a
house in face of an alert defence, they may attempt to storm it in
broad daylight by forming several compact bodies of about twenty-five
men. Each body protects itself with a roof of shields held closely
together, and the several parties move quickly in upon the house
simultaneously from different points, and attempt to carry it by
assault. The defenders of the house would attempt to repel such an
attack by hurling heavy bars of iron-wood, sharpened at both ends, in
such a way that the bar twirls in the air as it hurtles through it;
and this is one of the few occasions on which the blow-pipe is used
as a weapon of defence.

A village that has been warned of the approach of the foe may send out
a party to attempt to ambush the attackers at some difficult passage of
the river or the jungle. Scouts are sent out to locate the enemy. Some
climb to the tops of tall trees to look for the smoke of the enemy's
fires. Having located the enemy, the scouts approach so closely as to
be able to count their numbers and observe all their movements; and,
keeping in touch with the party, they send messages to their chief. If
the defenders succeed in ambushing the attackers and in killing
several of them, the latter usually withdraw discouraged, and may for
the time give up the attempt. If the defending party should come upon
the enemy struggling against a rapid, and especially if the enemy is
in difficulties through the upsetting of some of their boats, or in
any other way, they may fall upon them in the open bed of the river,
and then ensues the comparatively rare event, a stand-up fight in the
open. This resolves itself in the main into hand-to-hand duels between
pairs of combatants, as in the heroic age. The warriors select their
opponents and approach warily; they call upon one another by name,
hurling taunts and swaggering boastfully in the heroic style. Each
abuses the other's parents, and threatens to use his opponent's
skin as a war-coat, or his scrotum as a tobacco-pouch, to take
his head and to use his hair as an ornament for a PARANG-handle;
or doubt as to the opponent's sex may be insinuated. While this
exchange of compliments goes on, the warriors are manoeuvring for
favourable positions; each crouches, thrusting forward his left leg,
covering himself as completely as possible with his long shield,
and dodging to and fro continually. The short javelins and spears
are first hurled, and skilfully parried with spear and shield. When
a man has expended his stock of javelins and has hurled his spear,
he closes in with his PARANG. His enemy seeks to receive the blow of
the PARANG on his shield in such a way that the point, entering the
wood, may be held fast by it. Feinting and dodging are practised;
one man thrusts out his left leg to tempt the other to strike at it
and to expose his head in doing so. If one succeeds in catching his
enemy's PARANG in his shield, he throws down the shield and dashes
upon his now weaponless foe, who takes to his heels, throwing away
his shield and relying merely on his swiftness of foot. When one of
a pair of combatants is struck down, the other springs upon him and,
seizing the long hair of the scalp and yelling in triumph, severs the
neck with one or two blows of the PARANG. The warrior who has drawn
first blood of the slain foe claims the credit of having taken his
head. Such a free fight seldom lasts more than a few minutes. Unless
one party quite overwhelms the other in the first few minutes, both
draw off, and the fight is seldom renewed.

Since the establishment of the European governments in Borneo,
punitive expeditions have been necessary from time to time in order
to put a stop to wanton raiding and killing. In this respect the
Ibans and some of the Klemantans have been the chief offenders;
while the Kayans and Kenyahs have seldom given trouble, after once
placing themselves under the established governments. In the Baram
river, in which the Kayans form probably a larger proportion of the
population than in any other, no such expedition against them has
been necessary since they accepted the government of H.H. the Rajah
of Sarawak nearly twenty-five years ago.

In organising such an expedition, the European governments, especially
that of Sarawak, have usually relied in the main on the services
of loyal chiefs and their followers, acting under the control of a
European magistrate, and supported usually by a small body of native
police or soldiers armed with rifles. There is usually no difficulty
in securing the co-operation of any desired number of native allies or
volunteers; for in this way alone can the people now find a legitimate
outlet for their innate and traditional pugnacity. Sometimes the
people to be punished desert their village, hiding themselves in
the jungle; and in such cases the burning of their houses is usually
deemed sufficient punishment. In cases of more serious crime, such as
repeated wanton bloodshed and refusal to yield to the demands of the
government, it becomes necessary to apprehend the persons primarily
responsible, and, for this purpose, to pursue the fugitives. These
sometimes establish themselves on a hill-top surrounded by precipices
which can be scaled only by the aid of ladders, and there defy the
government forces until the hill is carried by assault, or by siege,
or the defenders are enticed to descend. One such hill in the basin
of the Rejang (Sarawak), Bukit Batu by name, consists of a mass of
porphyry some 1500 feet in height, and several miles in diameter,
with very precipitous sides. This has been used again and again as a
place of refuge by recalcitrant offenders, being so strong a natural
fortress that it has never been possible to carry it by assault. On
the last occasion on which Bukit Batu was used in this way, two Iban
chiefs established themselves on the hill and defied the government
of Sarawak for a period of four years, during which the hill became a
place of refuge for all evil-doers and outlaws among the Ibans of the
Rejang and neighbouring districts, who built their houses on ledges
of the mountain some four hundred feet above the level of the river.

The punitive expedition that we briefly describe in Chapter XXII. was
but a small affair compared with some, in which as many as 10,000
or 12,000 men have mustered under the government flag. So large a
number is seldom necessary or desired by the government; but when
contingents from all the loyal communities of a large district eagerly
offer their services, it is difficult to deny any of them permission
to take part. Kenyahs and Kayans will co-operate harmoniously, and
also Klemantans; but the former distrust the Sea Dayaks and will not
join forces with any large number of them.

The modes of warfare of the other tribes are similar in most respects
to that of the Kayans described above; but some peculiarities are
worthy of note.

Kenyah warfare is very similar to Kayan, save in so far as their
more impetuous temper renders their tactics more dashing. While the
Kayans endeavour to make as many captives as possible, the Kenyahs
attach little value to them. While Kayans never attack communities of
their own tribe, such "civil war" is not unknown among the Kenyahs,
whose tribal cohesion is less intimate in many respects. From these
two differences it results that the Kenyah war-parties are generally
smaller than those of the Kayans, more quick-moving, and more prone to
attack groups of the enemy encountered on farms or on the river. Like
the Ibans, the Kenyahs make peace more readily than the Kayans, who
nurse their grievances and seek redress after long intervals of time.

The Ibans conduct their warfare less systematically, and with far
less discipline than the Kayans and Kenyahs. An attack upon a house
or village by Bans is usually made in very large force; the party
is more of the nature of a rabble than of an army; each man acts
independently. They seek above all things to take heads, to which they
attach an extravagant value, unlike the Kayans and Kenyahs who seek
heads primarily for the service of their funeral rites; and they not
infrequently attack a house and kill a large number of its inmates in
a perfectly wanton manner, and for no other motive that the desire to
obtain heads. This passion for heads leads them sometimes into acts
of gross treachery and brutality. The Ibans being great wanderers,
small parties of them, engaged perhaps in working jungle produce, will
settle for some weeks in a household of Klemantans, and, after being
received hospitably, and sometimes even after contracting marriages
with members of the household, will seize an opportunity, when most
of the men of the house are from home, to take the heads of all the
men, women, and children who remain, and to flee with them to their
own distant homes.

So strong is this morbid desire of the Ibans to obtain human heads,
that a war-party will sometimes rob the tombs of the villages of
other tribes and, after smoking the stolen heads of the corpses,
will bring them home in triumph with glowing accounts of the stout
resistance offered by the victims. Their attitude in this matter is
well expressed by a saying current among them, namely, "Why should
we eat the hard caked rice from the edge of the pot when there's
plenty of soft rice in the centre?" The Iban women urge on the men
to the taking of heads; they make much of those who bring them home,
and sometimes a girl will taunt her suitor by saying that he has not
been brave enough to take a head; and in some cases of murder by Sea
Dayaks, the murderer has no doubt been egged on in this way.

Nevertheless, we repeat that there is no ground for the oft-reprinted
assertion that the taking of a head is a necessary prelude to
marriage.[62] Like other tribesmen Ibans do not bring home the heads
of their companions who have fallen in battle; but while men of other
tribes are content to drag the corpses of their fallen friends into
some obscure spot and to cover them with branches, Ibans frequently
cut off the heads and bury them at a distance from the scene of battle,
in order to prevent their being taken by the enemy.

The Ibans use a rather greater variety of weapons than the Kayans,
in that they have spears whose blades bear barbs which prevent the
withdrawal of the blade from the body of the enemy without great
violence.

The Klemantan tribes are on the whole far less warlike than Kayans,
Kenyahs, and Ibans. Their offensive warfare is usually on a small
scale, and is undertaken primarily for revenge. Their warlike ambition
is easily satisfied by the taking of a single head, or even by a
mere hostile demonstration against the enemy's house. Nevertheless,
like all the other tribes, except the Punans, the Klemantans need a
human head to terminate a period of mourning.

We venture to append to this chapter a few speculations on the
origin and history of head-hunting. From what we have said above it
is clear that the Ibans are the only tribe to which one can apply the
epithet head-hunters with the usual connotation of the word, namely,
that head-hunting is pursued as a form of sport. But although the Ibans
are the most inveterate head-hunters, it is probable that they adopted
the practice some few generations ago only (perhaps a century and a
half or even less) in imitation of Kayans or other tribes among whom
it had been established for a longer period. The rapid growth of the
practice among the Ibans was no doubt largely due to the influence
of the Malays, who had been taught by Arabs and others the arts of
piracy, and with whom the Ibans were associated in the piratical
enterprises that gave the waters around Borneo a sinister notoriety
during the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Until
the middle of the nineteenth century, the settlements of Ibans were
practically confined to the rivers of the southern part of Sarawak;
and there the Malays of Bruni and of other coast settlements enlisted
them as crews for their pirate ships. In these piratical expeditions
the Malays assigned the heads of their victims as the booty of their
Iban allies, while they kept for themselves the forms of property of
greater cash value. The Malays were thus interested in encouraging in
the Ibans the passion for head-hunting which, since the suppression of
piracy, has found vent in the irregular warfare and treacherous acts
described above. It was through their association with the Malays in
these piratical expeditions that the Ibans became known to Europeans
as the Sea Dayaks.

It seems not impossible that the practice of taking the heads of
fallen enemies arose by extension of the custom of taking the hair
for the ornamentation of the shield and sword-hilt. It seems possible
that human hair was first applied to shields in order to complete the
representation of a terrible human face, which, as we have seen, is
commonly painted on the shield, and which is said to be valued as an
aid to confusing and terrifying the foe. It is perhaps a difficulty
in the way of this view that the use of human hair to ornament
the shield is peculiar to the Kenyahs and some of the Klemantans
(the latter probably having imitated the former in this), and does
not occur among the Kayans. The Kenyahs themselves preserve the
tradition of the origin of the taking of heads; and the suggestion
is further borne out by the legend of TOKONG, which is widely known,
but is probably of Kenyah origin (see Chapter XVII.), according to
which the frog admonished a great Kenyah chief that he should cease to
take only the hair of the fallen foe, but should take their heads also.

A second plausible view of the origin of head-taking is that it arose
out of the custom of slaying slaves on the death of a chief, in order
that they might accompany and serve him on his journey to the other
world. We have pointed out several reasons for believing that this
practice was formerly general, and that it has fallen into desuetude,
but is hardly yet quite extinct. It is obvious that since the soul
of the dead man is regarded as hovering in the neighbourhood of the
body for some little time after its death, it would be felt that the
despatch of a companion soul was not a matter of immediate urgency;
and considerations of economy might well lead the mourners to prefer
capturing and killing members of some hostile community to slaying one
or more of their slaves, highly valued and sometimes affectionately
regarded as they are. It would then be felt that the relatives of
the deceased should continue to display signs of mourning until they
should have discharged this last duty to their departed friend. The
next step would be to supplant the practice of capturing a member of a
hostile community, and bringing him home to be slain, by the simpler,
less troublesome, and more merciful one of slaying the enemy on the
field of combat and bringing home only his head. In this way we may,
with some plausibility, seek to account for the origin of the practice
of taking heads, and of the tradition that the taking of a head is
necessary for the termination of a period of mourning. This second
suggestion is strongly supported by the fact that Kayans, Kenyahs,
and Klemantans occasionally, on returning home from a successful raid,
will carry one of the newly taken heads to the tomb of the chief for
whom they are mourning, and will hang it upon, or deposit it within,
the tomb beside the coffin. The head used for this purpose is thickly
covered with leaves (DAUN ISANG) tied tightly about it. It is possible
that this thick covering was first applied in order to disguise the
fact that the head is that of an enemy, and that the sacrifice of the
life of a domestic slave, originally demanded by custom and piety,
has been avoided by this process of substitution.

We have suggested above two different origins of the custom of
taking the heads of enemies. These two possibilities are by no means
mutually exclusive, and we are inclined to think that both substitutive
processes may have co-operated in bringing about this custom.

It seems probable that the taking of heads was introduced to Borneo
by Kayans when they entered the island, probably some few centuries
ago, and that the Klemantans and other tribes, like the Ibans, have
adopted the custom from their example.

We will conclude this chapter by questioning yet another of the
stories, the frequent repetition of which has given the tribes of the
interior the reputation of being savages of the worst type, namely,
the story that it is the practice of Kayans to torture the captives
taken in battle. This evil repute is, we have no doubt, largely
due to the fact that very few Europeans have acquired any intimate
first-hand acquaintance with the Kayans or Kenyahs; and that too
often the stories told by Sea Dayaks have been uncritically accepted;
for the Sea Dayaks have been bitterly hostile to the Kayans ever since
the tribes have been in contact; and the Iban is a great romancer. It
will be found that many of the alleged instances of torture by Kayans
have been described by Sea Dayaks; and we think there is good reason
for hesitating to accept any of these. But we would point out that,
if some of these accounts have been founded on fact, the Sea Dayak
victims, or their companions, have in all probability provoked the
Kayans to severe, reprisals by their atrocious behaviour, and may be
fairly said to have deserved their fate.

It is true that Kayans have been guilty of leaving a slave or captive
bound upon a tomb until he has died from exposure to the sun. We know
also of one instance in which a Murut slave, having treacherously
murdered the only son of a great Kayan chief in the Baram, at the
instigation of Bruni Malays, was killed by a multitude of small stabs
by the infuriated Kayan women, on being brought captive to the house.

But such occurrences as these by no means justify the statement that it
is the practice of Kayans to torture their captives; and we have heard
of no well-attested instances that give any colour to it. As we have
said above, Kayans commonly treat their captives so kindly that they
soon become content to remain in the households of their captors. The
Kayan feeling about torture is well illustrated by the fact that the
Kayan village responsible for the exposure of the slave mentioned
above was looked at askance by other Kayans. The spot was regarded
with horror by them, and they regard as a consequence of this act the
failure of the line of the chief of that village to perpetuate itself.

We have to admit that some of the Klemantans cannot be so
whole-heartedly defended against the charge of torturing their
captives. But we believe that it is not regularly practised by any
Klemantan tribe, but rather only on occasions which in some way evoke
an exceptional degree of emotional excitement. Thus, in one instance
known to us, the Orang Bukit of the Bruni territory, having lost the
most highly respected of their chiefs, purchased a slave in Bruni to
serve as the funereal victim, and, having shut him in a wicker cage,
killed him with a multitude of stabs, some eight hundred persons
taking part in the act. But even this act was, it must be observed,
of the nature of a pious and religious rite rather than an act of
wanton cruelty.

We cannot leave this subject without this last word. If we are quite
frank, we shall have to admit that, even though the worst accounts of
Kayan cruelty were substantially true, such behaviour would not in the
least justify the belief that the Kayans are innately more cruel than
ourselves. If we are tempted to take this view, let us remember that,
after our own race had professed Christianity for many generations,
the authority of Church and State publicly decreed and systematically
inflicted in cold blood tortures far more hideous and atrocious than
any the Kayan imagination has ever conceived.

CHAPTER 11

Handicrafts

In any account of the arts and crafts of the Kayans, the working of
iron claims the first place by reason of its high importance to them
and of the skill and knowledge displayed by them in the difficult
operations by which they produce their fine swords. The origin of
their knowledge of iron and of the processes of smelting and forging
remains hidden in mystery; but there can be little doubt that the
Kayans were familiar with these processes before they entered Borneo,
and it is probable that the Kayans were the first ironworkers in
Borneo, and that from them the other tribes have learnt the craft
with various measures of success.[63] However this may be, the Kayans
remain the most skilful ironworkers of the country, rivalled only in
the production of serviceable sword-blades by the Kenyahs.

At the present day the Kayans, like all the other peoples, obtain
their iron in the form of bars of iron and steel imported from Europe
and distributed by the Chinese and Malay traders. But thirty years ago
nearly all the iron worked by the tribes of the interior was from ore
found in the river-beds, and possibly from masses of meteoric iron;
and even at the present day the native ore is still smelted in the
far interior, and swords made from it by the Kenyahs are still valued
above all others.

Smelting and forging demand a specialised skill which is attained
by relatively few. But in each Kayan village are to be found two or
three or more skilled smiths, who work up for a small fee the metal
brought them by their friends, the finishing touches being generally
given by the owner of the implement according to his own fancy.

The smelting is performed by mixing the ore with charcoal in
a clay crucible, which is embedded in a pile of charcoal. The
charcoal being ignited is blown to a white heat by the aid of four
piston-bellows. Each of the bellows consists of a wooden cylinder
(generally made from the stem of a wild sago palm) about four feet in
length and six inches in diameter, fixed vertically in a framework
carrying a platform, on which two men sit to work the pistons (see
Pl. 107). The lower end of each cylinder is embedded in clay, and
into it near its lower end is inserted a tube of bamboo, which, lying
horizontally on the ground, converges upon and joins with a similar
tube of a second cylinder. The common tube formed by this junction in
turn converges with the tube common to the other pair of cylinders,
and with it opens by a clay junction into a final common tube of clay,
which leads to the base of the fire. The piston consists of a stout
stick bearing at its lower end a bunch of feathers large enough to
fill the bore of the cylinder. When the piston is thrust downwards,
it drives the air before it to the furnace; as it is drawn upwards,
the feathers collapsing allow the entrance of air from above. The
upper extremity of each of the piston-rods is attached by a cord to
one end of a stout pliable stick, which is firmly fixed at its other
end in a horizontal position, the cord being of such a length that the
piston-head is supported by it near the upper end of the cylinder. Two
men squat upon the platform and each works one pair of the cylinders,
grasping a piston-rod in each hand, thrusting them down alternately,
and allowing the elastic reaction of the supporting rods above to
draw them up again. The crucible, having been brought to white heat
in the furnace, is allowed to cool, when a mass of metallic iron or
steel is found within it.

The forging of implements from the metal obtained is effected by the
aid of a charcoal furnace to which a blast is supplied by the bellows
described above, or sometimes by one consisting of two cylinders
only. Stone anvils and hammers were formerly used, and may still
be seen in use in the far interior (Fig. 31); but the Kayans make
iron hammers and an anvil consisting of a short thick bar of iron,
the lower end of which is fixed vertically in a large block of wood.

The peculiarly shaped and finely tempered sword-blade, MALAT, is
the highest product of the Kayan blacksmith. The smith begins his
operations on a bar of steel some eight inches in length. One end is
either grasped with pincers, or thrust firmly into a block of wood
that serves for a handle. The other end is heated in the furnace and
gradually beaten out until the peculiar shape of the blade is achieved,
with the characteristic hollow on the one side and convexity on the
other. If the blade is to be a simple and unadorned weapon, there
follow only the tempering, grinding, and polishing. But many blades
are ornamented with curled ridges projecting from the back edge. These
are cut and turned up with an iron chisel while the metal is hot and
before tempering.

Two methods of tempering are in use. One is to heat the blade in
the fire and to plunge it at a dull heat into water. The other is
to lay the cold blade upon a flat bar of red-hot iron. This has the
advantage that the degree of the effect upon the blade can be judged
from the change of its colour as it absorbs the heat. The Kayan smiths
are expert in judging by the colours of the surface the degree and
kind of temper produced. They aim at producing a very tough steel,
for the MALAT has to serve not only in battle, but also for hacking
a path through the jungle, and for many other purposes.

Many sword-blades are elaborately decorated with scroll designs along
the posterior border and inlaid with brass. The inlaid brass commonly
takes the form of a number of small discs let into the metal near the
thick edge; small holes are punched through the hot metal, and brass
wire is passed through each hole, cut off flush with the surface and
hammered flat. The designs are chased on the cold metal with a chisel
and hammer supplemented by a file. The polishing and sharpening are
done in several stages: the first stage usually by rubbing the blade
upon a block of sandstone; the second stage by the use of a hone of
finer grain; and the highest polish is attained by rubbing with a leaf
whose surface is hard and probably contains silicious particles. At
the present time imported files are much used.

Other implements fashioned by the smiths are the small knives,
spear-heads, hoes, small adzes, rods for boring the sumpitan, the
anvil, and the various hammers, and chisels, and rough files used by
the smiths.

Brass-work

Although brass-ware is so highly valued by all the peoples of the
interior, the only brazen articles made by them (with one exception
presently to be noticed) are the heavy ear-rings of the women. The
common form is a simple ring of solid metal interrupted at one point
by a gap about an eighth of an inch wide, through which is pulled the
thin band of skin formed by stretching the lobule of the ear. Other
rings form about one and a half turns of a corkscrew spiral. These
rings are cast in moulds of clay, or in some cases in moulds hollowed
in two blocks of stone which are nicely opposed.

The Malohs, a Klemantan sub-tribe in the upper basin of the Kapuas
river, are well known as brass-workers; their wares are bartered
throughout the country, and a few Maloh brass-workers may be found
temporarily settled in many of the larger villages of all tribes. They
make the brass corsets of the Iban women, tweezers for pulling out the
hair of the face, brass ear-rings, and a variety of small articles,
and they make use of the larger brass-ware of Malay and Chinese origin
as the source of their material.

Fire Piston

This very ingenious instrument for the making of fire is cast in
metal by the Ibans. (See Fig. 36 and Pl. 108.) It consists of a
hollow brass or leaden cylinder about five inches in length and one
inch in diameter, the bore being about one-quarter of an inch in
diameter and closed at one end. A wooden piston, which closely fits
the bore, bears a rounded knob; it is driven down the cylinder by a
sharp blow of the palm upon the knob and is quickly withdrawn. The
heat generated by the compression of the air ignites a bit of tinder
(made by scraping the fibrous surface of the leaf stem of the Arenga
palm) at the bottom of the cylinder. The cylinder is cast by pouring
the molten metal into a section of bamboo, while a polished iron rod
is held vertically in the centre to form the bore. When the cylinder
is cold the iron rod is extracted, and the outer surface is trimmed
and shaped with knife or file.

Boat-building

The Kayans make much use of boats, as described in Chapter VIII., and
are skilful boat-makers. The forest offers them an abundant variety
of timbers suitable for the different types of boat used by them.

The most ambitious efforts of this kind are devoted to the construction
of the great war-boats, fine specimens of which are as much as
100 feet in length, or even, in exceptional instances, nearly 150
feet. The foundation of every boat is a single piece of timber shaped
and hollowed by fire and adze. Several kinds of timber are used,
the best being the kinds known as AROH (SHOREA) and NGELAI (AFZELIA
PALAMBANICA). Sometimes a suitable stem is found floating down river
and brought to the bank before the house. But such good fortune is
exceptional, and commonly a tree is selected in the forest as near as
possible to the river bank. The tree is felled in the way described in
Chapter VI. (Pl. 55), its branches are hewed away, and the stem is cut
to the required length and roughly hewn into shape. About one-fourth
of the circumference of the stem is cut away along the whole length,
and from this side the stem is hollowed. When, by chopping out the
centre, the thickness of this shell has been reduced to a thickness of
some five inches, it is brought down to the river. This is effected
by laying through the jungle a track consisting of smooth poles laid
across the direction of progress; the hollowed stem is pulled endwise
over this track with the aid of rattans, perhaps a hundred or more men
combining their strength. If the stem proves too heavy to be moved
at any part of the journey by their direct pull and push, a rough
windlass is constructed by fixing the stem of a small tree across
two standing trees and winding the rattans upon this, the trimmed
branches of the tree serving as the arms of the windlass. The Kayans
are skilled in this kind of transport of heavy timber; for the building
of their houses and of the larger tombs involves similar difficulties,
though the timbers required for these purposes are not so huge as those
used for the war-boats. Arrived at the river bank, the hollowed stem
is launched upon the water and towed down stream to the village at a
time when the water is high. It is made fast to the bank before the
village at as high a point as the water will allow, so that when the
river subsides it is left high and dry. A leaf shelter is then built
over it to protect it and the workers from the sun. The shell is then
further hollowed, partly by firing it with shavings inside and out,
and by scraping away the charred surfaces. The inside is fired first;
then the hollow is filled with water, and the outside is fired.

When in this way the shell has been reduced to a thickness of a few
inches, it is opened out, while hot from firing and still filled
with water, by wedging stout sticks some six to seven feet in length
between the lateral walls, so that the hollow stem (which hitherto
has had the form of a hollow cylinder some three to four feet in
diameter, lacking along its whole length a strip about the fourth
of its circumference) becomes a shallow trough some six to seven
feet wide in the middle of its length. During the hollowing, small
buttresses are left along each side at intervals of about two feet to
form supports for benches. After the opening, the shell is left lying
covered with branches for some days, while the wood sets in its new
form. The outer surface is then shaved approximately to the required
degree, all irregularities are removed, and holes about half-an-inch
in diameter are bored through all parts of the shell at intervals of
some twenty inches. Wooden pegs are then hammered into these holes,
each peg bearing two marks or grooves at an interval equal to the
thickness of the shell desired at each part; the peg is driven in from
the outside until the outer groove is flush with the outer surface of
the shell, and the projecting part is cut away; the inner surface is
then further chipped and scraped in each area until it becomes level
with the inner groove on the peg. In this way the workers are enabled
to give to each part its appropriate thickness. The outer surface is
then finally smoothed to form about one-third of a cylinder, and the
foundation is complete. It only remains to lash the cross-benches to
their supports, to raise the sides by lashing on a gunwale, and to
fit in wedge-shaped blocks at bow and stern. The gunwale consists of
a tough plank some ten inches wide overlapping the outer edge of the
shell, and lashed firmly to it by rattan strips piercing both shell
and planks at intervals of about six inches. In some cases the gunwale
is further raised in its middle part by lashing on a second smaller
plank to the upper edge of the first. The block fitted in at the
prow presents to the water a flat surface inclined at a low angle;
and a similar block completes the shell at the stern. The prow is
often ornamented with the head of a crocodile or the conventional
dog's head carved in hard wood and painted in red and black.

The whole operation, like every other important undertaking, is
preceded by the finding of omens, and it is liable to be postponed
by the observation of ill omens, by bad dreams, or by any misfortune
such as a death in the house. In each house are certain men who are
specially skilled in boat-making, and by them the work is directed and
all the finer part of the work executed. In the case of a war-boat
which is to be the property of the household, these special workers
are paid a fee out of the store of valuables accumulated under the
care of the chief by way of fines and confiscations.

The smaller boats, ranging from a small canoe suitable for one
or two paddlers only, to one capable of carrying a score or more,
are generally private property. These, like the war-boats, are made
from a single stem. The larger ones are made in just the same way
as the war-boats. In the smaller ones the bow is shaped from the
solid block and is not opened out, as is the rest of the boat. The
craftsman who makes a boat for another is helped by his customer,
and is paid by him a fee in brass-ware or dollars, the usual fee
being a TAWAK varying in size according to the size of the boat.

If Kayans find themselves for any reason in immediate need of a
boat when none is at hand, they sometimes fashion one very rapidly
by stripping the bark from a big tree. The two ends of the sheet of
bark are folded and lashed with rattan to form bow and stern; the
middle part is wedged open with cross-pieces which serve as benches,
and the shell is strengthened with transverse ribs and longitudinal
strips. A serviceable boat capable of carrying several men and their
baggage may be completed in the course of two hours. Such a makeshift
boat is more commonly made by Sea Dayaks.

Of all the interior tribes the Kayans are probably the best
boat-makers; but most of them make their own boats in the same way as
the Kayans. There are, however, a few of the Klemantan sub-tribes who
never attempt to make anything more than a very rough small canoe
of soft wood, and who buy from others what boats they need. This
is a curious instance of the persistent lack of the tradition of a
specialised craft among communities that might have been expected to
acquire it easily from their neighbours.

For ordinary work a rough paddle made from iron-wood is generally used;
the blade and shaft are of one piece; the flat blade, nearly two feet
in length, is widest about six inches below its junction with the
shaft, and from this point tapers slightly to its square extremity;
the shaft is about three feet in length and carries, morticed to its
upper end, a cross-piece for the grip of the upper hand.

A few paddles, especially those made for women, are very finely
shaped and finished, and have their shafts ornamented with carving
of a variety of designs, generally one band of carving immediately
above the blade and a second below the cross-piece. Some of the
Klemantans excel the Kayans in this work, producing very beautiful
women's paddles, sometimes with designs of inlaid lead (Pl. 92).

House-building

A Kayan community seldom continues to inhabit the same spot for more
than about a dozen years; though in exceptional instances houses are
continuously inhabited for thirty or even forty years. House-building
is thus a craft of great importance, and the Kayans are seldom content
to build their houses in the comparatively flimsy style adopted
by the Ibans and some of the Klemantans, and even occasionally by
Kenyahs. The main features of the structure of a Kayan long-house
have been described in Chapter IV. Here it remains only to describe
some of the more peculiar and important processes of construction.

The great piles that support the house may be floated down river
from the old house to be used in the construction of the new;
[64] they are not dug from the ground, but are felled by cutting
close to the surface of the ground. The great planks of the floor,
the main cross-beams, and the wooden shingles of the roof, are also
commonly carried from the old house to the new. If a house has been
partially destroyed by fire, no part of the materials of the old
house is used in the construction of the new; for it is felt that
in some indefinable way the use of the old material would render the
new house very liable to the same fate, as though the new house would
be infected by the materials with the ill-luck attaching to the old
house.[65] In such cases, or upon migration to a different river,
the whole of the timbers for the house have to be procured from the
jungle, and shaped, and erected; and the process of construction is
extremely laborious. But once the timber has been brought together
upon the chosen site, the building goes on rapidly, and the whole of a
house some hundreds of yards in length may be substantially completed
within a fortnight. The main supports of the structure are four rows
of massive columns of iron-wood. Holes about four feet in depth are
dug for the reception of the butt ends of these. They are disposed
in the manner indicated in the diagrams (Figs. 37, 38, 39), so that
a single row supports the front of the house, another the back, and a
double row the middle.[66] The intervals between the columns of each
row are about twenty feet, or rather more. Each pile is erected by
raising the one end until the other slips into the hole. Rattans are
tied round it a little above its middle and passed over a tall tripod
of stout poles. A number of men haul on these while others shove up
the top end with their shoulders. The pile is thus suspended with its
butt end resting so lightly on the ground that it can easily be guided
into the hole prepared for its reception. Smaller accessory piles,
to serve as additional supports, are put under the main cross beams of
the floor when these have been laid. The columns of the double row in
the middle line are about six feet taller than those of the front and
back rows. For the support of the floor a massive squared transverse
tie is morticed through each set of four columns at a height of some
fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, and secured by a pin through
each extremity. A squared roof-plate, still more massive than the floor
ties, is then laid upon the crowns of the columns of the front row,
along its whole length, and a second one upon the back row. This is
dowelled upon the columns (I.E. the top of the column is cut to form a
pin which is let into the longitudinal beam); and the beams which make
up the roof-plate are spliced, generally in such a way that the top of
a column serves as the pin of the splice. Each of these heavy beams
is generally lifted into its place by tiers of men standing on poles
lashed at different heights across the columns, their efforts being
seconded by others pulling on rattans which run from the beam over
the topmost cross-pole. The framework of the roof is then completed
by laying stout roof-ties across the crowns of the double row of
columns of the middle line, and lashing their extremities to stout
purlins (longitudinal beams for the support of the rafters in the
middle of their length), and by laying the ridge-timber upon a line
of perpendicular struts. The ridge-timber and purlins, though less
heavy than the roof-plates, consist also of stout squared timbers,
spliced to form beams continuous throughout the whole length of the
house. The rafters are laid at an angle of about forty degrees and
at intervals of eighteen inches; they are lashed to the ridge-timber
and to the purlins, and lipped on to the roof-plates, beyond which
they project about four feet to form an cave. Strong flat strips or
laths are laid along the rafters parallel to the length of the house
at intervals of about sixteen inches. On these are laid the shingles
or slats of iron-wood in regular rows, in just the way in which roof
tiles are laid in this country. Each slat is a slab about
1 x 30 x 12 inches, and is
lashed by a strip of rattan, which pierces its upper end, to one
of the laths. The floor is completed by laying longitudinal joists
of stout poles across the main floor-ties; the poles are notched to
grip the ties. Upon these joists, transversely to them, are laid a
number of flat strips which immediately support the floor planks;
these are kept in place by their own weight.

In a well-built house these planks are between thirty and forty feet
in length, or even more, two to three feet in breadth, and three to
four inches thick. They are made from tough strong timber, but usually
not from the iron-wood trees. They are moved from house to house,
and some of those in use are probably hundreds of years old. A single
tree is generally made to yield two such planks. After being felled
it is split into halves longitudinally in the following way. A deep
groove is cut along one side, and wedges of hard tough wood are driven
in with rough heavy mallets. Deep transverse grooves are then cut in
the rounded surface of each half at intervals of three or four feet;
and the intervening masses of wood are split off. In this way it is
whittled down until it is only some six inche's thick. The plank is
then trimmed down to the desired thickness by blows of the adze struck
across the direction of the grain. The two ends are generally left
untrimmed until the plank has been transported to the site of the
house and has lain there for some time. This prevents its splitting
during the journey to the house and the period of seasoning.

When the floor has been laid, it only remains to make the main
partition wall which separates the gallery from the rooms along
the whole length of the house, and the walls between the several
rooms. These walls are made only some eight or nine feet in height. The
wall of the gallery is made of vertical planks lashed to horizontal
rails whose extremities are let into the columns of the anterior
set of the double median row. The wall thus divides the house into a
narrower front part, the gallery, and a broader back part; the latter
is subdivided by the transverse walls into the series of rooms each
of which accommodates one family.

The work of construction is carried on by all the men of the house;
the women and children lend what aid they can in the way of fetching
and carrying, and in preparing rattans. The ownership of each section
is arranged beforehand; the section of the chief being generally in
the middle, and those of his near relatives on either side of it. Each
man pays special attention to the construction of his own section,
and carries out the lighter work of that part, such as laying the
shingles, with the help of his own household. If any widow is the head
of a household, her section is constructed by her male neighbours or
relatives without payment.

Before beginning the building of a new house favourable omens must
be obtained; and the Kayans would be much troubled if bad omens
were observed during the building, especially during the first few
days. At this time, therefore, children are told off to beat upon
gongs hung about the new site, and so, by scaring away the birds
and obscuring the sound of their cries, to prevent the appearance of
bad omens from their side. Bad omens combined with ill-luck, such as
death, bad dreams, or an attack by enemies during building (even if
this were successfully repelled), would lead to the desertion of a
partially built house and the choice of another site.

All the interior peoples construct their houses on principles
similar to those described above, but with considerable diversity in
detail. The greatest diversity of plan is exhibited by the houses
of Ibans. An Iban community seldom remains in the same house more
than three or four years; it is, no doubt, partly on this account
that their houses are built in a less solid style than those of most
other tribes. The timbers used are lighter; the house is not raised so
high above the ground, and the floor is usually made of split bamboo
in place of the heavy planks used by Kayans and others. The plan of
construction is less regular. The numerous slight supporting piles
pass through the floor of the gallery in all sorts of odd positions;
the only part that is kept clear of them being a narrow gangway that
runs from end to end of the house; it adjoins the private chambers,
and is about four feet in width; it is called TEMPUAN.

Some of the Klemantans make houses very inferior to those of the
Kayans in respect to size, solidity, and regularity of construction;
lashed bamboos largely replace the strongly morticed timber-work
of the better houses; but the worst houses of all are made by those
Punans who have recently adopted the agriculture and settled habits
of the other peoples.

Other Kinds of Wood-working

The building of houses and the shaping of boats are by far the
most important kinds of wood-working; but there are many small
articles of wood in the making of which much skill and ingenuity are
displayed. Among these the shields and parang-sheaths deserve special
mention. The former have been described in Chapter X.

The sword-sheath is made from two slips of hard wood, cut to fit
together exactly, leaving a space accurately shaped for the lodgment
of the sword-blade. The two slips are neatly lashed together with
rattan, and in many cases are elaborately carved with varieties of
a peculiar conventional design in relief (see vol. i., p. 240).

Dishes of iron-wood, now almost superseded by European earthenware,
were formerly in general use (Figs. 6 and 7). Their shapes are very
good; the dish is generally provided with one or two "ears" or flanges
for the grip of the hands, and these are cunningly decorated with
carved designs or inlaid pieces of shell or pottery. Some have a spout
opposite the single handle. The hollowing and general shaping of such
dishes is done with a small adze, and they are finished with the knife.

Basket-work, etc.

The weaving of baskets, mats, and caps is one of the most important
handicrafts of the Kayans. It is chiefly practised by the women,
though the men help in collecting and preparing the materials. The
material chiefly used is strips of rattan. A rattan about one-third of
an inch in diameter is split into five strips, and the inner surface
of each strip is smoothed with a knife; but the stems of several
other jungle-plants are also used.

The most important of the baskets (Pl. 43), are the following:
The large one used for carrying PADI from the farms to the house;
the small basket hung on the back by a pair of shoulderstraps, and
always carried by the men on going far from home; the fish-baskets;
large baskets provided with lids and kept in the rooms for storing
clothing and other personal valuables; the winnowing trays, and the
large rough basket used for carrying on the back water-vessels or
any other heavy objects (Fig. 41).

Of the mats (see Pl. 43), the principal are the mat worn round the
waist for sitting upon; the large mats spread for seating several
persons in the gallery or private chambers; those spread on the
floor for catching the winnowed rice, or on the platforms outside
the gallery for exposing and drying the PADI before pounding it;
the mat which every person spreads to sleep upon.

Most of these baskets and mats are made from narrow strips of rattan
varying from 1/16 to 1/4 of an inch according to the size and use of
the article; the strips are closely woven with great regularity. The
commonest arrangement is for two sets of strips to cross one another
at right angles, each strip passing over and under two of the opposed
set. The basket-work so made is very pliable, tough, and durable. The
standard shapes are worked out with great precision. The Kayans are
generally content to make strong serviceable basket-ware without
ornamentation; but in a large proportion of basket-ware of this kind
made by the other peoples, strips of rattan dyed black are combined
with those of the natural pale yellow colour, and very effective
patterns are thus worked in. The dyeing of the strips is effected by
soaking them in a dye obtained by beating out in water the soft stem
and leaves of a plant known as TARUM. The dark stain is rendered still
blacker by subsequently burying the strips in the mud of the river for
some ten days, or by washing them in lime. The dyed strips are then
jet black with a fine polished surface, and the dye is quite permanent.

A form of mat-work deserving special notice is the LAMPIT, the mat
used largely for sleeping and sitting upon. It is made of stout
strips of rattan lying parallel to one another, and held together by
strings threaded through the strips at right angles to their length
at intervals of four or five inches. This mat has an extremely neat
appearance and allows itself to be neatly rolled up. The piercing of
the rattan strips at suitable intervals is facilitated by the use of
a block of wood grooved for the reception of the strip and pierced
with holes opening into the groove at the required intervals.

The most elaborately decorated and finely plaited basket-ware is made
by some of the Klemantan sub-tribes, especially the Kanowits and the
Tanjongs, and the Kalabits, who use, as well as the black dye, a red
dye (Pl. 110). The last is made by boiling the seeds of the rattan in
water and evaporating the product until it has the consistency of a
thick paste. The Punans also excel in this craft. These adepts barter
much of their handiwork in this kind with the people of communities
less skilled in it. This affords yet another illustration of the
fact that the various specialised handicrafts are traditional in
certain tribes and sub-tribes, and are practised hardly at all or
in an inferior manner only by the other tribes, who seem to find it
impossible to achieve an equal degree of mastery of these crafts.

Hat-making

The large flat circular hat worn by the Kayans for protection against
sun and rain is made by the women from the large leaves of a palm. It
is the only important handicraft practised by the women only. The hard
tough fluted leaves are pressed flat and dried, when the flutes form
ribs diverging from the stem. Triangular pieces of the length of the
radius of the hat (I.E. from twelve to eighteen inches) are cut and
then sewn together in a double layer; those of the upper layer radiate
from the centre; those of the under layer are disposed in the reverse
direction, so that their ribs diverge from the periphery, crossing
those of the upper layer at an acute angle. This arrangement gives
great rigidity to the whole structure. The two layers are stitched
together by threads carried round the hat in concentric circles at
intervals of about one inch. The peripheral edges are sewn to a slender
strip of rattan bent to form a circle, the two ends overlapping. The
centre is generally finished with a disc of metal or strong cloth on
the outer surface (Pl. 45). The hats hung upon the tombs are decorated
on the upper surface with bold designs painted in black and red.

Most of the other tribes make similar hats, and the Malanaus and
Land Dayaks are especially skilled in this craft. The former make
very large hats of similar shape, the upper surface being of strips
of rattan dyed red and black, and woven to form elaborate patterns.

Besides these sun-hats, the Kayans and Kenyahs and some of the
Klemantans weave with fine strips of rattan close-fitting skull-caps
and head-bands. The ends of the strips, some three or four inches in
length, are sometimes left projecting from the centre or forming a
fringe round the lower edge.

The close-fitting hemispherical war-cap is made of rattans about half
an inch thick split in halves.

The Making of the Blow-pipe

The blow-pipe or SUMPITAN is perhaps the finest product of native
Bornean craftmanship. It is made by Kayans, Kenyahs, and Punans,
and rarely by Ibans and Klemantans.

The best sumpitans are made from the hard straight-grained wood of
the JAGANG tree. Having chosen and felled the tree, often one of
large size, the craftsman splits from it long pieces about eight feet
in length. Such a piece is shaved with the adze until it is roughly
cylindrical and three to four inches in diameter (Pl. 112). The piece
may be carried home to be worked at leisure, or the boring may be
done upon the spot. A platform is erected about seven feet above the
ground; and the prepared rod is fixed vertically with the upper end
projecting through the platform, its lower end resting on the ground
(Pl. 113). Its upper end is lashed to the platform, its lower end to
a pair of stout poles lashed horizontally to trees, and its middle
to another pair of poles similarly fixed.

The next operation, the boring of the wood, is accomplished by the
aid of a straight rod of iron about nine feet long, of slightly
smaller diameter than the bore desired for the pipe, and having one
end chisel-shaped and sharpened. One man standing on the platform holds
the iron rod vertically above the end of the wood, and brings its sharp
chisel edge down upon the centre of the flat surface. Lifting the rod
with both hands he repeats his blow again and again, slightly turning
the rod at each blow. He is aided in keeping the rod truly vertical by
two or three forked sticks fixed horizontally at different levels above
the platform in such a way that the vertical rod slides up and down in
the forks, which thus serve as guides. The rod soon bites its way into
the wood. An assistant, squatting on the platform with a bark-bucket
of water beside him, ladles water into the hole after every two or
three strokes, and thus causes the chips to float out. This operation
steadily pursued for about six hours completes the boring. In boring
the lower part, the craftsman aims at producing a slight curvature
of the tube by very slightly bending the pole and lashing it in the
bent position; the pole on being released then straightens itself,
and at the same time produces the desired slight curvature of the
bore. This curvature is necessary in order to allow for the bending
of the blow-pipe, when in use, by the weight of the spearblade which
is lashed on bayonet-fashion. If the desired degree of curvature is
not produced in this way, the wooden pipe, still in the rough state
as regards its outer surface, is suspended horizontally on loops,
and weights are hung upon the muzzle end until, on sighting through
the bore, only a half circle of daylight is visible -- this being the
degree of curvature of the bore desired. The wood is then heated with
torches, and on cooling retains the curvature thus impressed on it.

It only remains to whittle down the rough surface to a smooth cylinder
slightly tapering towards the muzzle (Pl. 114), to polish the pipe
inside and out, to lash on the spear-blade to the muzzle end with
strips of rattan, and to attach a small wooden sight to the muzzle
end opposite the spear-blade. The polishing of the bore is effected by
working to and fro within it a long piece of closely fitting rattan;
that of the outer surface, by rubbing it first with the skin of a
stingray (which, although a marine fish, sometimes ascends to the
upper reaches of the rivers), and afterwards with the leaf (EMPLAS)
which is the local substitute for emery paper.

The shaft of the poisoned dart is made from the wood of the NIBONG and
wild sago palms. It is about nine inches in length and one-sixteenth
to one-eighth of an inch in diameter (Pl. 115). On to one end of this
is fitted a small tapering cylinder of tough pith, about one inch in
length, its greatest diameter at its butt end being exactly equal to
the bore of the pipe. The pith is shaved to the required diameter by
the aid of a small wooden cylinder of the standard size (Fig. 42);
this is prolonged in a pin of the same diameter as the shaft of the
dart. A piece of pith transfixed by the pin is shaved with a sharp
knife until its surface is flush with that of the wooden gauge.

The poison is prepared from the sap of the IPOH tree, ANTIARIS
TOXICARIA. The milky sap runs out when the bark is incised, and is
collected in a bamboo cup (Pl. 88). It is then heated slowly over a
fire in a trough made from the leaf stem of a palm, until it becomes
a thick paste of dark purple brown colour (Pl. 116). When the poison
is to be applied to the darts, it is worked into a thinner paste on
a palette with a spatula. A circular groove is cut round the shaft of
the dart about two inches from its tip, and the part so marked off is
rolled in the paste and then dried before a fire. For use against large
game, pig, deer, or human beings, a larger dose of poison is required
than can be carried on the tip of the shaft. A small triangular piece
of metal is affixed by splitting the tip of the shaft, thrusting in
the base of the triangular plate, and securing it with a fine thread
of rattan or fern-stem. The poison is then applied to the surface
of this metal. The metal is obtained nowadays from imported tin or
brass ware, but formerly a slip of hard wood was used, and, possibly,
in some cases stone.

The quiver for carrying the darts is a section of bamboo about four
inches in diameter and ten inches in length, fitted with a cap of the
same which fits over the shaved lip of the main piece (Fig. 44). A
wooden hook lashed to the quiver enables it to be hung from the
belt. The darts, mostly without piths, are wrapped in a squirrel skin
and thrust tip downwards into the quiver. A small gourd tied to the
quiver carries a supply of piths all ready to be placed on the darts.

Pottery

The importation of earthenware and of cooking pots of brass and
iron has now almost put an end to the native manufacture of pottery;
but in former times simple earthenware vessels for boiling rice were
made by Kayans, Kenyahs, Ibans, and some of the Klemantans. Those who
made no pots boiled their rice and sago in bamboos. The earthenware
cooking pot is a simple egg-shaped vessel, one end of which is open
and surrounded by a low everted lip or collar (Fig. 8, p. 60).

The clay is kneaded with water on a board until it has the desired
consistency. The vessel is then built up on a hollowed base by
squeezing the clay between a smooth rounded stone held by one hand
within the vessel and a flat piece of wood, with which the clay is
beaten from without. The roughly shaped vessel is allowed to dry in
the sun and baked in the fire. In some cases the surface is smoothed
and glazed by rubbing resin over its surface while hot.

Pots of this one shape only are made, but of several sizes. The
commonest size holds about a quart; the largest about two gallons. A
pot of this sort is carried in a basket made of fine unsplit rattans
loosely woven in the form of interlacing rings.

The Manufacture of Bark-cloth

The native cloth, which was in universal use among the tribes of the
interior until largely supplanted in recent years by imported cloth, is
made from the bark of trees of several species (principally the KUMUT,
the IPOH, and the wild fig). The material used is the fibrous layer
beneath the outer bark. A large sheet of it is laid on a wooden block
and beaten with a heavy wooden club in order to render it soft and
pliable. A piece of the required size and shape is cut from the sheet,
and sewn across the direction of the fibres with needle and thread at
intervals of about an inch. This prevents the material splitting along
the direction of the fibres. Before European needles were introduced,
the stitching was done by piercing holes with a small awl and pushing
the thread through the hole after withdrawing the awl (>Pl. 117).

Spinning and Weaving and Dyeing of Cloth

The Kayans, Kenyahs, and most of the Klemantans weave no cloth; but the
Kayans claim, probably with truth, that they formerly wove a coarse
cloth. In recent years the Ibans, Muruts, and a few of the Klemantan
tribes have been the only weavers. It may be said, we think, without
fear of contradiction, that this is the only craft in which the Ibans
excel all the other peoples. Their methods are similar to those of the
Malays, and have probably been learnt from them. The weaving is done
only by the women, though the men make the machinery employed by them.

The fibre used by the Ibans is cotton, which is obtained from shrubs
planted and cultivated for the purpose. The seed is extracted from
the mass of fibre by squeezing the mass between a pair of rollers
arranged like a rude mangle, while the fibre is pulled away by hand
(Pl. 118). Next the thread is spun from the mass of fibre by the aid
of a simple wheel, turned by the right hand while the left hand twists
the fibres (Pl. 119). The dyeing precedes the weaving if a pattern
is to be produced. The web is stretched on a wooden frame about six
feet long and twenty inches in width, by winding a long thread round
it from end to end. The parts of the web corresponding to the parts
of the cloth that are to remain undyed and of the natural pale brown
colour of the thread are tied round with dried strips of a fibrous leaf
(LEMBA), the upper and lower set of threads being wrapped up together
in the same bundles (Pl. 120). If only one colour is to be applied,
the web is then slipped off the frame. The threads are held in their
relative positions by the wrappings, but are further secured by tying
a string tightly about the whole bundle at each end. The web thus
prepared is soaked in the dye for some two or three days, and then
dried in a shady spot. The wrappings upon the threads are waterproof
and protect the wrapped parts from the dye. When, after the dyeing,
the web is stretched upon the loom, it presents the desired pattern in
colour upon the undyed ground. The undyed weft is then woven across
the web in the usual way. And since the threads of the weft do not
appear on the surface, the dyed parts of the web present a uniformly
coloured surface (Pl. 121).

In most cloths two colours, as well as the natural colour of the
thread, appear on the surface -- the commonest colour being a warm
brick red (obtained from the bark of the SAMAK tree) and a dark purple
(obtained from the leaves of the TARUM plant). Lime and gypsum are
sometimes mixed with the watery extracts as mordaunts, but these
are probably modern refinements. When two colours are to appear,
those parts of the web which are to be of one colour (say purple)
are wrapped up during the immersion in the red dye together with
the parts that are to appear uncoloured. When this first dyeing is
completed the web is prepared for the purple dye, by uncovering the
undyed parts which are to be purple, and wrapping up in bundles the
threads which have already been dyed red. After being soaked in the
purple dye and dried, all the wrappings are removed from the web,
and the desired pattern in three colours appears upon it when it is
stretched. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the operation of
dyeing is that the woman generally wraps up the threads in the way
required to produce the pattern without any guidance, judging the
length and number of the threads to be included in each bundle purely
by memory of the design aimed at.

The only striking peculiarity of the loom is its extreme
simplicity. The upper ends of the web are looped over a stout bar which
is fixed to a pair of uprights about a yard above the floor. The lower
ends of the web are looped over a stout rod, to the ends of which a
loop of cord is tied. The woman sits on the ground, (see Pl. 121) with
this loop around her waist, and thus stretches the web and maintains
the necessary tension of it. The manipulation of the shuttle and of the
threads of the web is accomplished without other mechanical aids than
the rods to which the one set of webthreads is tied by short threads.

CHAPTER 12

Decorative Art

All the tribes of Borneo practise a number of decorative arts. Some
of the Klemantans, notably the Malanaus, excel all other tribes,
in that they attain a high level of achievement in a great variety
of such arts; but each tribe and sub-tribe preserves the tradition
of some one or two decorative arts in which they are especially
skilled. Thus some of the Klemantan tribes specially excel in the
finer kinds of wood-carving (E.G. the decoration of paddles); the
Kayans in tatuing and in chasing designs on steel; the Kenyahs in the
painting of shields and in the production of large designs carved
in low relief on wood and used for adorning houses and tombs; both
Kayans and Kenyahs excel in the carving of sword-handles in deer's
horn; the Barawans and Sebops in beadwork; the Kalabits and Ibans in
tracing designs on the surface of bamboo; Punans in the decorative
mat-work; Kanowits and Tanjongs in basket-work.

Wood-carving is the most generally practised and on the whole the
most important of the decorative arts. Much of it is done on very hard
wood; and the principal tools are the sword, the small knife carried
in the sword-sheath, and adzes and axes of various sizes. The blade
of the knife is some three inches in length, resembling in general
shape the blade of the sword; it is wider in proportion, but has the
same peculiar convexity of the one side and concavity of the other
in transverse section. The shaft is sunk into the end of a rod of
hard wood and secured with gutta and fine rattan lashing. The handle
of hard wood is about a foot in length, half an inch in diameter,
and slightly bowed in the plane of the blade, the convexity being
in the direction of the cutting edge of the blade. The butt end of
the handle is cunningly carved in the shape of a crocodile's head, or
prolonged in a piece of carved deer's horn. The blade of the knife is
held between the thumb and finger of the right hand, the cutting edge
directed forwards, and the long handle is gripped between the forearm
and the lower ribs; the weight of the body can thus be brought to the
assistance of the arm in cutting hard material. With this knife most
of the finer carving is done, the adze and sword being used chiefly
for rough shaping.

The adze consists of a flat blade of steel in the shape of a highly
acute-angled triangle (Pl. 111). The slightly convex base is the
cutting edge. The upper half of the triangle (which may or may not be
marked by a shoulder) is buried in the lashings by which it is attached
to the wooden haft. The haft is a small bough of tough, springy wood,
cut from a tree, together with a small block of the wood of the stem;
the latter is shaved down until it forms an oblong block continuous
with the haft and at an angle to it of 70[degree] -- 80[degree]. The
upper half of the metal blade is laid upon the distal surface of
this block and lashed firmly to it with fine strips of rattan. A
piece of skin is often placed between the metal and the lashings;
this facilitates the removal of the blade, and enables the craftsman
to alter the angle between the cutting edge and the haft. Commonly
the blade is laid in the plane of the haft, and the implement is then
what we should call a small axe; on turning the blade through go',
it is converted to a small adze; and not infrequently the blade is
turned through a smaller angle, so that its plane forms an acute
angle with that of the haft.

Carved woodwork is commonly painted with black and red paint, prepared
respectively from soot and iron oxide mixed with sugar-cane juice
or with lime; the moist pigment is applied with the finger on larger
surfaces, and the finer lines and edges are marked out with the aid
of a chisel-edged stick of wood.

Beadwork

Old beads are much valued and sought after by all the tribes except
Ibans, especially by the Kayans. There are few families of the upper
class that do not possess a certain number of them.

Many varieties are well known, and some of the Kayan women are very
expert in recognising the genuine old specimens, and in distinguishing
these varieties from one another and from modern imitations.

Formerly these old beads were one of the principal forms of currency,
and they still constitute an important part of the wealth of many
families.

Most of these valuable old beads are of foreign manufacture, though a
few made from shell and agate are of the country. The old foreign-made
beads were probably imported by Arab and Chinese traders at various
dates. Some of them are probably of Chinese manufacture, others
probably came from the near East and even from Venice. Some are of
glass curiously marked and coloured, others of stone inlaid with bits
of different colours, others of some hard substance whose composition
defies description. Certain rare kinds are especially valued and
can hardly be bought at any price; they are reckoned to be worth at
least 100 dollars apiece. The most valuable of all is known as the
LUKUT SEKALA; the ownership of each such bead is as accurately known
throughout a large district as the ownership of the masterpieces of
ancient art in our own country. The wife of a rich chief may possess
old beads to the value of thousands of pounds, and will wear a large
part of them on any occasion of display (Pl. 130). These old beads are
worn threaded together to form necklaces and girdles, being arranged
with some reference to harmony of size and colour and to value, the
most valuable being placed in the middle where they will be shown to
best advantage. A single rare bead is sometimes worn on the wrist.

A woman who possesses a good stock of such beads will seldom be seen
without some of them on her person. She will occasionally exchange
a few for other varieties, and is generally eager to add to her
collection; she may occasionally make a present of one or two to some
highly esteemed friend or relative, and will generally assign them,
but without handing them over, to various female relatives before
her death.

Besides these valuable old beads there are in use among all the tribes
many small glass beads of modern European manufacture. These are
threaded to form a variety of designs, generally in two colours,
the combination of black and yellow being the most commonly
preferred. These strips of beadwork are put to many decorative uses:
they are applied to the women's head-bands, to the centre of the
sun-hat, to sword sheaths, to cigarette boxes, to the war-coat at the
nape of the neck, and, by some Klemantans, to the jackets of the women.

The designs worked in this way are but few, and most of them are
common to all the tribes. The thread used is prepared by rolling on
the thigh fibres drawn from the leaf of the pine-apple; it is very
strong and durable. The design to be reproduced is drawn or carved in
low relief on a board. A thread is fixed across the end of the board
and others are tied to it at short intervals; on these the beads are
threaded, neighbouring threads being tied together at short intervals;
and the colours of the beads are selected according to the demands
of the pattern over which they are worked.

Besides these designs on the flat, tassels, girdles, necklaces,
ear-rings, and cigarette rings are also made of these beads. The
modern imported beads used for these purposes are sometimes improved
by being ground flat on the two surfaces that adjoin their neighbours;
this is done by fixing a number of them into the cut end of a piece
of sugar-cane and rubbing this against a smooth stone. This treatment
of the beads gives to the articles made of them a very neat and highly
finished appearance.

Bamboo Decorations

The working of designs on the surface of pieces of bamboo is
done very simply, but none the less effectively. Among the bamboo
articles generally decorated in the way to be described are the native
drinking-cup, the tobacco-box, and tubes for carrying flint and steel
and all sorts of odds and ends.

The pattern to be produced is outlined with the point of the knife
upon the surface of the bamboo, the artist working from memory of the
desired pattern and adapting it to the proportions of the surface to
be covered. The Iban works more freely than others, working out the
pattern and modifying it to meet the exigencies of his material,
section by section, as he goes along. Others plan out the design
for the whole surface before working out any part in detail. It is
probable that in no case does a man sit down and produce a new pattern;
but the freer mode of working of the Iban leads him on to greater
modifications of the traditional designs; and it is probably partly
for this reason that a much larger variety of designs is applied in
this way by them than by the other tribes, among whom they are very
limited in number. But the greater variety of designs worked by the
Ibans is due also to the readiness with which he copies and adopts
as his own the patterns used by other tribes. The Kayans and Kenyahs
use almost exclusively varieties of the dog pattern and of the hook
and circle (see Fig. 47).

The design outlined by the point of the knife is made to stand out
boldly from the ground by darkening the latter. This is achieved in
two ways: (1) the ground is covered with parallel close-set scratches,
not running continuously throughout the larger areas of the ground,
but grouped in sets of parallel lines some few millimetres in length,
the various sets meeting at angles of all degrees; (2) the hard
surface of the bamboo is wholly scraped away from the ground areas
to a depth of about half a millimetre. In either case the black or
red paint is then smeared over the whole surface with the finger, and
when it has become dried the surface is rubbed with a piece of cloth
(Kayan), or scraped lightly with a knife (Iban). The pigment is thus
removed from the intact parts and remains adherent to the lines and
areas from which the hard surface layer has been removed. The design
is thus left in very low relief, and is of the natural colour of the
bamboo upon a black or dark-red ground, or on a ground merely darkened
by the parallel scratches (Pls. 126, 127).

Lashing

Lashing with strips of rattan and with coarse 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 screwing
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 classed 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 scraped 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 brass 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 illustrate 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.

Shell-work

Shells (chiefly nassas and the flat bases of cone-shells) 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 principal 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 constitute
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 (VARANUS) are also traceable. Some designs vaguely suggest a
derivation from some animal form, but cannot confidently be assigned
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 illustrated 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 class, so that the carving generally constitutes an unmistakable