236 



As already stated the fibre is dyed before it is woven and as most 

 of their cloth has figured patterns the processes of dyeing and weav- 

 ing are rather intricate. The web of undye 1 thread is stretched out 

 on a long rectangular wooden frame and the pattern is occa- 

 sionally sketched but usually gradually developed as she works on 

 the warp. The weft is of a uniform colour throughout, being often 

 brown or red, and taking no part in the formation of the pat- 

 tern. 



Let us imagine a case where the finished cloth is to have a red 

 ground colour the design to be in 'black' and 'white'. The woman 

 artist takes up a number of threads from the warp in that portion 

 of the pattern which is to be 'white' and she tightly binds round 

 these threads with fibre of Lembah ; she continues thus until she has 

 tied up all the white portion of the pattern. Then, after removing 

 the material from the figuring frame, she exposes the whole to the 

 action of the dye Engkudu and Jangit solution — the whole of the 

 warp having previously been subjected to the action of the pre- 

 liminary wash liquor. 



The result is that those portions which are tied up remain * white' 

 whilst all the rest is dyed red. This having been satisfactorily 

 accomplished the warp is dried and again put on the frame. She 

 now proceeds to tie up also in a similar manner all those parts 

 which are to remain red and then the whole web is immersed in the 

 Tarum liquid : the exposed parts are thus dyed ' black ' in the 

 manner previously described. When this process is complete, the 

 web after drying, is put on the loom preparatory to weaving, and 

 the Lembah fibre is removed; the finished pattern is now clearly 

 depicted on the warp. The dying of such a pattern occupies the 

 leisure time of a month or more. 



When the cloth is to be simply striped— with no design — there is 

 of course, no necessity for any tying up, as the threads of different 

 colours are dyed separately. 



Analogous to these processes of dying is their staining of rotans. 

 Sea Dyak women often wear waist rings of rotan and these rings 

 are sometimes coloured entirely red, and sometimes they are coloured 

 alternately red and yellow ; the latter effect is obtained by first 

 soaking the rotan in a watery extract of Jirak (Symplocos fasciculata) 

 leaves for one or two months which stains the material yellow ; then 

 it is taken out and at frequent intervals along the length of the band 

 it is tightly bound round with vegetable fibre after which it is put 

 into boiling Engkudu solution. The result is that all parts exposed 

 to the Engkudu liquor are stained red whilst the parts protected by 

 the encircling bands remain yellow. 



There are probably other formulae in use amongst these Sea 

 Dyaks, whose lack of originality coupled with an admiration for 

 most things foreign, leads them to copy extensively the customs of 

 people with whom they come in contact: but in the preceding 

 account I have tried to give a description of the methods in general 



