44 



PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO 



hanging behind from a cord passed round the waist, 

 and serving as a seat when the wearer sits down. 

 At home the man wears nothing more than the 

 waist-cloth, save some narrow plaited bands of palm 

 fibre below the knee, and, in most cases, some 

 adornment in the ears or about the neck and on 

 the arms.^ The man's hair is allowed to grow long 

 on the crown of the scalp, and to 

 hang freely over the back of the neck, 

 in some cases reaching as far as the 

 middle of the back. This long hair 

 is never plaited, but is sometimes 

 screwed up in a knot on the top of 

 the head and fastened with a skewer. 

 The latter mode of wearing the hair is 

 the rule among the Muruts, who use 

 elaborately carved and decorated hair- 

 pins of bone (the shin bone of the 

 deer. Fig. i). That part of the hair 

 of the crown which naturally falls 

 forwards is cut to form a straight 

 fringe across the forehead. All the 

 rest of the head is kept shaven, except 

 at times of mourning for the death of 

 relatives. 



When in the house the man com- 

 monly wears on his head a band of 

 Fig. I plaited rattan, which varies from a 



mere band around the brows to a com- 

 pleted skull-cap. The free ends of the rattan strips 

 are generally allowed to project, forming a dependent 

 tassel or fringe (PI. 21). A well-to-do Kayan 

 man usually wears a necklace consisting of a single 

 string of beads, which in many cases >re old and of 

 considerable value (Pis. 19 and 28). j Every Kayan 

 has the shell of the ear perforated, and when fully 

 dressed wears, thrust forward through the hole 



1 See Chap. XII. 



