SARAWAK ETHNOGRAPHICAL COLLECTION. 1 1 



Ornaments worn in the ears. 



I. Earrings of metal. 

 II. Ear-drops of metal or stone, or single beads. 



III. Earrings of brass and brass-wire. 



IV. Ear-pendants of brass and brass- wire. 

 V. Ear-pendants of bead-work. 



VI. Ear-pendants of horn and bone. 

 VII. Ear-pegs. 

 VIII. Ear-studs and ear-plugs. 



I. Eareixgs of Metal. 



Under the first heading are included the heavy metal rings 

 or coils worn by both sexes of the Ukit, Maloh, Tanjong, 

 Kanowit, Kenyah, Kyan and allied tribes and by Sea-Dyak men; 

 the weight of metal worn by the women of the first mentioned 

 tribes is so great that the lobe of the ear in course of time 

 becomes an immensely elongated loop, through which sometimes 

 the head can actually be passed. Pictures of women with these 

 elongated ear-lobes may be found in most books written on 

 Borneo. * The ear is bored when the subject is two or three 

 years old, in the case of a boy the lobe of the ear is extended 

 by heavy weights to about two or three inches in length, i. e. 

 nearly to the shoulder, when a lighter earring is substituted 

 and the elongation is carried no further; with girls the exten- 

 sion of the ear-lobe is carried still further and the heavy ear- 

 rings are worn throughout the lifetime ; occasionally the 

 loop breaks under the strain and though it may be stitched 

 up again, the unequal length of the two loops is always 

 regarded as a great disfigurement. Amongst Kyans and 

 Kenyahs the ear-lobes must first be extended with tin weights 



•e.g. Ling Roth. I.e. vol.1, pp. 25, 27, 28, vol II. p.*67 (the 

 women figured on pp. 25, 27, 28 are Tanjongs not Kanowits) ; Beccari, 

 "Nelle Fore.5te in Borneo " p. 425 ; Nieuwenhuis, " In Centraal Borneo" 

 PI. XIII. PL LVI ; several plates in Furness, "Home Life of Borneo 

 Head-Hunters. " Nieuwenhuis (I.e. pi. II) also figures a Bukit man with 

 two ear-studs and very heavy earrings such as are usually worn by 

 women only but the ear-lobes in this subject are not much elongated. 



R. A Soc, No. 43, 1905. 



