As the last of our baggage did not come till midday, we could not start till after tiffin. Douglas and I went in the smallest boat, and it was very interesting shooting the very numerous rapids. How different it was going down stream compared with the laborious journey against the current! The boatmen built in a remarkably short time a very large hut to accommodate the whole party for the night.
We started at 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 25th, passing Batu Jilama about seven o’clock. The river here flows past fine vertical limestone cliffs five hundred feet in height. The Dayaks have a legend about a winged ghost-tiger (remaung), which is supposed to inhabit the caves in these cliffs, and to fly from one side of the river to the other. The Dayaks are very fond of these tiger stories, but as this is not the Sea Dayak country we need not believe this particular yarn.
A short distance before the Malinau joins the Tutau there is a bluff in which is an old burial cave called Lobang Tulang. Hose and McDougall had already visited it, and had brought away two skulls and a great many bones, which must have belonged to at least thirty individuals. Douglas and I clambered up the cave and had a look round. The cave was a small one; great stalactites depended from the face of the cliff, which was largely clothed with vegetation. There was a beautiful view of the bend of the river and of the Mulu range beyond. That evening we slept in a Long-Pata house on the Tutau opposite the entrance of the Malinau.
We left early the following morning, had a halt for breakfast at 7.45, and travelled steadily all day, not landing again till we reached the Umu Belubu house. This long house was very similar to those we visited on the Limbang River. In the evening we had some borak, a ginlike spirit made from rice, and Ray gave the inhabitants some native songs on the phonograph, and I copied some patterns. This was the first time I had come across people belonging to the Kayan group. Douglas and I were tattooed on the arm early next morning by Balu Long who is perhaps the best tattooer in the Baram District; she is the old mother-in-law of the chief. The pattern was printed on the arm in charcoal or rather soot by means of a wooden slab on which the design was cut in relief, and then the impression was gone over three times with a tattooing needle tapped by an iron rod. The whole process took a little over an hour. It was by no means painful, and as we had previously disinfected the ink with thymol, the punctured skin healed quickly with very little inflammation.
The Kayan men have a device tattooed on the fore-arm and thigh; very frequently there is a rosette or circular design on the shoulder. The back of the hand and fingers are tattooed when the man has taken a head. More than once up-country women have asked me when I was going to have my hands tattooed!
The Kayan women are tattooed all over the fore-arm and over the back of the hand. The thighs are richly tattooed and the upper surface of the foot and toes.
We left our friends in this house about ten o’clock, and reached Batu Blah about three o’clock. Here the natives were building a large long-house, and in the meantime resided in comparatively small houses. Close by the village was a small cemetery, in which was one pillar tomb boldly carved with spiral designs below a human face. It was the funeral post of a chief, whose body was pressed into a jar let into the top of the pillar.
Fig. 30. Kayan Tattoo Designs.
A little less than half natural size.