4 6 



G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



Fig. 20. 1/5. 



Tattooing 



motive : 



-nân'içi": H.B. 



/ 



tioned, exclusively intended for the back and as it appears, by préférence, for the right half. 

 A man of Tobâdi who was decorated on each half of his back with a large 

 frog, had, besides numerous fish-eyes and leeches, two bows to the right 

 and one to the left. One of his fellow-villagers decorated in the same manner 

 with frogs, had added above it a horizontal bow in the middle of the skin of 

 the back, thus extending over both halves of the back. This formed an excep- 

 tion to the rule, to treat each half of the back as a separate space. The most 

 common design is reproduced in fig. 21, / in which the wood of the bow, 

 pembi-tëni, is represented at both ends with a large curl; both rattan strings, 

 pembi-chi, (when travelling and therefore presumably also in war a reserve 

 string is always carried) each only fastened to the bow by one end, hâve an 

 ornament at the free end, which, in reality only occurs on the wood of the 

 bow, whilst the arrow, pembi-natu = child of the bow, stands with a forked 

 line against the concave side. What this forked line means : a third 

 string, drawn by the arrow placed on it (in casu behind), or the indi- 

 cation of a double pointed fish arrow or perhaps the représentation of the bundle of arrows 

 lias not become clear to me. It must hère be noticed that the forked line 

 appears repeatedly without the straight pièce. Fig. 21,2 of the right half 

 of the back of a man from Tobâdi pleads in favour of the first supposition, 

 an undulating line being hère substituted for the forked line, probably a 

 slack string standing in curves, on which no straight pièce as a représen- 

 tation of the arrow now occurs either. The curls at the bow are also 

 differently applied hère. The bow as a tattooing motive occurs much less 

 in the case of the men of Ingrâs and Ingrau than with those of the ruling 

 village of Tobâdi and if it does occur (fig. 21, j of Ingrâs), the arrow and 

 the forked line are wanting and this space is then generally filled up with 

 leeches. I myself began to notice this différence too late to détermine by 

 a closer and more extensive investigation whether the tattooing with an 

 armed bow, probably a symbol of fitness for war, was forbidden to the 

 inhabitants of Ingrâs and Ingrau; a similar prohibition issued by Tobâdi 

 would be entirely fitting in the existing relations. 



Ail the above mentioned figures were met with equally on young 

 and adult men, and according to current reports they were made in 

 youth by an old woman. Ail the young men who had been admitted 

 to the temple (see Chapter XII), had already an equally abundant tattooing 

 as the older men. The fact that the tattooing takes place so early in life and 

 moreover by a woman, to whom no part in the religious life can be ascribed, 

 makes it very doubtful whether in the villages ofHumboldt Bay any religious 

 importance can possibly be attached to it. Leaving this in the middle, it no 

 doubt appears that the opinion of De CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ [1893, 32] ^spécial 

 figures hâve no separate names", cannot be applied hère; on the contrary 

 it must be positively formulated that with thèse people not a single dot or dash occurs 

 in the skin, which has not got its distinct meaning. At other places visited by the expédition 



Â 



J 



Fig. 21. '/5- 

 Tattooing motive: 

 „ Arrow and bow"; 

 Humboldt Bay. 



