254 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



present takes the form of four antique beads, or of some 

 other object worth about one dollar ; it is termed lasat mata, 

 for it is supposed that if it were omitted the artist would go 

 blind, and some misfortune would happen to the parents 

 and relations of the girl undergoing the operation of tatu. 



When the half of one ikor has been completed the tatuer 

 stops and asks for selivit ; this is a present of a few beads, 

 well-to-do people paying eight yellow beads of the variety 

 known as lavang, valued at one dollar apiece, whilst poor 

 people give two beads. It is supposed that if selivit was 

 not paid the artist would be worried by the dogs and fowls 

 that always roam about a Kayan house, so that the work 

 would not be satisfactorily done ; however, to make assur- 

 ance doubly sure, a curtain is hung round the operator and 

 her subject to keep off unwelcome intruders. After selivit 

 has been paid a cigarette is smoked, and then work recom- 

 mences in earnest, there being no further interruptions for 

 the rest of the day except for the purpose of taking food. 

 The food of the artist must be cooked and brought to her, 

 as she must not stop to do other work than tatuing, and 

 her tools are only laid aside for a few minutes while she 

 consumes a hurried meal. Fowls or a pig are killed for the 

 artist by the parents of the girl who is being tatued. The 

 fees paid to the artist are more or less fixed ; for the fore- 

 arms a gong, worth from eight to twenty dollars, according 

 to the workmanship required ; for the thighs a large tawak, 

 worth as much as sixty dollars if the very best workman- 

 ship is demanded, from six to twenty dollars if only inferior 

 workmanship is required.^ For tatuing the fingers the 

 operator receives a nialat or short sword. Nieuwenhuis 

 (8, p. 236) states that it is supposed that the artist will die 

 within a year if her charges are excessive ; but we have not 

 met with this belief amongst the Kayans of the Rejang and 

 Baram rivers. 



The knee-cap is the last part to be tatued, and before 

 this is touched the artist must be paid ; as this part of the 

 design is the keystone, as it were, of the whole, the required 

 fee is always forthcoming. A narrow strip down the back 

 of the thigh is always left untatued ; it is supposed that 

 mortification of the legs would ensue if this strip was not 

 left open. 



1 The prices in the Baram river are much higher than in the Mendalam, 

 where a gong can only be demanded by an artist of twenty years' experience ; 

 less experienced artists have to be content with beads and cloth (9, p. 452). 



