274 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



alone. The same design appears two or three times on the 

 arms, and even on the breast, though this part of the body 

 as well as the shoulders is more usually decorated with 

 several stars and rosettes. The backs of the hands are 

 tatued, quite irrespective of bravery or experience in 

 warfare ; in fact we have frequently had occasion to note 

 that a man with tatued hands is a wastrel or a conceited 

 braggart, of no account with Europeans or with his own 

 people. This wild and irresponsible system of tatu has 

 been accompanied by an inevitable degradation of the 

 designs. There is a considerable body of evidence to 

 show that the Sea Dayaks have borrowed much in their 



Fig. 75. 



Fig. 76. 



arts and crafts from tribes who have been longer established 

 in Borneo ; but it must be confessed that in their decorative 

 art they have often improved upon their models ; their 

 bamboo carvings and their woven cloth are indeed " things 

 of beauty." But their tatu involves, not an intelligent 

 elaboration of the models, but a simplification and degrada- 

 tion, or at best an elaboration without significance. Figs. 1-6, 

 PI. 137, are examples of the Sea Dayaks tuang asu or 

 dog design. The figures show the dog design run mad, 

 and it is idle to attempt to interpret them, since in every 

 case the artists have given their individual fancies free 

 play. When the profession of the tatu-artist is heredi- 

 tary, and when the practice has for its object the 



