Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 40

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Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1904)

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4329177Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society — Volume 401904

[No. 40]

JOURNAL

of the

Straits Branch

of the

Royal Asiatic Society

JUNE 1904

SINGAPORE:

Printed at the American Mission Press

1904

page

Table of Contents.

An Illustrated Catalogue of the Ethnographical Collection of the Sarawak Museum—Part I, Musical Instruments, by R. Shelford

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page 1

page

Errata.

Page 5, bottom line	for "Subdived"	read "Subdivided."
Page 7, 6th line	for„ "Plate VI"	read„ "Plate VII."
Page 12, in foot note	for„ "Kenyah-Kyan"	read„ "Kelamantan."
Page 22, bottom line	for„ "Stopes"	read„ "Stops."
Page 32, 7th line	for„ "Plate VIII, figs. 11 and 21"	read„ read "Plate VIII, figs. 11 and 12."
Page 52, 14th line	for„ "Plate IV. fig. II"	read„ read "Plate IV, fig. 11."
Page 53, 8th line from bottom	for "tangkat krutak"	read "tongkat krutak."
Page 54, lines 13, 24 and 30	for "finical"	read "finial."

page

An Illustrated Catalogue of the Ethnographical Collection of the Sarawak Museum.

INTRODUCTION.

The nucleus of the ethnographical collection of the Sarawak Museum is a collection made by Mr. Hugh Brooke Low, during the greater part of his service under the Sarawak Government (1869-1886); Mr. Low made full use of his opportunities and got together nearly 500 different objects of ethnographical interest chiefly from the natives of the Rejang and Batang Lupar rivers. The collection was sent to England and for some time was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum. In 1887, however, His Highness the Rajah of Sarawak purchased the collection, and in 1891 it was deposited in the newly-opened Sarawak Museum. To this nucleus have been added by con- stant additions nearly 1,500 specimens and so recently as 1899 a competent critic was able to assert that the Sarawak Museum contained "the best and most instructive collection of Sarawak ethnography extant" ("Nature" Aug. 31st 1899, p. 415.)

Unfortunately the Museum is but rarely visited by serious students of anthropology and as with the exception of Ling Roth's "Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo" and one or two papers by Hein (Vienna, 1890), the culture-history of the Borneans has never been adequately pictured, it seemed advisable to compile an illustrated catalogue of this fine ethnographical collection, so that those interested in the natives of Borneo might have some sort of picture of them even if a more personal acquaintance was out of the question.

Even in Sarawak, well-protected as it is against European. exploitation, great changes have taken place amongst the natives within the last thirty years; the great incursion of Chinese has had its effects; the dominant Sea-Dyak has increased enormously in the Rejang River, driving the Kyan, Kanowit and other tribes less robust than himself before him, so that the ethnographical variety of the chief river of Brooke Low's collecting area is now sadly diminished; finally the influence of the European on the change of native habits must not be left out of account.^[1] The catalogue, then, is not begun a day too soon, reliable information on many specimens must be obtained now, or before many years it may be too late. As it is, the Srus, a tribe appar- ently allied to the Tanjongs, living near Kalaka, have forgotten all their old customs and culture, a fragmentary language alone remaining to suggest a less ignoble past; whilst the Tan- jongs themselves, thanks to the gin-bottle and the immorality of their women are rapidly drawing near to the abyss of extinction. The project of such a catalogue as this was for some time in my mind, but the ways and means of production were difficult to find. However, at the end of 1902 the Council of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society generously came to the res- cue and the catalogue will be published in parts under their auspices.

The ethnographical collection now to be catalogued cannot claim to be absolutely complete, and there are many specimens scattered amongst European Museums which are unrepresented in the Sarawak Museum. These will be alluded to in the catalogue whenever possible and specimens known to the writer but un- represented in any museum will also be noted. No particular order in the series of objects described will be observed, but each part will be produced as soon as it is ready. I have been fortunate in securing the collaboration of Dr. C. Hose, Resident of the Baram district, in at least one part of the catalogue and other local authorities have been as generous in supplying me with information as they have been in obtaining specimens for the Museum.

PART I.

Musical Instruments.

By R. Shelford. m. a., f. l. s., etc.

Curator of the Sarawak Museum.

The musical instruments of the Bornean tribes fall naturally into four main groups :—

1. Stringed instruments.

2. Wind instruments.

3. Jews harps.

4. Instruments of percussion.

They are described in this order. Each group can be sub- divided into classes and under the class-headings are described the different 'species' frequently represented by more than one specimen. In addition to describing each specimen fully, I have quoted its number in the Museum catalogue and have recorded how and when it came into the possession of the museum; all measurements are given in centimetres. It will be seen that the Museum is indebted to many friends for valuable specimens; as it would be tedious to detail here all their names, I must express my thanks to them as a collective body; the names of Mr. D. J. S. Bailey, of the Sarawak service and Mr. E. W. Byrde, of the Borneo Co., cannot however pass without special notice, as to these two gentlemen I am indebted not only for many interesting and opportune specimens but also for much valuable information concerning them. My friend Mr. H. Balfour, curator of the Pitts-Rivers Museum, Oxford, has given me much useful advice and help, and his papers on musical instruments have served as models which I fear that never- theless I have but imperfectly copied.

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.

There are four main classes of stringed instruments amongst the in use tribes of Borneo^[2]:—

I. Primitive musical bow—perhaps the progenitor of

II. Fiddles and guitars.

III. Upright harps.

IV. Cylindrical harps.

Class I.— Primitive Musical Bow.

This instrument is used only by the Tanjongs, a small isolated tribe living at Kapit, Rejang River, Sarawak. It consists of a flattened bow (busoi) with a rattan string laid across a pot of earthenware or metal, the mouth of the pot being closed by a wooden diaphragm (aran); the handle of the bow is grasped in the right hand and the taut bow string is tapped with a short stick held in the left hand; different notes can be produced either by fingering the string or by moving the bow so that different parts of its arc rest on the wooden diaphragm closing A very fair volume of sound can be produced. Until the pot. quite recently no specimens of this interesting musical instrument had found their way to European Museums, but there are now examples in the Anthropological Museums of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The " Natural History of the Musical Bow" by H. Balfour (Oxford, 1899) should be consulted for a full and detailed account of the geographical distribution and evolution of this primitive type of musical instrument.

1. Tanjong—Busoi and Aran.

a. (Plate I, fig. 1, upper specimen).

The busoi is a slightly bowed slat of hard black wood 93. cm long and 4.4 cm broad about is middle. One end is fretted and moulded and forms the handle, the other end has one border slightly excavated in the way shown in the figure. A strip of split rattan is strung through a hole near the handle and laced through two holes near the other end.

The aran is a disc of wood, 28 cm. in diam. with a large the border for a depth of 2.5 cm. has been hole in the centre sloped down and a dog's tooth pattern is cut in low relief on it, the back ground being stained black with soot or indigo.

Catalogue No. 59. Brooke Low collection. This specimen has been figured in " The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo" by H. Ling Roth, 1886 Vol. II p. 260, and in "The Natural History of the Musical Bow" by H. Balfour (1899 the latter illustration is taken from a photograph of this specimen in the possession of Sir Hugh Low.

b. (Plate I, fig. 1, lower specimen).

The busoi is of soft wood. 82.3 cm. long and 4 cm. broad in the middle. The concave side has a geometric pattern cut in bas-relief, the outstanding background being stained red with dragon's blood the handle is unstained, it is moulded and fretted forming an S-shaped curve the opposite end has its borders notched and curved, it is stained with dragon's blood and has a rosette (buah trong) cut in it. A strip of rattan is strung through a hole near the handle and laced through two holes near the distal end.

The aran is a disc of wood 30 cm. in diam. with an incised phyllomorphic pattern surrounding a central rosette it is not perforated. The rattan plectrum is 31 cm. long. The pot over which the aran is laid is a common bazaar pot of Chinese make, light-blue in colour and glazed; 22*5 cm. diam.: 13 cm. high.

Catalogue No. 1230. R. Hon. H. F. Deshon, [P. i. 03]

Class II.—Fiddles and Guitars.

This main class may be subdived into two sub-classes:—
A) Fiddles with straight wooden stem transfixing a resonator made from a hollowed-out coconut shell or gourd, and with one or more strings. Such are the one stringed enserunai of the Sea-Dyaks and the and the sigittuad of the Land-Dyaks and the two- or three-stringed engkerbap of the Sea-Dyaks. The performer on any of these instruments sits on the ground and holding the stem of the fiddle in his left hand rests the resonator against the calf of his left leg or else grasps with his toes the part of the stem that projects through the resonator the string is sawed with a very simple bow (pengayat) hed in the right hand generally no sound can be produced until the string has been well moistened with saliva and even then the volume of sound is The Sea-Dyaks imitate on the enserunai the dirges not great. sung at deaths and at burial.

(B) Guitars, cut out from a solid block of wood, the resonator or being allowed out either from the back or from the front, and with from two to six strings, which are strummed with the Examples of such instruments are found amongst the ringers. Kayans, Kenyans, Malohs, Dusuns, Malays, and Sea-Dyaks, the The latter people having probably borrowed from the Malohs. riddle figured by Ling Roth I.e. Vol. II, p. 262 is undoubtedly Chinese numbers of these are made in Hong-Kong for export and can be bought any day in the Sarawak bazaars. The Malay fiddle figured on p. 266. Vol. II. of Ling Roth's work is Javanese and though the instrument is described as being of Borneo make, it cannot be regarded as typical of Borneo Malays. A very similar specimen bought from a Bugis is in the Raffles Museum, Singapore.

A. FIDDLES

1. Sea-Dyak—Enserunai (Plate I, fig.2.)

a.—(Second specimen from the left.)

Stem straight, transfixing the resonator and projecting considerably beyond the head is flattened and slightly enlarged The resonator is half a its front border notched and moulded. gourd (genok selaing), the bottom is perforated a diaphragm of monkey skin is lashed on with a rattan binding and tightened up with wedges (Plate VII, fig. 1). The string which is of rattan (rotan sega) at one end is looped over the part of the stem which beyond the resonator and passes from this point of attachment to the lower part of the head of the stem which longitudinally the string runs along the is deeply grooved groove and out through a hole at the side and is then wound round the head (Plate VI fig. 2); a notch on each side of the groove is evidently intended for the reception of a cross-bridge. There is no bridge for the string opposite the resonator. A bracing string of grass is present. The bow is of bamboo with a grass string. Total length of fiddle is 68 cm; diameter of resonator 9.5 cm.

Catalogue No. 55. Brooke Low Collection.

b. Stem straight of a hard dark wood, transfixing resonator and projecting considerably beyond. The head is not expanded; the front of the stem has a deep longitudinal groove for the greater part of its length there are some shallow transverse grooves and incised lines distad and proximad of The resonator is the longitudinal groove by way of decoration. The resonator is half a gourd, closed by a diaphragm of wood luted on with dammar, the bottom is perforated. The rattan string at one end is looped round the part of the stem that projects beyond the resonator, at the other it is wound round a slip of wood driven transversely through the stem (Plate VII, fig. 3) there are notches on each side of the groove for the reception of a crossbridge. Two bracing strings of grass. Bow of bamboo; with bridge. otal length 60.5 cm., diam. of resonator 11.5 cm.

Catalogue No. 56. Brooke Low collection. This specimen has been figured by Ling Roth (l. c. Vol II, p. 260).

c. (1st specimenon right). Stem straight, hemispherical in brown soft wood, transfixing resonator and projecting considerably beyond it, the head of the stem is enlarged flattened and bent forward at an angle to the stem, each side is carved in low relief with a phyllomorphic pattern and painted The reson tor is half three colours, red, yellow, and green. a cocoa-nut shell closed by a diaphragm of wood luted on with dammar one of the "eyes" of the cocoa-nut has been bored forming an orifice at the bottom of the resonator. The rattan string at one end is looped round the part of the stem that projects beyond the resonator, the other passes into a groove and round a tuning peg that traverses the stem just below the head. Bridge missing; a long and stout bamboo bow with rattan string. Total length 78 cm; diameter of resonator 11.5 cm.

Catalogue No. 974. Brooke Low collection.

d. (2nd specimen from right). Stem straight, flattened, of hard brown wood; it transfixes the resonator but does not project much beyond; the head is enlarged, its front edge is notched and carved. The resonator is made from a section of the septum of bamboo, cut just above and just below a node the bamboo is perforated with a star-shaped hole the top of the resonator is covered with a diaphragm of skin lashed on with rattan (Plate VII, fig. 1); the plaited band of rattan (c.) encircles the the resonator at the zone of the leaf-scars. The single rattan string is at one end looped over the stem in the usual manner, at the other end is lashed round the lower end of the there is no head, passing through a hole in the front border There is a wooden bridge shaped like an intuning peg. verted V. resting on the diaphragm of the resonator and a grass bracing string. The bow is of rattan with a string made from a strand of the stem of the bracken, Pteris aquilina. Total length 59.7 cm.; diameter of resonator 6.2 cm.; height of resonator 7 cm.

Catalogue No. 1228. D. J. S. Bailey, Esq. [P]; from the head waters of the Undup River.

e. (1st specimen on left). Stem of soft wood, almost square in transverse section; it transfixes and projects beyond the transverse section resonator the head is much enlarged, flattened laterally and on each side a phyllomorphic pattern (resam—Gleichenia dichotoma) is carved in deep relief. The resonator is half a cocoanut shell, one of the " eyes " at the bottom has been perforated the mouth is covered with a diaphragm of monkey skin with the hair still on fastened with rattan lashings in the usual manner v Plate VII, fig. 1) The single rattan string at one end passes through a hole pierced in the part of the stem that projects beyond the resonator bent back at an angle to the rest of the stem that projects beyond the resonator and is prevented from slipping through by a knot the other end attached to the tuning peg; this transfixes the head just above the angle, and in order to expose a length of peg round which to wind the string a deep short longitudinal groove is cut in the anterior face of the head, into this the string runs, is wound round the peg, passes out through the peg hole and is knotted to the peg outside the groove (Plate VII. fig. 4). A wooden inverted V-shaped bridge is set on the diaphragm and a small slip of wood is thrust under the string just before it enters the tuning-peg groove. There is a bracing string of grass. The bow is of bamboo with a grass string. Total length 83.5 cm: diam. of resonator 12.5 cm.

Catalogue No. 1229. D. J. S. Bailey, Esq. [P. ii. 03].

Except that there is only one string this instrument might be called an engkerbap, the shape and carving of the head of the stem being very characteristic of that instrument. From the Undup River.

2. Land-Dyak—Sigittuad or Sigitot. (Plate VII, fig. 7.)

Stem a length of bamboo (tongon). Resonator a hollowedout coconut shell with the top third cut off, it is transfixed by a piece of wood (benoah) which then passes a short way up the in the bottom of the coconut shell cavity of the bamboo stem is pierced a quincunx of holes the top is covered by a circular sheet of sago-palm leaf, which is not secured in any way. There is one tuning peg (than) which transfixes the stem back to front not from side to side as in the enserunai. The single string (oōi) which is the adventitious root of some epiphytic plant is knotted at one end of the piece of wood transfixing the resonator, at the A triangular block of other it is wound round the tuning peg. wood {tikyer) stands on the diaphragm and serves to bridge up There is a small bow of bamboo with a string made the string. from a strand of the stem of the common bracken, Pteris aquilina. From the village of Krokong, Upper Sarawak. Total length 62 cm.

Catalogue No. 1277. E. W. Byrde, Esq. [P. vij. 03]

The instrument is of very simple construction, in fact it was made in about half-an-hour, the taut string serves to keep

JOURNAL 40, PLATE I.

Fig. 1.