17th Century White Dog Hair, Red Zaitun Flower, Quanzhou Settlers and Plains Indigenous

 

Yesterday I met a 'Tatayu ' 塔塔悠 descendant  許家銘 who gave a lively and interesting talk at 'Taiwan-Old-Family 4th Conference'.

'Tatayu' means the headband made mixing dog fur commonly with ramie/cotton/tree bark traditionally followed by a red dye. This practice was documented as early as 1600s by Dutch missionary Georgius Candidius.

Coincidentally, I have done a little bit research about the topic recently purely for interest and I am taking the opportunity to draw some conclusions.

There is quite a bit of materials I have here but will in this instance bring out a few key points  - for my own records and also sharing with 許家銘 for his interests.

I. 'Tatayu/Catayo' Etymology 

Today there is Shang-Tayu 上塔悠 （literal upper Tayu) and Xia-Tayu (lower Tayu) 下塔悠。 

A geographer and a historian both contributed their thoughts at the conference about Tatayu etymology. And both from River stream perspective - upper and lower. But there is no conclusion.

I, however, am in the opinion that the development of  'tatayu' is unrelated to topography but to linguistics based on a Dutch word 'Ethatao ' first appeared documented in 1600s.

'We were told the area our ancestors settled should be pronounced as 'Etayu' ' Says 許家銘.

This one sentence consolidated for me about the word origin.

As for today's Shang (upper) and Xia (lower) - my thought is upper and lower have nothing to do with tatayu meaning of the word which has been defined as a product made with dog fur. 

'E' has been transliterated into Lower 下, whichever direction is 'Lower' doesn't matter, linguistic strategy logically developed resulted in the 'upper' based on the existing 'lower' end.

In other words - I believe, and as it happened and has been confirmed, Etayu (lower) existed before upper.

2. What kind of dog hair and where did these dogs come from and go?

白獅犬 possibly like Chow Chow an ancient type originally from Northern China/Siberia. They seemed disappeared in Taiwan before mid 1900s. The latest collection entry suggests 1931 @Alapawan Taitung. Alapawan the Amis community, incidentally, is Alabao 阿拉寳 in Keelung. 

3. “There is a 'Zaitun' 刺桐 tree in front of our ancestral house.” Says 許家銘.

Zaitun is Quanzhou's old name.

Zaitun means 'Olive' in Arab and refers to Erythrina variegata in Taiwan。 

See my post HERE.

4. Dagobum/Tat-ko bun 達戈紋 - a weaving product 

Dutch historian Kaim Ang 翁佳音 thinks POSSIBLE similar to Siraya 'Tatagof' . In which case, 'bum' and 'gof' refer to Holo 'bun' the weaving patterns.

5. The red dye from 茜草 Rubia cordifolia often mentioned in this context. 

To get a clearer idea of what plains indigenous life could have been like in this particular context - The above five points I suggest should be sorted together.