DECORATIVE ART 257 



and we suspect that, if these Blu-u Kayans are of true 

 Kayan stock, they have borrowed the hornbill design from 

 their neighbours. 



With regard to the thigh patterns, it is usual to find the 

 back of the thigh occupied with two strips of an inter- 

 secting line design, or some modification thereof; the 

 simplest form is shown on PI. 138, Fig. i ; it is known 

 as ida telo^ the three-line pattern, and is used by slaves ; a 

 more elaborate example from the Rejang river is shown in 

 Fig. 3, and is used both by slaves and free-women. PL 

 138, Fig. 2, and PI. 139, Fig. 6, are termed ida pat, the 

 four-line pattern, and are for free-women, not for slaves. 

 The latter figure is a combination of ida pat and ida telo. 

 The wives and daughters of chiefs would employ similar 

 designs with the addition of another line, when they are 

 termed ida lima, the five-line pattern, or else a design, 

 known as ida tuang, the underside pattern, two examples 

 of which are given on PI. 139, Figs, i and 2. If these 

 two latter designs are compared with the hornbill design of 

 the Long Glat, a figure of which, taken from Nieuwenhuis 

 [9, PI. 86] is given (PL 139, Fig. 3) a certain similarity 

 in the motif oi the designs can be recognised. It must be 

 remembered that the Long Glat design is tatued in rows 

 down the front and sides of the thigh, whilst these Kayan 

 designs have been modified to form more or less of a 

 sinuous line design for the back of the thigh ; or, in other 

 words, the hornbill elements in the Long Glat design, 

 though they are serially repeated, are quite separate and 

 distinct one from the other, whilst in the Kayan designs 

 the hornbill elements are fused and modified to produce 

 the sinuous line pattern that in one form or another is 

 generally employed for the decoration of the back of the 

 thigh. In this connection PL 139, Fig. 5, is instructive; 

 it is taken from a tatu block which, together with those 

 from which Figs, i and 2 are taken, was collected many 

 years ago by Mr. Brooke Low, amongst the Kayans of the 

 Upper Rejang ; it also appears to be a dog derivative, and 

 no doubt was used for the tatu of the front of a woman's 

 thigh,^ being serially repeated in three or four rows as with 



^ The wooden block is carefully cut square, and the design occupies the 

 whole of one surface ; this is characteristic of the blocks of female designs, 

 whereas designs for male tatu are carved on very roughly shaped blocks and 

 do not always occupy the whole of one surface. Since the female designs have 

 to be serially repeated it is important that the blocks should be of the exact 

 required size, otherwise the projecting parts of the uncarved wood would 



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