233 



At the same time as they adopted the art of weaving— copying no 

 doubt from their more civilised cousins the Malays — they also learnt 

 the crude processes of dyeing then in vogue amongst the Malays : 

 I suspect that the dyes and dyeing processes now in use amongst 

 the Sea Dyaks are substantially the same as those of the Malays 

 centuries ago. For a long time Malays have shewn a preference 

 for the coloured threads of European and Chinese origin and at the 

 present day Dyaks too purchase much of their material always dyed 

 before it is woven, ready prepared for weaving, from the bazaar. 

 This probably is partly on account of the superiority in colour of 

 this bazaar material, for their home dyed threads are dull in colour, 

 lacking the brilliancy of a fibre which is dyed by modern scientific 

 methods. 



The dyes used are mostly infusions of leaves or bark and these 

 are tak^n from many different plants. 



The colours produced even in fresh material are not very bright 

 and as they use no mordants, except the lime of the sireh box their 

 colours are apt to fade. 



The rather large number of plant extracts employed in dyeing, 

 suggests repeated experiments on their part with a view to the 

 discovery of better colours. 



There is great uniformity in the colours of cloth which is entirely 

 of Dyak origin; this is partly but not entirely on account of their 

 predilection for particular colours. 



Perhaps the best colour they have produced is red, and various 

 shades of this colour and of browns figure largely in Dyak material ; 

 the commonest red is brick-coloured, brighter reds and scarlet being 

 unobtainable from their dyes. 



The blues are very inferior; light blue and violet is almost want- 

 ing but they produce various shades of dark blue passing on to 

 black. 



They have not produced a real green and whenever this colour 

 appears in a Dyak cloth it is certain to be that of foreign thread. 



The principal plants used in dyt-ing are— Tarum, Jangit, nng- 

 krebai, Kunyit, Intamu and Engkudu. Tarum is the indigo plant 

 Indigofera tinctoria. It is widely spread throughout the inhabited 

 parts of Sarawak but is not indigenous. The leaves of this Tarum 

 are boiled with water for a long time until the liquid becomes rather 

 sticky; then sireh lime is mixed with it and the mixture well stirred 

 up. This liquid is now ready to be used as a blue dye; the fibre to be 

 coloured is simply soaked in the liquid for a long or short time 

 according to the depth of colour required. As a rule the steeping 

 in this liquid is repeated several times the material being dried after 

 each immersion ; if the operation be repeated five times the colour 

 produced is of course deeper than that after only three washings. 

 By using a weak solution of Tarum or by limiting the amount of lime 

 a lighter blue can be obtained, but as this has a very washed out 

 appearance it is not appreciated by Dyaks. Tarum is thus used 



