236 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



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 conventionalis- 

 ing is not carried so far as in those of the first class, 

 so that the carving generally constitutes an un- 

 mistakable representation of the original. The 

 posts set up as altars to the gods are generally 

 carved in the human form, and the degree of 

 elaboration varies widely from the rudest possible 

 indication of the head and limbs to a complete 

 representation of all the parts. But in no case 



