XII 



DECORATIVE ART 269 



the limb. On the thigh is tatued a design termed soewroe, 

 said to resemble a neck ornament. A disc tatued on the calf 

 of the leg is termed boentoer^ and from it to the heel runs 

 a barbed line called ikoeh bajan, tail of the monitor lizard ; 

 curiously enough, though this is the general name of the 

 design, it is on the right leg also termed barareky on the 

 left dandoe tjatjah. Warriors are tatued on the elbow- 

 joint with a dandoe tjatjah and a cross called sarapang 

 mata andau. 



A Maloh who had lived for many years amongst these 

 people gave us the following information about their tatu : 

 — There is with these people a great difference between the 

 tatu of the high-class and that of the low-class individuals : 

 amongst the former the designs are both extensive and 

 complicated, too complicated for our informant to describe 

 with any degree of accuracy, but they seem to be much 

 the same as those described by Hamer. The low-class 

 people have to be content with simpler designs ; the men 

 are tatued on the breast and stomach with two curved lines 

 ending in curls, and on the outside of each arm with 

 two lines also ending in curls (PI. 142, Fig. 6) ; on the 

 outside of the thigh a rather remarkable design, shown on 

 PI. 142, Fig. 7, is tatued ; it is termed linsat, the flying 

 squirrel, Pteromys nitidus, and on the back of the calf is 

 tatued a disc termed kalang baboi, the wild pig pattern. The 

 women are tatued as described by Hamer down the front 

 of the shin with two parallel lines connected by trans- 

 verse cross-bars ; according to our informant the design 

 was supposed to represent a flat fish, such as a sole. 

 (PL 142, Fig. 8.) 



Of these people, as of so many others, the melancholy 

 tale of disappearance of tatu amongst the present generation 

 and replacement of indigenous by Kayan designs was told, 

 and it seems only too likely that within the next decade or 

 two none will be left to illustrate a once flourishing and 

 beautiful art. 



Schwaner can add nothing to the facts that we 

 have collected, except the statement that "the bilians 

 (priestesses) have brought the art of tatuing to the present 

 degree of perfection through learning the description of 

 the pretty tatued bodies of the [mythical] Sangsangs." 



(Ji) Kahayan. — Our figure (PI. 141, Fig. 3), and PI. 

 81 of Dr. Nieuwenhuis' book [9], is the extent of our 

 knowledge of the tatu of the inhabitants of the Kahayan 



