TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 007 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER n. 



The followinjy Papers and Report -were read : — 



1. On Permanent Skin-mai-ks, Tattooing, Scarification, o&c. 

 By H. Ling Rotu. 



The author enumerated the various purposes for which these disfigurements 

 were made. They were connected among other things with beliefs in the future 

 life, it being supposed that without them one could not find his way about in the 

 next world. They also served as charms for women at childbirth. The institution 

 was really divisible into four divisions. The Tahitian method was the one 

 commonly seen on our sailors. The New Zealand method, which was performed 

 by a pricker, left behind a very deep mark in the skin, and was often performed so 

 freely as to cover the whole skin. The West African and the Tasmanian methods 

 differed from the preceding ones, and in the case of the last of these the marks 

 develop into large continuous scars. They were all variations of skin deformations, 

 but rubbed in, and they leave a permanent mark The author exhibited pictures 

 of the various specimens of; hese different methods of tattooing, and accompanied 

 them with pictures of the different instruments employed. The wounds made 

 were frequently reopened in order to put in colouring juices, and owing to this 

 they were a long time in healing, and left behind them permanent scars. 



2. Some Peculiar Features of the Animal-cults of the Xatives of SarawaJc, 

 and their Bearing on the Problems of Totemism. By Charles Hose, 

 D.Sc, Resident of the Baram District, and W. McDougall, M.A. 



We bad observed customs that seemed to indicate the existence of a well- 

 developed totemism, either at the present time or in recent times, among the 

 natives of Sarawak. W^e have thereibre collected information bearing on this 

 subject as diligently as possible, from all the tribes with whom we have come into 

 intimate contact. 



We found a great number and variety of peculiar rites and customs observed 

 by the people of the different tribes in their dealings with animals and plants. 

 We confine ourselves in this short paper (1) to giving a general account of the 

 customs of one of the inland tribes, the Kenyahs ; {;2) to describing the ' Nyarong,' 

 or spirit-helper of the Sea-Dayaks, and some similar institutions among the other 

 tribes ; and (3) to pointing out the bearing of our observations on the totem 

 problem. 



The Kenyahs are a warlike agricultural people, living as isolated communi- 

 ties of twenty to fifty or more families, each community inhabiting a single long 

 house built on the river-bank. Their religion is peculiar, in that they believe in 

 a beneficent Supreme Being and a group of departmental deities, while they attri- 

 bute to every agent that affects their lives a spirit that must be properly respected 

 and, if necessary, propitiated. 



Most important to them of all the animals is the common white-headed hawk. 

 He brings messages of warning and advice from the Supreme Being to those who 

 know how to read the signs he gives, and he is consulted before every under- 

 taking of importance, and sacrifices of fowls and pigs are made to him. A wooden 

 image of the hawk stands before every house. Several other birds give them 

 omens of lesser importance, and none of these may be killed or eaten. 



The domestic fowl is killed as a sacrifice to the hawk or other powers, and its 

 blood is sprinkled on the altar-posts of the gods and on the persons taking part in 

 various ceremonies, especially peace-making ceremonies. The domestic pig is 

 sacrificed in much the same way. The spirit of a pig is always charged with some 

 prayer to be carried to the Supreme Being, and the answer is read from the 

 markings of its liver. 



ffje crocodiles are regarded as a fripndly and al^ed tribe, and may be killed in 



