DECORATIVE ART 



251 



Kayan women are tatued in complicated serial ^ designs 

 over the whole forearm, the backs of the hands, over the 

 whole of the thighs and to below the knees, and on the 

 metatarsal surfaces of the feet. The tatuing of a Kayan 

 girl is a serious operation, not only because of the consider- 

 able amount of pain caused, but also on account of the 

 elaborate ceremonial attached to this form of body orna- 

 mentation. The process is a long one, lasting sometimes 

 as much as four years, since only a small piece can be done 

 at a sitting, and several long intervals elapse between the 

 various stages of the work. A girl when about ten years 

 old will probably have had her fingers and the upper part 



Fig. 65. 



Fig. 66. 



Fig. 67. 



of her feet tatued, and about a year later her forearms 

 should have been completed ; the thighs are partially 

 tatued during the next year, and in the third or fourth 

 year from the commencement, i.e. about puberty, the 

 whole operation should have been accomplished. 



A woman endeavours to have her tatu finished before 

 she becomes pregnant, as it is considered immodest to be 

 tatued after she has become a mother. If a woman has a 

 severe illness after any portion of her body has been tatued, 

 the work is not continued for some little time ; moreover, 



1 We apply the term serial to those designs in which the units of the 

 pattern are repeated, or in which the units follow each other in serial order ; 

 the udoh asu on a Kayan man's thigh is an isolated design, but the design 

 on his hands is a serial design. 



