DECORATIVE ART 



233 



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 

 I ban 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 de- 

 corated in this fashion by 

 I ban 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 de- 

 signs. The principal appli- 

 cations of these designs are 

 in tatu, beadwork, the pro- 

 duction of panels of wood for 

 the adornment of houses, 

 tombs, boats, dind padi barns, 

 the decoration of bamboo 

 boxes, and the painting of 

 hats, and the carving of highly 



Fig. 49. 



