When in this way the shell has been reduced to a thickness of a few inches, it is opened out, while hot from firing and still filled with water, by wedging stout sticks some six to seven feet in length between the lateral walls, so that the hollow stem (which hitherto has had the form of a hollow cylinder some three to four feet in diameter, lacking along its whole length a strip about the fourth of its circumference) becomes a shallow trough some six to seven feet wide in the middle of its length. During the hollowing, small buttresses are left along each side at intervals of about two feet to form supports for benches. After the opening, the shell is left lying covered with branches for some days, while the wood sets in its new form. The outer surface is then shaved approximately to the required degree, all irregularities are removed, and holes about half-an-inch in diameter are bored through all parts of the shell at intervals of some twenty inches. Wooden pegs are then hammered into these holes, each peg bearing two marks or grooves at an interval equal to the thickness of the shell desired at each part; the peg is driven in from the outside until the outer groove is flush with the outer surface of the shell, and the projecting part is cut away; the inner surface is then further chipped and scraped in each area until it becomes level with the inner groove on the peg. In this way the workers are enabled to give to each part its appropriate thickness. The outer surface is then finally smoothed to form about one-third of a cylinder, and the foundation is complete. It only remains to lash the cross-benches to their supports, to raise the sides by lashing on a gunwale, and to fit in wedge-shaped blocks at bow and stern. The gunwale consists of a tough plank some ten inches wide overlapping the outer edge of the shell, and lashed firmly to it by rattan strips piercing both shell and planks at intervals of about six inches. In some cases the gunwale is further raised in its middle part by lashing on a second smaller plank to the upper edge of the first. The block fitted in at the prow presents to the water a flat surface inclined at a low angle; and a similar block completes the shell at the stern. The prow is often ornamented with the head of a crocodile or the conventional dog's head carved in hard wood and painted in red and black.
The whole operation, like every other important undertaking, is preceded by the finding of omens, and it is liable to be postponed by the observation of ill omens, by bad dreams, or by any misfortune such as a death in the house. In each house are certain men who are specially skilled in boat-making, and by them the work is directed and all the finer part of the work executed. In the case of a war-boat which is to be the property of the household, these special workers are paid a fee out of the store of valuables accumulated under the care of the chief by way of fines and confiscations.
The smaller boats, ranging from a small canoe suitable for one or two paddlers only, to one capable of carrying a score or more, are generally private property. These, like the war-boats, are made from a single stem. The larger ones are made in just the same way as the war-boats. In the smaller ones the bow is shaped from the solid block and is not opened out, as is the rest of the boat. The craftsman who makes a boat for another is helped by his customer, and is paid by him a fee in brass-ware or dollars, the usual fee being a TAWAK varying in size according to the size of the boat.
If Kayans find themselves for any reason in immediate need of a boat when none is at hand, they sometimes fashion one very rapidly by stripping the bark from a big tree. The two ends of the sheet of bark are folded and lashed with rattan to form bow and stern; the middle part is wedged open with cross-pieces which serve as benches, and the shell is strengthened with transverse ribs and longitudinal strips. A serviceable boat capable of carrying several men and their baggage may be completed in the course of two hours. Such a makeshift boat is more commonly made by Sea Dayaks.
Of all the interior tribes the Kayans are probably the best boat-makers; but most of them make their own boats in the same way as the Kayans. There are, however, a few of the Klemantan sub-tribes who never attempt to make anything more than a very rough small canoe of soft wood, and who buy from others what boats they need. This is a curious instance of the persistent lack of the tradition of a specialised craft among communities that might have been expected to acquire it easily from their neighbours.
For ordinary work a rough paddle made from iron-wood is generally used; the blade and shaft are of one piece; the flat blade, nearly two feet in length, is widest about six inches below its junction with the shaft, and from this point tapers slightly to its square extremity; the shaft is about three feet in length and carries, morticed to its upper end, a cross-piece for the grip of the upper hand.
A few paddles, especially those made for women, are very finely shaped and finished, and have their shafts ornamented with carving of a variety of designs, generally one band of carving immediately above the blade and a second below the cross-piece. Some of the Klemantans excel the Kayans in this work, producing very beautiful women's paddles, sometimes with designs of inlaid lead (Pl. 92).
House-building
A Kayan community seldom continues to inhabit the same spot for more than about a dozen years; though in exceptional instances houses are continuously inhabited for thirty or even forty years. House-building is thus a craft of great importance, and the Kayans are seldom content to build their houses in the comparatively flimsy style adopted by the Ibans and some of the Klemantans, and even occasionally by Kenyahs. The main features of the structure of a Kayan long-house have been described in Chapter IV. Here it remains only to describe some of the more peculiar and important processes of construction.
The great piles that support the house may be floated down river from the old house to be used in the construction of the new; [64] they are not dug from the ground, but are felled by cutting close to the surface of the ground. The great planks of the floor, the main cross-beams, and the wooden shingles of the roof, are also commonly carried from the old house to the new. If a house has been partially destroyed by fire, no part of the materials of the old house is used in the construction of the new; for it is felt that in some indefinable way the use of the old material would render the new house very liable to the same fate, as though the new house would be infected by the materials with the ill-luck attaching to the old house.[65] In such cases, or upon migration to a different river, the whole of the timbers for the house have to be procured from the jungle, and shaped, and erected; and the process of construction is extremely laborious. But once the timber has been brought together upon the chosen site, the building goes on rapidly, and the whole of a house some hundreds of yards in length may be substantially completed within a fortnight. The main supports of the structure are four rows of massive columns of iron-wood. Holes about four feet in depth are dug for the reception of the butt ends of these. They are disposed in the manner indicated in the diagrams (Figs. 37, 38, 39), so that a single row supports the front of the house, another the back, and a double row the middle.[66] The intervals between the columns of each row are about twenty feet, or rather more. Each pile is erected by raising the one end until the other slips into the hole. Rattans are tied round it a little above its middle and passed over a tall tripod of stout poles. A number of men haul on these while others shove up the top end with their shoulders. The pile is thus suspended with its butt end resting so lightly on the ground that it can easily be guided into the hole prepared for its reception. Smaller accessory piles, to serve as additional supports, are put under the main cross beams of the floor when these have been laid. The columns of the double row in the middle line are about six feet taller than those of the front and back rows. For the support of the floor a massive squared transverse tie is morticed through each set of four columns at a height of some fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, and secured by a pin through each extremity. A squared roof-plate, still more massive than the floor ties, is then laid upon the crowns of the columns of the front row, along its whole length, and a second one upon the back row. This is dowelled upon the columns (I.E. the top of the column is cut to form a pin which is let into the longitudinal beam); and the beams which make up the roof-plate are spliced, generally in such a way that the top of a column serves as the pin of the splice. Each of these heavy beams is generally lifted into its place by tiers of men standing on poles lashed at different heights across the columns, their efforts being seconded by others pulling on rattans which run from the beam over the topmost cross-pole. The framework of the roof is then completed by laying stout roof-ties across the crowns of the double row of columns of the middle line, and lashing their extremities to stout purlins (longitudinal beams for the support of the rafters in the middle of their length), and by laying the ridge-timber upon a line of perpendicular struts. The ridge-timber and purlins, though less heavy than the roof-plates, consist also of stout squared timbers, spliced to form beams continuous throughout the whole length of the house. The rafters are laid at an angle of about forty degrees and at intervals of eighteen inches; they are lashed to the ridge-timber and to the purlins, and lipped on to the roof-plates, beyond which they project about four feet to form an cave. Strong flat strips or laths are laid along the rafters parallel to the length of the house at intervals of about sixteen inches. On these are laid the shingles or slats of iron-wood in regular rows, in just the way in which roof tiles are laid in this country. Each slat is a slab about 1 x 30 x 12 inches, and is lashed by a strip of rattan, which pierces its upper end, to one of the laths. The floor is completed by laying longitudinal joists of stout poles across the main floor-ties; the poles are notched to grip the ties. Upon these joists, transversely to them, are laid a number of flat strips which immediately support the floor planks; these are kept in place by their own weight.