SARAWAK ETHNOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION. 9 



rnents ; they are rather articles of dress since their principal 

 purpose is to keep the hair in order and out of the eyes. Such 

 are the " selapok " of the Sea-Dyaks and the " lavong " of the 

 Kyans, plaited bands of rush or split rattan worn by men and 

 the beaded head-bands worn by Kyan, Kenyan and Ukit women 

 (cf. Ling Roth vol. II. p. 59). The Muruts of the Trusan 

 district wear " strings of beads on the head to as many as six 

 rows ; these fit the contour of the head and if continued to the 

 top of the head would form a cap ; the hair is smoothed down 

 and the end is brought up and passed through inside the strings 

 of beads, forming a long loop a little to one side of the head " 

 (0. F. Ricketts in "Sarawak Gazette" No. 347 p. 241). The 

 beads composing these fillets are large yellow beads of glass 

 and are highly prized. Murut children of both sexes wear a 

 single string of differently coloured beads round the head, and 

 the Murut women of the La was River, British N. Borneo wear a 

 narrow fillet (two or three strings only) of differently coloured 

 beads. 



Brooke Low (cf. Ling-Roth I.e. vol. II. p. 58) notes that un- 

 married girls amongst the Sea-Dyaks wear chaplets of sweet- 

 smelling berries ; the chaplets are known as " balong." 



1. Kenyan — head-rings. 



a. Two narrow circles of split rattan, with strips of very 

 finely split rattan, stained black, closely wound round in a 

 vertical direction ; on the outside, strips of a yellowish rush are 

 interlaced with the vertical rattan strips, forming a simple 

 pattern of oblique lines in double sets. At one point on each 

 ring a piece of red cloth is wound round and stitched with 

 string. 



Diam. 17*5 cm. and 16 cm.; breadth 1*6 cm. 



Brooke Low collection. From the Uma Kelap * of the 

 Rejang River. 



Catalogue No. 399 a, (Plate VIII. fig. 11). 



*Dr. C. Hose considers that these people belong to a division in- 

 termediate between the Kalamantan and Kyan-Kenyah divisions. 



R. A. Soc. No. 43, 1905. 



