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Tatuing is forbidden in the house; it can only be performed on the warpath, and consequently men only are the tatu artists. The covering of the body with designs is a gradual process, and it is only the most seasoned and experienced warriors who exhibit on their persons all the different designs that we have just detailed.
Forearm and back of hand, front and sides of the thigh and the shin. Some. ? Tatu of forearms not so extensive. Chiefly ornament, for use in the next world. Kalamantan. None Partly as tally of enemies slain. None. ? Arm and back of hand. ? None. ? Ornament. Forearms, the lower part of the leg. Very little. ? As with Long Glat. ? ?
We do not consider that tatu can ever be of much value in clearing up racial problems, seeing how much evidence there is of interchange of designs and rejection of indigenous designs in favour of something newer; consequently we refrain from drawing up another scheme of classification of tatu in Borneo; at best it would be little more than a re-enumeration of the forms that we have already described in more or less detail.
This belief appears to be universal amongst the Kenyah-Klemantan of the Upper Mahakam and Batang Kayan. On Pl. 86 of Nieuwenhuis' book is figured the thigh tatu of a Long Glat woman; the front of the thigh is occupied with two rows of the hornbill MOTIF to which reference has already been made.
Should a girl have brothers, but no sisters, some of her tatu lines must not be joined together, but if she has brothers and sisters, or sisters only, all the lines can be joined. Tatu amongst Kayan women is universal; they believe that the designs act as torches in the next world, and that without these to light them they would remain for ever in total darkness; one woman told Dr.
Grant that I may sail down to Tatu in the form of a living soul, and sail up to Abydos in the form of the Benu bird; that I may go in and come out without being stopped at the pylons of the Lords of the Other World. In another Hymn to Osiris, which is found in the Papyrus of Hunefer, we have the following: "The gods come unto thee, bowing low before thee, and they hold thee in fear.
The males of the family, to which the girl undergoing the operation belongs, must dress in bark-cloth, and are confined to the house until the tatu is completed; should any of the male members be travelling in other parts of the island tatu cannot be commenced until they return.
But when the very practice of tatu has no special meaning, when the tatu-artist may be any member of the tribe, and where no original tatu design is to be found in the tribe, then the borrowed practice and the borrowed designs, unbound by any sort of tradition, run complete riot, and any sort of fanciful name is applied to the degraded designs.
Character of Designs. Part of Body Tatued. Cermonial. Object of Tatu. Serial designs on hands. Inside of forearm, outside of thigh, breasts, wrist and points of shoulders. Back of hand sometimes. None Sign of bravery in some forms, to ward off illness in others. The whole forearm, back of hand, the whole thigh, the metatarsal surface of the foot.
Nieuwenhuis' book , is the extent of our knowledge of the tatu of the inhabitants of the Kahayan river. The latter illustration shows a man tatued with a characteristic check pattern over the torso, stomach, and arms, but there is no reference to the plate in the text. Our figure is copied from a drawing by Dr. H. Hiller, of Philadelphia.
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