Adat Budaya Melayu

All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore
PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States.]
R.
J.
W I L K I N S O N,
F.M.S. Civil
Service,
General Editor.
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS.
P A R T I.
THE INCIDENTS OF MALAY LIFE.
BY
E . J . W I L K I N S O N , F.M.S. Civil Service.
KUALA LUMPUR:
PRINTED
BY J .
RUSSELL
AT T H E F.M.S.
GOVERNMENT
PRESS.
1908.
500-12/08.
PREFACE.
IN dealing with matters relating to Malay Life and

Customs I have thought it best to divide up the subject
into three pamphlets. This, the first, deals with the
principal incidents in the life of a Malay. The second
pamphlet will give some account of the conditions
under which a Malay livesthe type of house he resides
in, the clothes he wears, the furniture he uses, etc.
The third pamphlet will treat of Malay amusements.
I am very much indebted to Raja Haji Yahya,
Penghulu of Kota Setia, and to Messrs. H. Berkeley and
R. O. Winstedt for valuable assistance in the preparation of this pamphlet. The details given are, of
course, based upon Malay life in Perak.
R. J. WILKINSON.
L I F E AND CUSTOMS.
INFANCY, 1
L I K E most Eastern ceremonies the rites that accompany a Malay birth are very elaborate and very
incongruous. The newly-born child is first spat upon
by the midwife in order that he may be protected against
the old Indonesian spirits of disease. After this he
hears from the lips of his father (or from some learned
man if the father be illiterate) the Moslem tenets, the
adzan or "call to devotion," and the kamat or "final
exhortation to prayer." He is then handed back to the
midwife in order that she may imprint on his forehead
the caste-mark of the Hindu. Having been thus received
into three religions at once, the child is put to rest by his
mother's sidealong with a piece of iron, a quantity of
rice and a number of other articles that the Malay
considers necessary for the defence of infancy against its
natural and spiritual foes.
The presiding authority on these occasions is a
woman, the bidan, or midwife. The mighty pawang, or
wizard, is also there, but he plays a humble part.
He chooses an auspicious place for the birth and he
surrounds it with thorns, 2 nets, dolls and bitter herbs,
in order to keep the spirits of evil from getting at
the mother and child in the perilous hour of their
weakness. He selects the exact spot by dropping some
sharp-pointed chopper or axe-head and marking the first
place where it sticks into the ground. Thorns are
thought to be dangerous to the trailing entrails of the
1
Ante-natal ceremonies are dealt with in Appendix A.

2 Duri mengkuang and duri bulling.
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
vampire; 1 bitter herbs are unpalatable to everyone;

dolls may be mistaken for the baby; nets are puzzling
to spirits because of their complexity, and even a
much-perforated coconut is sometimes hung up over a
Malay door in order to bewilder a ghost by the multiplicity of its entrances and exits. The pawang's duty
begins and ends with these primitive precautions. The
elders of the mosque, great though they are on other
days, are even less important than the pawang on the
occasion of a birth; the bidan, is supreme. She has
charge of mother and child; she takes the infant from
the moment of his birth, washes him with the proper
water, rubs him with the prescribed black cloth, and
finally brings him to a proper sense of his position by
banging a brass tray near his ear or (in extreme cases)
by lighting Chinese crackers in his immediate neighbourhood. The midwife's word is law: " obey the bidan" is
a Malay proverb that is quoted to silence any fool who
dares to dispute the word of an expert. The bidan gets
ready the child's first resting-place, the platter of rice
on which he is laid and the iron nail that usually keeps
him company. The honour of the first introduction she
gives to the child's grandmothers, for there is a local
saying that " a n old woman takes to a baby like an
epicure to a sardine."
Next in order of presentation after the grandmothers come the religious dignitaries of the mosque.
They are not credited with any special love for babies,
but it is the duty of these pious people to "open the
child's mouth;" and it is considered good form on the
infant's part if he anticipates the ceremony by indulging
in a good "mouth-opening" scream as soon as he looks
1
Penanggalan : it has long pendent bowels.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
INFANCY.
on the faces of his benefactors. A cry of this sort,

though it is welcomed as a sign of intelligent anticipation, does not release the baby from the prescribed
formalities. The imam ceremonially opens the child's
mouth with a golden ring that has been dipped in a
compound of sireh-juice and sugared and salted water:
" In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate
may He lengthen your life; may He teach you to speak
fittingly in the courts of kings; may He give to your
words the attractiveness of sireh, the sweetness of sugar
and the spiciness of salt." When this little function is
over and the ring has been tied to the child's wrist,
another function begins. The baby has to be solemnly
presented to the foster-mother or wet-nursea serious
formality in a place where relationship by fosterage
may some day be a legal barrier to marriage. Sooner
or later this function also comes to an end; the guests
go away; the child is put to sleep, and the bidan can
devote all her attention to the mother. 1
During the first few days and weeks of his existence
the Malay child is the subject of innumerable precautions against evil spirits. He is spat upon, morning
and evening; his resting-places are smeared with sacrificial rice and with cosmetics that no ghost can
approach; his cot is fumigated with the incense that
the devil is known to abhor; his bath contains
potent ingredients (such as manganese-dust and talismans of all sorts) that make the water purifying
both to soul and body. On the seventh day the child
begins to be taught the ways of the world. He is
made to eat fruitbanana beaten into pulp and flavoured
with salt. He is given a name, experimentally; but the
The treatment is the very severe one of " roasting" (diany),
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
name may be changed afterwards if it seems to bring

ill luck. He is shown to the neighbours and receives
his necessary quantum of feminine adulation. He has
his head shaved. A sacrifice may be offered up on his
behalf; feasts may be given in his honour. If his
parents are unusually proud of him they offer up vows
at. some shrine, to be fulfilled in later years when the
child has survived the perils of infancy. In short, the
seventh day is the celebration-clay of a baby's birth and
everything possible is done to honour the child on that
occasion. From an orthodox standpoint the great event
on this occasion is the religious sacrifice1 that accompanies the ritual shaving of the head. The sacrifice
should consist of two goats for a boy and one goat for a
girl, and it may be offered up at Mecca on the child's
behalf. But orthodox rites of this sort are not always
the most important in the eyes of the Malays.
It is about the fortieth day after his birth that the
child is first presented to the Spirits of the River. As
soon as the sun is high in the heavens the infant is
carried down to the river bank by a merry crowd of
men, women and children, who take with them a
quantity of parched rice,2 yellow rice, purifying ricedust,3 two coconuts, a fowl, an egg (of a black hen),
a quid of betel, seven long packets of cooked rice,4
seven square packets of cooked rice,5 a light bucket of
palm leaf, and a banana-flower. As the procession
approaches the stream the bidan or bomor in charge of
the child stops for a moment, sets fire to a bundle of
herbs and raises it aloft till all can see a column of
dense smoke ascending into the air. Then, advancing
to the edge of the stream, the bearer of the child makes
1
Akikah.
Beras berteh .
Tepong tawar.
Lepat.
Ketupat,
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
INFANCY.
an offering to the Spirit of the Watersthe egg, the quid

of betel, the seven long rice-packets and the seven
square rice-packets. The purifying rice-dust is sprinkled
about like holy water to avert all evil influences; the
grains of parched rice and yellow rice are scattered over
the face of the stream, and the fowl and the two coconuts
are put down into the water itself. The older members
of the crowd now raise their voices in a loud song to
drown any crying on the infant's part as the bomor or
bidan places one of the child's feet on the two coconuts
and the other on the fowl. The bucket and the bananaflower are next set adrift and float down stream bearing
away any possibilities of evil that may still lurk about
the spot. If the baby is a boy, a boy fishing further
upstream should now catch a fish with his casting net;
if the baby is a girl, the fisher should also be a girl.
But in Upper Perak, at any rate, the baby himself
should be caught under the net, along with a number of
other young children who receive five cents each for
being members of the finny tribe for this occasion only.
After such an auspicious beginning it is considered
unlikely that the infant will ever lack fish for his dinner.
When these river-rites have been concluded the
crowd goes back to the house to witness the first
cradling of the infant. The ceremony begins by the
baby being allowed to loll in the lap of luxury, with
cakes on all sides of him and and fifty-cent pieces for
him to spurn beneath his restless feet. Meanwhile his
swringing-cot is being got ready. It is draped or made
by means of one or more (usually seven) long rolls of
black cloth, the ends of which are festooned with cakes
and hard-boiled eggs. As it is always possible that some
unlucky influence may be lurking in the cosy folds of
PAPERS OX MALAY SUBJECTS.
the newly-made cradle, a cat is put in to absorb or

drive out the evil spirits of the locality. By way of
making assurance doubly sure the cat is succeeded first
by a curry-stone and secondly by a coconut-grater
smeared with chalk or lime. When all these prior
occupants have been given time to purify the place the
cot is considered fit for infantile habitation. The inevitable midwife comes forward, lifts up the baby and sets
him down in his new home. The old people start
rocking the cradle, and the wife of the imam, or some
other pious old lady, begins to chant the " Lullaby of Our
Lady Fatimah " :
Barang-siapa berpadi emping
Padi emping huma di-tengah;
Barang-siapa berhati mumin
Hati yang mumin istana Allah.
And so on.1 The peculiar drowsiness induced by this

poetic outburst enables the child to sleep through the
next item in this set of ceremoniesthe handing round
of curry and rice to enable the elders of the party to
get some share of the good things of this world that
have been hitherto monopolised by the baby.
The
imam recites prayers, the visitors disperse, and the
parents bless the midwife and reward her with yellow
rice, roast fowl, and a piece of white cloth that serves
as an emblem of the stainlessness of their affection for
her. These things are not her real fee. She receives
her feein hard cashat the lustration that marks the
mother's complete recovery. On this occasion the
mother is led by the midwife to the well and is made
to hold a pair of betel-nut scissors in one hand and
a foul-smelling cloth in the other. The scissors and the
1
See Appendix B, where the full text is given.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
INFANCY.
smell keep the spirits at a distance while the bidan

carries out the purification. On the return to the house
the bidan is paid off and her duties are at an end.
If a child is born to a Sultan of Perak after his
accession to the throne the child cannot be brought
up in the palace by his mother. He is called an anak
banta and must be given over to adoptive parents. He
is believed to bring great ill-luck to his adoptive father
and mother until he comes of age, and great good
fortune to them afterwards if they survive the perils
that dog them during his minority. This rule applies to
children of both sexes and has been illustrated in the
case of two sons and several daughters of H.H. the
present Sultan. By a curious set of coincidences
misfortune has steadily pursued the families into which
these princes and princesses have been received, and
it still remains to be seen whether the blessings of
the future will make up for the evils of the past. The
theory itself is not hard to understand; in the days
of Malay rule the intrigues of a palace could not have
been healthy for the children of rival queens.
The ceremonial treatment accorded by Malays to a
girl-baby does not greatly differ from that which they
give to a boy. The girl has the " exhortation to prayer "
repeated in her ear, while the boy hears the "call to
devotion." The boy's " caste-mark" is said to differ
sometimes from that of a girl; the former has a broadarrow, the latter a cross.1 The votive sacrifice for a boy
is two goats while that for a girl is only one. These
differences are in favour of the boy and suggest a
certain religious or ritual preference for male children ;
1
Skeat, " Malay Magic," p. 336; but in most places it is a cross for both
girls and boys.
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
but they do not imply that the Malays as a race are

indisposed to welcome the birth of daughters. "While
the elder sister is still only able to lie on her back may
the younger be born," is a proverbial Achehnese good
wish that expresses a welcome to girl-children and a
desire for many more. As we might expect from their
old matriarchal customs, the Malays are as ready to offer
up vows on behalf of a daughter as they are on behalf of
a son. Of course there is not the slightest trace of anything like female infanticide having been prevalent among
them.
At first the baby is wrapped up in some simple
swaddling clothesthe lampin and the bedongto keep
him from injuring his limbs by over-indulgence in
aimless kicks. After some months the child is promoted
to wearing a barut, a sort of broad wrapper of the
cholera-belt type, designed so as to leave him free to
exert himself and learn the arts of crawling and walking.
Later still, he is promoted to the very superior class of
Malay children who wear no clothes at all. But such a
promotion is only attained after many preliminary stages
of culture. The development of a child is measured by
his prowess in infantile arts. A crawler is regarded as
superior to a child that can only lie on his back, and
as the peer of all other crawlers; but when compared
with a toddler he is a very inferior being indeed. The
grades of infantile aristocracy are as follows : first comes
the stage at which infants can only lie on their backs;
then comes the ability to turn over, to crawl, to toddle,
to walk, to runand so on. The proud mother does
what she can to expedite her child's education and to
make rival mothers jealous. She teaches him to eat
banana, fruit-mash and rice-pulp long before such a diet
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
INFANCY.
is good for him. She introduces him to the great world

by taking him outside the house with very little thought
of the temperature and innumerable precautions against
the malignant spirits of envy.1 She encourages him to
crawl, and teaches him to walk by fastening him to a sort
of windlass that revolves on a pivot at a convenient
height above the ground. She weans him as soon as
possible by the simple process of rubbing bitter herbs
upon her breast. These attempts to accustom a child to
the life (and particularly to the food) of later years are
probably responsible for the heavy mortality among
native children. Malays notice this death-rate. They
see that certain mothers seem incapable of bringing up
children,"like the tuman fish that eats its own young"
and they attribute such an incapacity to a horoscopic
incompatibility between mother and child. In cases of
this sort they hand over the custody of later children
to a more successful matron (Abdullah himself was so
treated), or they give the infant an unattractive name
like Hudoh (ugly) in the hope that Death will not
think the child worth snapping up.
In no case are Malays fond of high-sounding names
for children; they prefer nicknames as more usefully
descriptive. A West Indian negro may call his son
" George Washington " and a Tamil Moslem may name
his boy " Sultan Muhammad," but the Malay policeman
is content to fire his son's ambition with some modest
and practical appellation such as Peral or " Corporal."
Although every child must be given an Arabic name,
that name is usually abridged to an easy mouthfulMat
for Muhammad, Pin for Arifin, Pihi for Shafei, Din for
1
This ceremony, turun ka-tanah, coincides and corresponds in details with
the presentation to the Spirits of the River (turun ka-ayer).
10
Jamaludin, Lah for Abdullah, and so on. Moreover, the

Malays have a whole series of conventional or descriptive
names that they give to their children in order of
seniority: Long or Awang to the eldest child, Alang to
the second, Ngah to the third, Anjang or Panjang to
the fourth, Andak or Pandah to the fifth, Teh or Puteh
to the sixth, etc., all in succession according to age.
These conventional names 1 though they bewilder the
beginner, are often a guide to the advanced student
when he wishes to find out the relative seniority of the
members of a Malay noble house. In a few cases the
names given to the children of a family give some
indications of their parents' tastes or ideas. A succession of names ending in ar-rashid (the Orthodox) always
suggests that the father is a strict follower of the
Muhammadan faith. A name taken from old Javanese
legend implies that the giver has a pretty taste in
romance. But fanciful naming is rare. The average
Malay is content with stock names, such as Long Mat
and Anjang Abdullah; indeed, he will often elect to drop
his own appellation and be called after his childPa'
Long or Pa' Awang, the father of his firstborn.
CHILDHOOD.
Between the ages of two and six a Malay child is

allowed to amuse himself by playing games in the
immediate vicinity of his home while making himself
useful by running small errands for his parents. He
wears nothing, eats very simple food, and puts his
relatives to so little expense that the possession of a
large family is never regarded as an economic difficulty.
1
Ti m ang -timangan.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: CHILDHOOD.
11
At the age of six he usually begins to receive some sort

of education. At various periods between early childhood and adolescence every boy and girl has to submit
to certain ceremonial operations, such as ear-boring (in
the case of girls) and circumcision (in the case of boys.)
By far the most important of these rites is circumcision.
It takes place after a boy has passed an examination in
the Koran and represents his formal admission to the
communion of Islam. In certain portions of Malaya
(especially in the Northern States) it is accompanied by
such a wealth of irrelevant detail as to suggest that it
has been grafted upon an ancient festival belonging to
an older faith than that of Islam, but whatever may
have been its origin the event is important enough from
an orthodox Muhammadan standpoint to justify the
sincere gratification of a Malay father at seeing the
completion of his son's training in the creed of his
ancestors.
The education of a Malay child is now conducted on
European lines and bears no resemblance whatever to
the system that prevailed in former times. Indeed,
except for the existence of occasional Koran-classes,
there used to be no schoolsin our sense of the word
until the period of European ascendancy. Education
was based upon a sort of apprenticeship. Most boys
picked up a good deal of industrial knowledge by
assisting their parents in the work of agriculture, fishing
and trapping. They acquired manual dexterity by working in wood and rattan, and they gathered a large
amount of miscellaneous information regarding crops,
fruit-trees, irrigation, boats and the ways of fishes,
animals and birds. They learnt also to be observant.
A few youths of exceptional gifts would go further
12
and learn something of art and metal-working by

giving occasional help to a village craftsman; a few
more would specialise in reading and writing, either
for religious purposes or with a view to becoming
doctors, diviners, sorcerers and letter-writers. The
young bloods of a village, eager for distinction in war,
might study fencing, talismans, the points of a keris, and
the many ways of making oneself invulnerable. In the
matter of proverbs, old saws, folk-lore, tradition, history
and popular verse, the girls were generally better
instructed than the boys. But it must always be
remembered that " t h e trail of the amateur" was over
all Malay education. A silversmith, for instance, could
not live by bis art; in a small Malay village there
was not enough work to support him. He had to be a
farmer like all his neighbours, and he only used his art
to supplement his income. If his fame spread to other
places he might be summoned to the Sultan's court and
be made to work for the ruler; yet even there the
rarity of silver prevented a silversmith being constantly
employed. Apart from a certain amount of local renown
there was no inducement whatever to lead a boy to
become an artist or man of letters. Moreover, there was
no real competition. A village could not support two
smiths: the most skilful artificer soon drove out his
rival and monopolised what work there was. And an
artist who has it all his own way is rarely a great artist.
As with all incidents of Malay life the sending of a
boy to a Koran-class was accompanied by much elaborate
ceremonial. A feast was given; the mosque-teacher
was invited to it, and the proud father publicly handed
over his son to the educational authorities with a deep
obeisance and a little formal speech: "Imam, I have a
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDHOOD.
13
favour to ask of your kindness. Here is my boy,

Si-Alang. I desire to place him in your hands so that
he may be taught to read the word of God. You will
need a torch to lighten his path to knowledge, so please
let me present you with this cane for use as a rod of
correction in the event of his showing any indifference
to the Divine Light. You should not poke out his eye or
break his bones, butshort of such extreme measures
all things are permitted unto you." To which the
Imam replied, " I accept this youth as my disciple;
please God, he will learn in time the little that I know."
All this ceremonial is becoming a thing of the past.
The penghulu now visits parents, talks about " average
attendances " at the village school, and finally threatens
the father with the wrath of the Government if he allows
his son to grow up in ignorance. Even this is sometimes
ineffective. I have seen a Malay mother go down to a
school, smash her son's slate, tear up his books, and
defy the head masterand all because the boy's
irregularity in attendance prevented his being presented
at the annual examination of the class. On this occasion
I ventured to suggest that the visiting-teacher might
be sent round to bring her to a more reasonable frame
of mind, but my proposal was met by the crushing
rejoinder that the lady was the visiting-teacher's wife.
The old Malay Koran-schools were often residential.
Boys were sent to live in the house of some renowned
teacher, the parents supplying each of their sons with a
sleeping-mat and pillow, a cooking-pot and a sack of
rice. Three lessons were given daily. They lasted for
an hour at a timeone after the early morning prayer,
the other after the midday devotions and the third
after vespers. At other times the boys helped their
14
master in his housework and in the care of his ricefields and orchards. The instruction was of a most
primitive character. A pupil began by learning to
repeat correctly the Arabic formulae with which every
lesson began and ended. When he had mastered these
preliminaries he proceeded to study the alphabet, less
for its own sake than as a sort of guide to reading
Arabic prayers and texts. Through much memorising
and through the assistance given him by his knowledge
of the lettering he would in time succeed in being able
to read the Koran and the principal prayers from end to
end. There his education stopped. The general drift of
the text was explained to him, but not the construction
of the sentences nor the meaning of the Arabic words.
A slight amount of dogma was also imparted. Religious
doctrine can, of course, be made to vary greatly according to the needs of the locality. A Patani imam once
gave a lecture on "infidels " in the presence of a
Siamese Governor and of a European visitor. " Infidel,"
he explained, was the name given by Muhammad to the
lusts of the heart. 1 It did not necessarily refer to other
faiths. Other religions had prophets of their own who
were nevertheless true prophets like Nabi Isa, the
prophet of the Christians, and Nabi Musa, the prophet of
the Siamese. Here he bowed to his foreign audience.
Doctrines of this sort are not mere diplomatic statements
to meet the needs of the moment; they are sedulously
preached by Moslem advocates of peace and conciliation
in every part of the world. Of course they differ very
greatly from the teachings of Acheen and of Arabia,
and although they furnish matter for debate among the
amateur theologians of the village they are looked upon
1
Nafsu yang didalam diri kita
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDHOOD.
15
as rather wasted when taught to children. In practice

the Malay boy has to memorise his Koran and his
prayers before he can be admitted by circumcision to
the community of Islam, and he can afford to postpone
his studies of doctrine to a later date.
At first sight nothing could appear more futile than
the Koran-class instruction given to boys all over the
Moslem world. It is mere parrot-like repetition of
certain texts in a language not understood by the pupils;
and, even if it develops the memory, it would seem to
be useless either as an intellectual training or as an
education in morals. But it is never safe to condemn a
system that has proved acceptable to a large section of
humanity. In some schools the more logical process of
teaching a boy Arabic before teaching him the Koran has
been tried and found wanting. Arabic is a very difficult
language; the teachers were unskilful, and the pupils
became discouraged and gave up a task that seemed
hopeless. Modern educationists are inclined to insist on
the necessity of making study interesting to the student.
They may be right; but few of us owe our knowledge of
Latin grammar to the intrinsic interest of the subject.
Encouragement, reward, the admiration of one's fellow
schoolboys, and even the much-maligned " rod of
correction" are brilliant torches along the path to
knowledge. The Malay child who mastered an Arabic
" broken plural " or some eccentricity in the ways of the
Arabic verb would never receive as much praise and
satisfaction as the boy who learnt a new prayer and was
able to chant it correctly to the great joy and pride of
his parents and the envy of the whole neighbourhood.
Incidentally and almost unconsciously the learning
of successive prayers and texts led an intelligent
16
PAPERS OX MALAY
SUBJECTS.
Malay boy to pick up a good deal of knowledge about

the meaning of Arabic words and the syntax of the
language. The process was slower, but the steps were
pleasanter and more encouraging. Every prayer represented one more step to the good; it was a milestone
on the way to wisdom. The duller boys dropped out,
and were content with what they knew; the cleverer
boys went on and studied more. Learning took a strong
religious tinge and became rather fanatical, but it was
never stifled by the form in which instruction was given.
Meanwhile a boy learnt his Arabic alphabet and with a
little coaching could apply it to the reading and writing
of Malay.
Manners were recognised as a very important item
in the education given at these old Malay Koran-classes;
and nothing is more deplored by natives of the old
school than the alleged inferiority of the present
generation in this branch of instruction. A boy was
taught to be silent until he was addressed, to keep
his eyes cast down in the presence of his superiors, to
behave unobtrusively at a public meeting, and to adapt
his language to the occasion on which it was used. He
generally learnt these lessons well; Malay courtesy is
admired by all. I t is only right to add that some few
religious leaders, in their anxiety to teach humility, have
taught their followers to cringe in a manner that is as
objectionable as the truculent self-assertion which every
good Malay considers the acme of bad taste. But such
cases are rare. The well-educated Malay of the older
generation is a master of courteous manners and quiet
dignified language; he creates difficulties by his very
anxiety to avoid any expression of opinion that may
seem to disagree with a view of the person addressed.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDHOOD,
17
A well-known Malay member of a State Council was

once asked point-blank for his views on an issue
regarding which his sovereign had not yet expressed an
opinion. With great reluctance the chief rose and
spoke at considerable length in a manner that roused
the keen aesthetic appreciation of his critical fellowcountrymen. " A n excellent speech," said the Sultan,
when the applause had subsided. " B u t what did he
say ? " enquired the bewildered Resident. " Oh, he did
not say anything at all, but the way in which he said it
was magnificent!"
At the conclusion of a boy's education his parents
give an entertainment at which he is enabled to display
his best manners and his knowledge of Arabic ritual.
This feast is part of the circumcision ceremony. The
formalities begin when the boy is clad in royal garments and is set upon a royal throne for all and sundry to
see. Then on the following day he is stripped, bathed
and purified; he is stained with henna like a bridegroom
and is dressed in the garb of a pilgrim to Mecca. In
this guise he recites prayers to the assembled guests in
order to prove the sufficiency of his learning. When
the prayers are over he rises and prostrates himself
before his teacher in gratitude for past kindnesses. The
parents now come forward with the customary gifts: a
suit of clothes, a sum of money and certain articles of
food. Then there follows (in some parts of Perak) a
very curious ceremony. The boy is taken to an inner
room, where he is stripped and covered with a rich cloth,
while his mouth is filled with yellow glutinous rice and
his body is sprinkled with the purifying rice-dust. After
this, two coconuts and two small packets of rice are
slowly rolled over him from head to foot. A hen is placed
PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS,
l8
on the boy's chest and is encouraged to peck up any

grains of yellow rice that may still be adhering to the boy's
mouth. This is done to drive away ill-luck. The circumciser (or mudin) then comes forward and gently taps the
boy's teeth with a stone. This is also done to avert
misfortune. Feasting follows. The boy is dressed again
and is carried in procession round the village and down
to the river for another ceremonial purification. There
the circumciser makes an appeal to the Spirit of the
Waters, deprecating his wrath. The usual purifying rice
powder is scattered on the stream and the usual offerings
are madeyellow rice, a quid of betel, an egg, seven long
packets of cooked rice and seven square packets of
cooked rice. When the Water Spirit has been propitiated the boy is washed by his mother and has his long
lock of hair solemnly shorn off by the mudin. The
people then return to the house to witness the actual
circumcision itself. While this is taking place the boy is
made to sit either on a banana trunk or on a sack
of rice.1
The ceremonies vary greatly in different States. It
is usual to circumcise a number of boys at one time so
as to minimise the cost of the celebrations. In such
cases the son of the giver of the feasts is treated as the
king for the occasion, while the other boys (whose
parents contribute nothing) play the part of mere
attendants upon the central figure. At the Perak Court
the mudin is a regular officer of State with a recognised
title ; 2 but he carries out his work under rather disturbing conditions, for the great chiefs stand round him
with drawn swords ready to slay him if he mismanages
the operation. In Patani the boys are carried about on
1
See Appendix C.
To 3 Gembira. He appears in the Estimates.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
BETROTHAL.
19
a dais in the shape of a bird or animal; in Perak they

are borne on men's shoulders. In the towns of the
Straits Settlements the royal ceremonies are less conspicuous. More attention is paid there to the religious
details, while motor cars, jewellery and brass bands
make up for the absence of the regalia and symbolism of
the Native States.
A Malay girl is taught something of the Koran,
though she is not expected to attain to the same standard
of proficiency as her brothers. "When her religious
education is complete she is dressed like a pilgrim to
Mecca and is admitted to the community of Islam by a
ceremony much simpler and less public than the circumcision-rites of boys.1 On this occasion her ears are
bored and her teeth used to be filed down and stained
" black as a humble-bee's wing." Tooth-filing and toothstaining are now obsolete; the ceremonies attached to
them seem to have been little more than precautionary
rites against evil spirits. Ear-boring is still practised,
but the huge, round ear-studs 2 which were assumed
after this ceremony and worn by girls as emblems of
their maiden state, are now becoming ceremonial and
are only put on for the wedding itself in order that they
may be formally discarded a few days afterwards.
BETROTHAL.
Malay girls are usually kept shut up in their own

homes from the age of ten to the time of their marriage.
This seclusion varies in rigour in different parts of
Malaya, being strictest among the " Jawipekan " population of the towns and least strict in the districts where
1
In Patani this ceremony is performed in infancy.
Subang.
2o
the ancient customary law is observed. The confinement of girls to their houses served to guard them from
the dangerous notice of the chiefs and also from the
risk of their injuring their matrimonial prospects by any
foolish compromising acts. In the law-abiding Menangkabau communities of Sumatra a good deal of freedom
could be safely allowed, provided that the women kept
in parties by themselves and did not indulge in tete-a-tete
interviews with fascinating young men. Out of this
degree of freedom there grew up a pretty custom that
has greatly influenced Malay literaturethe practice of
holding rhyming contests between the rival parties of
the men and the girls. A girl might be suddenly inspired to extemporise or quote some pantun or verse that
was apposite to the character, history or appearance of
some young man who happened to be present. The
opportunity was not to be missed. The person chaffed
(or one of his friends) would retort with a second
pantun. The contest would then continue till one or
other party was at a loss for a proper reply. The Malay
quatrain is a very easy thing to extemporise, owing to
the fact that its first two lines are mere jingles put in
to rhyme with the last two, and also because every line
is sung slowly and is followed by a chorus or refrain
that gives time to the other party to think of an appropriate answer. At the same time there can be a vast
difference in quality between one pantun and another,
and there is every scope for skill and wit in these poetic
contests, punctuated as they are by the applause or
laughter of the audience. While, therefore, in everyday
life the negotiations for a wedding are of a very commonplace order, it is quite otherwise in ceremonies and in
literature. The heroine of a romance is always wooed in
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: BETROTHAL.
21
verse, and even the bearers of a formal proposal of

marriage are expected to announce their errand and
receive their answer in an appropriate succession of
quatrains.
The diplomacy of a marriage generally commences
when the parents or friends of the prospective bridegroom make advances to the girl's family with a view to
finding out (without exposing themselves to the humiliation of a public rebuff) whether a proposal of this sort
would be likely to be well received. Enquiries such as
these need a good deal of tact. The suitor's party do not
wish to take any risks and the girl's parents do not like
to show any suspicious eagerness to part with their
daughter. Hints are sometimes used. What could
be more innocent than the position of the little silver vase
containing the sireh that is offered to a visitor ? Yet if this
vase is upset and left lying on its side, the quick-eyed
enquirer knows that his quest is useless; the lady's people
do not desire the marriage. If his hints become broader
and the vase still remains upright he knows that he can
proceed to more definite action. Professional marriagebrokers are often employed at this stage; their very
presence suggests their errand to the girl's parents.
When it seems likely that the proposal of marriage
will be well received the ladies of the young man's family
call upon the bride, make much of her and endeavour to
appraise her character and charms. The meaning of
such overtures can hardly be mistaken; but it is essential
that a real understanding should be arrived at before the
marriage can be openly discussed. A rebuff would be
fatal to any friendly relations between the two families;
it would indeed be an insult. " Do not start by speaking
of c agreements' and go on by calling them ' enquiries,' "
22
says one proverb. " Let your word, once given, be held
like a fort," says another proverb. Betrothalbecause
of the feuds that may spring out of a broken promise
is the one occasion in life when the Malay tolerates no
indecision and no evasion.
Let us therefore suppose that the proposal is welcome
to both parties and that there are no real difficulties in
the way. " One side has the curry, the other side has
the spoon;" it only remains to bring the two together.
The main detailsthe amount of the settlement to be
made on the bride, the value of the wedding gifts, the
probable duration of the engagement, and other questions
of the same sortare roughly settled by custom and are
known to both parties. All that is left is to have them
definitely laid down so that no misunderstandings may
arise afterwards. As these matters are too delicate
for direct negotiation between the parties, they are
usually referred to the penghulu and elders of the village.
At this point secrecy ceases to be possible, even if every
one is pledged to it. Both parties submit their case to
arbitration, knowing in outline what they have to expect
and ready to abide by the decision of their elders if it is
unfavourable to them on the minor issues that have to
be decided. By a recent discussion of the Perak State
Council the following scale of " dowry" (or settlement
by the bridegroom on the bride) was laid down for
observance in ordinary cases :
For a Sultan's daughter
...
For the daughter of a Raja Muda or
Bendahara ...
For the daughter of a major Chief...
For the daughter of a minor Chief...
For the daughter of a man of some position
For the daughter of a peasant
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: BETROTHAL,
23
This scale is not universal or compulsory even in Perak.

I t was only drawn up for the guidance of Kathis who
have to appraise the mas kahwin for purposes of divorce
in cases where no definite sum was actually agreed upon
at the time of the wedding itself. But this scale of
settlements shows approximately what the bridegroom
expects to have to pay and what the penghulu and his
elders are likely to fix.
Other matters have also to be arranged. The cost
of the wedding festivities has to be paid by the bride's
family, but the bridegroom has to contribute to it. The
penghulu has to fix the amount of this contribution of
" money to go in smoke." 1 In former times in Perak it
used to be $6, but the exact sum can be modified by
agreement. The penghulu has also to fix the approximate date of the marriage, so that neither side may
evade its obligations by prolonging the engagement
indefinitely. When everything has been arranged in
such a manner as to leave no loophole for future disputes
the agreement has still to be confirmed by a formal
proposal and by its formal acceptance.
Malay etiquette expects the suitor's parents or
guardians to proceed on his behalf to the lady's house
and, after many apologies and much circumlocution, to
enquire (usually in verse) whether the young man may
be permitted to offer himself for acceptance as the
lady's slave. It also insists that the girl's relatives shall
declare themselves quite unworthy of the proposed
honour. The most that they will admit is that they
are like the proverbial expression, "nearly up to but not
attaining." As for the girl herself, " she cannot cook,
she cannot sew, look to it that ye be not deceived in
1
Belanja hangus.
24
her; she is a buffalo that has been allowed to run wild;

she may have some defect that has escaped our observation." The suitor's family reply politely that they have
long been seeking a buffalo of that description and that
she exactly meets their wishes. Ceremonial gifts of betelnut are then brought forward in two boxes adorned with
palm blossoms and decorations of gilt or coloured paper.
Slipped over the sireh-leaf in one of these boxes are
two rings of the pattern known as bunga nyior; one of
these rings is a pledge of good faith to be given to the
girl's parents, and the other is a betrothal-ring to be
given to the girl herself. After these rings have been
passed round from hand to hand so that everyone may
be able afterwards to testify to the occurrence the suitor's
mother is invited indoors to see the girl. Of course such
a visit is never unexpected. The girl is there, dressed
in her best and overcome by self-consciousness as her
future mother-in-law comes in, addresses her as " my
child," kisses her and gives her the engagement-ring as
evidence of her betrothal. The girl answers by doing
obeisance. The ladies of the suitor's party then strike
up a verse declaring that they have been attracted from
afar by the lodestone of the damsel's beauty. 1 The girl's
relatives sing in reply that the strangers from a distance
are welcomed as friends. After a few more quatrains of
this sort refreshments are handed round and the suitor's
relatives go home.
The public proposal of marriage and its public
acceptance give finality to the contract. Its nature can
no longer be questioned, and it has to be carried out
unless one or other contracting party elects to pay
damages for its violation. Even the discussion of details
1
See Appendix D.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: BETROTHAL.
25
cannot be reopened. The appropriate Malay proverb on

this occasion is Putus benang boleh di-hubong; patah
arang sudah sakali: " broken thread may be tied together;
broken charcoal is broken for ever." Broken charcoal
is the symbol of finality. The contract is final: the
bystanders have witnessed it, the whole village is invited
to testify to it. The rule as to its breach is tanda empat
pulang delapan: " if the engagement rings are worth four
dollars, the girl's relatives must return eight." If the
man does not carry out his promise, he forfeits the
betrothal gifts; if the lady is false, she returns the gifts
doubled in value. Nowadays the presents may be worth
much more than four dollars, but that sum meant a
great deal to the poverty-stricken ryots in the days
before British ascendancy.
After this settlement the suitor and the girl are
looked upon as definitely engaged and are allowed to
interchange small complimentary gifts. They are not,
however, supposed to see anything of each other, as
any conduct suggesting forwardness on the lady's part
would be an offence against the Indonesian rule that
forbids " the well to seek the bucket" or " the pestle to
seek the mortar." Of course they do see each other;
curiosity is strong, even if affection is not. " On some
one evening," as a Malay puts it, " after prayer-time the
suitor may slip round with his relatives and peep through
the chinks in the wall of the lady's house at a time when
his future mother-in-law will have induced her daughter
to sew or play chess as she sits in the full glare of the
lamp-light. Some men, intoxicated with love, cannot
sleep after this vision; others can." The latter must
be very phlegmatic persons; disappointment might well
be expected to increase the tendency to insomnia.
26
About a week after the public proposal of marriage

the prospective bridegroom pays a ceremonious visit
to the family of his betrothed. He is entertained to
dinner on the verandah, brings gifts of money, is very
obsequious to his future mother-in-law. and finally goes
home about midnight after receiving a present of a
complete suit of new clothing, with the explanation that
they are " a miserable set of rags that may be of use to
you to wear when bathing, but, alas ! we are poor people
and can give you nothing better." He is not allowed to
see his betrothed; it is now her turn to look through
the chinks in the wall.
When the month of Shaaban comes round and the
annual fast is imminent, the girl's parents send over to
the house of her betrothed a gift of rice-powder, limes,
loofah-fibre, perfumes and other cosmetics used in the
ceremonial ablutions that precede the Malay Lent. This
delicate attention is acknowledged by return-gifts of
cakes and small sums of money for spending at the
minor feast days that occur about this time. Similar
courtesies are shown once or twice during the Fast itself,
but the great festival of the hari raya is not used for any
exchange of civilities between the betrothed.
In every country it sometimes happens that a man
falls desperately in love with a girl already engaged to
someone else. In such cases every possible opposition
must be made to the new suitor if a feud with the first
suitor is to be avoided. On this point all Malay law was
explicit. Still, if the new candidate for the girl's hand
had " a strong party to back him, plenty of money and
no lack of personal courage," he was not likely to find
that her relatives were really unwilling to accept him as
her husband, provided, of course, that he made such a
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
BETROTHAL.
27
show of force as would acquit them of the charge of

connivance. Even with the complicity of the girl's
relatives the abductor's task was a hard one. He
had to defend himself against the murderous enmity
of his injured rival until such time as the authorities
could step in and put an end to the quarrel. Indonesian
custom knew by experience that it had to concern
itself more with pacifying feuds than with preventing
them; it never hesitated about compounding an offence.
If a man's betrothed was seduced or abducted, the law
stepped in and made the wrong-doer pay compensation
all round and a fine to the Bendahara as well. If he
failed to pay, he was sold into slavery for the debt.
If he paid, the matter blew over. Marriage by abduction
became a recognised institution, 1 with a special scale of
enhanced payments associated with it.
In the old wild days of Malay rule these abductions
often led to most tragic results. If a girl was famous
for her beauty the report of her engagement was enough
to bring about a crisis. Any disappointed suitoror
perhaps some gay Lothario tempted by the spice of
danger that attends the plucking of forbidden fruit
might have recourse to the simple expedient of seizing
the girl and threatening to drive his hens through her
heart if any attempt was made at a rescue. An outrage
of this sort was known as panjat anghara and was
hazardous in the extreme. Even if the abductor escaped
instant death he dared not sleep, lest he should be murdered in his sleep; he dared not eat, lest his food should
be drugged; he had to be constantly on his guard, lest
he should be suddenly speared by a treacherous thrust
through the thin flooring of a Malay house. His one
1
Panjat adat.
28
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
chance of life lay in the fact that his desperation made his
enemies chary about approaching him, while it made his
friends eager to purchase his safety by promises of compensation. The "Malay Annals" record the case of a
Javanese chief who succeeded in winning a Malacca wife
by a desperate panjat angkara. Many abductors were
less fortunate. In one case, mentioned by Sir William
Maxwell, a certain Mat Taib, a poor retainer of the
Sultan, asked for Wan Dena, the daughter of the
Bendahara of Kedah, in marriage. The relatives refused.
He then forced his way into her house, seized her by the
hair, drew his kris and defied everybody. Eventually
he was druggedprobably with his friends' connivance,
for he was not slainand the girl was released and
married to one Mat Arshad. A year later Mat Taib ran
amok, killing Mat Arshad and wounding Wan Dena.
But it must not be supposed that this panjat angkara
was a recognised and regular form of marriage like panjat
adat. It was far too violent for that; it was a savage
variant of the crime passionnel, and had much in common
with the amok, which is only the Malay form of suicide.
How else can one explain the action of Hang Kasturi,
who, when his intrigue was discovered, slew the girl
in the most cruel manner, stripped and exposed her
mutilated body, and then fought all comers till he was
slain ?1
Incidents of this sort were the exception, not the
rule; the seclusion of Malay girls did not lend itself
readily to broken vows and breach-of-promise cases.
The average Malay engagement pursued its tranquil
uneventful course until the prosaic incident of a rice
harvest placed the families of the prospective bride and
1
The story is given in the " Malay Annals " and is very famous.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS : MARRIAGE.
29
bridegroom in a position to entertain their friends. In

the old days of native rule a bad harvest meant a
general curtailment of the wedding-festivities. In the
present age of security and peace the beneficent alien
money-lender is always ready to make up for the deficiencies of the crops. The marriage-ceremonial has
become more elaborate than ever, while the people are
sinking more and more into debt.
MARRIAGE.
The formalities attending a Malay wedding are so

elaborate that a European is apt to lose sight of their
essential features in his bewilderment at the quantity of
incidental detail. Indeed, the actual marriage service is
a very simple rite that lies outside the customary celebrations. These celebrations should go on for at least
seven days. The first three days are given up to the
" henna-staining " festivities; the fourth day is devoted
to the adornment of the happy pair, to their meeting
and to their sitting in state; the fifth and sixth days
are days of little importance; the seventh day witnesses
the ceremonial lustrations of the married couple. The
fourth day is the most notable. Its afternoon and
evening ceremoniesthe procession of the bridegroom
to the house of his bride, his entry and the " sitting in
state" 1 are the events that the European guest is
usually invited to witness.
During the first three "henna-staining" days the
bride is at home to those of her lady-friends who express
a wish to assist in painting her fingers with henna.
She receives such guests and accepts whatever gifts
1
Bersanding.
30
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
they bring, while the male friends of her family are

being entertained by her relatives on the verandah.
The actual henna-staining is done by a professional
expert and the assistance given by the visitors is
purely nominal. The first " h e n n a " night is known as
the hinai churi, because the staining is done in private
and in a very small way; the second night is the hinai
besar, when the fingers, the toes and even the sides
of the feet of both bride and groom are painted with
henna. Both nights are marked by feasts and dancing.
On one of the two nights a special " henna-dance"
is. performed; the other dances and amusements are of
the regular Malay type and are only given for the
amusement of the guests. On one of these two nights
also a special wedding-dish of rice1 is served. The
third night is marked by more feasting, by the chanting
of Arabic hymns 2 and by the ceremonial presentation 3
of certain gifts of food from the relatives of the bridegroom to those of the bridea huge dish of rice adorned
with red eggs stuck on a tree-branch, and a certain
quantity of raw material (such as coconut and firewood)
for the preparation of the coming feast. These gifts
are presented to the sound of much music and gun
or cracker firing.
The morning of the fourth day is taken up with the
ceremonial shaving 4 of the bride's fringe and with her
adornment for the festivities of the evening. Her hair
to the width of a finger's breadth all round the forehead
is drawn forward and shaved off, while the band plays
special tunes in honour of the event. After this shaving
is over, the bride puts on her bridal dress and jewellery.
1
3
The nasi hadap-hadapan yang berastakana.

Serah.
2
4
Dzikir-maulud.
Andam.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MARRIAGE.
31
She wears a gold-embroidered jacket with tight sleeves,

a pair of loose silk trousers and a silk sarong. In her
hair she fixes a number of artificial flowers of tinsel-work,
kept in position with wires; to her ears she attaches
the heavy, round ear-studs 1 that are the emblems of
virginity. On her arms, over her tight sleeves, she puts
on an assortment of bracelets and anklets, notably the
dragon-shaped pontoh. She is also adorned with golden
nail-protectors, with hollow anklets, with necklaces, with
three heavy crescent-shaped breast ornaments known as
dokoh, and, in many cases, with as much additional
jewellery as her mother can borrow for the occasion.2
While these andam-ceremonies are taking place at
the bride's house, the bridegroom is also being decked
out for the evening procession. He is dressed as a
warrior king. He wears the soldier's short coat,3 made
of rich silk with a gold edging. He also puts on loose
trousers of silk and gold, a rich waist-cloth, a stiff headdress or turban, with artificial flowers and pendent
ornaments, a keris mounted in gold, royal bracelets,4
a royal necklace of gold and three or more of the
crescent-shaped ornaments known as dokoh.
When the procession is ready it starts off with the
bridegroom (and sometimes with many symbolic gifts)
to make its way slowly and circuitously to the house of
the bride. It cheers itself upon the way with the sound
of much cracker-firing, with shouts, with shots, with the
banging of drums, with the clanging of gongs and with
as many other noises as the village is capable of producing. The bridegroom himself is borne in state by the
best means of conveyance obtainable, be that conveyance
1
2
Subang.
Nowadays there is great variety in bridal costume, even
a
4
in Perak, to which these rules apply.
Baju alang.
Pontoh.
32
a motor-car, a carriage and pair, a dog-cart, a horse, an

elephant, a jinrikisha, or even the humble shoulders of
a coolie. As he approaches his destination the noise
becomes more and more deafening, and when he stops it
is impossible to hear anyone speak. This is the signal
for the bride's people to suddenly become awake to the
fact that something is happening. " Who is this visitor ?
Whence comes he ? Does he come in peace or in war?"
A colloquy ensues. Sometimes the bridegroom's party
apologize for his coming: " He comes by no wish of his
own; he is drawn by some magnet of irresistible
attraction, by the breath of the breeze, by the swirl of
the tides." A duenna from inside the house shouts, " Let
him be welcome then; but he must doff his weapons
and pay tribute in the land where a queen holds sway."
To which his supporters reply, " His wallet is torn, his
money is lost, he can only give an earnest of the gifts
that are to come." In this way he may be admitted on
payment of " t r i b u t e " or little gifts to all and sundry
of the old ladies of the house. Or, again, the bride's
friends may affect complete ignorance of the bridegroom's personality; they may want him described so
as to assure themselves that there is no mistake. All
this, of course, gives unlimited opportunities for friendly
chaff. Or again, they may pretend to resist him and
hurl sweetmeats at the advancing host of the bridegroom's supporters. A mimic battle ensues and goes
on until some well-meant act of treachery gives the
bridegroom admission and prevents the jest from lasting
too long. His followers crowd in after him.
It is usual at this stage for the young man to display
a timid modesty that accords very ill with his truculent
soldier-dress. He is Mars overcome by Venus; he is a
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
MARRIAGE.
33
poor fainting creature whose eyes have to be guarded

with a fan lest a sudden glimpse of his betrothed should
overpower him; he has to be held up by his friends
lest his limbs should give way. Everyone hastens to
reassure him and to lead him to the bridal dais where
his bride is waiting. There the pair have to be ceremonially seated together with their little fingers interlocked. The process is like an exercise in physical
drill in which the performer is made to sink slowly
down into a squatting posture and then to straighten his
knees and stand erect. Bride and groom have to go
on doing this together till they succeed in seating
themselves slowly and exactly at the same momentas
custom requires. They also sometimes have to exchange
vows that they will cherish each other and each other's
good name. Once seated they are expected to remain
motionless while the eyes of all the guests are fixed
upon them. In Perak the guests are allowed to come
up in strict order of precedence and lay offerings
of silver on a platter before the newly-married pair.
One by one they come up, doing obeisance, first to
royalty (if present) and then to the bride and bridegroom, as king and queen of the evening. The married
pair interchange mouthfuls of rice as evidence of their
new relation to one another; the feast begins, and at last
the guests are sent off in honour to their homes, the less
distinguished being sometimes presented with packets of
boiled rice and the more distinguished with the telur
joran or coloured eggs stuck on branches. At the close
of the "sitting in s t a t e " the bride is allowed to leave
her husband and to return to her mother; and the hasty
rush of the frightened girl, with the jingling and
clanging of her ornaments, is a proverbial source of
34
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
gratification to the bystanders, as a sign of her modesty

after the uncomfortable splendour of her position.
On or about the seventh day the ceremonial bathing
takes place. A temporary bath-house is built on a dais
above a flight of seven steps, and is prepared for the
reception of the bridal pair. The two march up together
into it, either holding a handkerchief or with their little
fingers interlocked. They sit side by side on a bench or
on a banana stem. The bride's hair is untied. In some
cases the water is passed through a cloth filled with
flowers and palm-shoots; in some cases coconut-milk,
lime-juice and rice powder are used as cosmetics for
these ablutions; in all cases everything possible is done
to give a ceremonial character to the whole lustration.
In the south the pipe carrying the water is carved into
the shape of a dragon's mouth at its extremity. Both
in the north and in the south of the Peninsula the
lustration ceremony includes the passing of a curious
bridal cord round the necks of the married pair, and it
ends with the severance of this cord. But long before
this cord is severed the excited matrons who wash the
bridal couple have turned the water on each other
and the ceremony turns into a general fight, in which
syringes are the guns and the missiles are streams of
water. The spectators are splashed and wetted until
the signal for the cessation of the fun is given by the
breaking of the cord that binds the bride and the bridegroom. At a Patani wedding, observed by Mr. Winstedt,
this severance was effected by fire; the flame of the
burning ends was blown out by the bridegroom and
the soot of the charred extremities was rubbed on
the foreheads of both him and his wife. Guests and
hosts, bride and bridegroom, wet and dry, all now return
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS :
MARRIAGE.
35
home, put on their wedding garments and meet again

for a further feast and for a further bersanding or
" sitting in state."
Throughout this period of the ceremony the married
relation between the bride and bridegroom is only
nominal. They see very little of each other and are not
permitted to be alone. It is not till three days, or
a week, or even a fortnight has elapsed after the " final"
fourth day 1 that the bridegroom is allowed to have the
bride to himself. If he is not satisfied with her and
has reason to question her virtue he is entitled to
announce his dissatisfaction by appearing in public
without his keris, or minus his headdress, or otherwise
"incomplete." In that case he can claim a refund of
half the dowry. But the marriage is not considered
void 2 and the passing of such a public affront on his
wife's family is not likely to conduce to the success of his
future life. It is considered bad taste as well as bad
policy to create a quarrel at this stage. Any differences
are enquired into and can be amicably settled without
the cognizance of all the scandalmongers of the village.
In all the ceremonies that have been described hitherto no account has been given of the true marriage service
(if we may so call it) in which the blessing of the Almighty
is invoked upon the union of his servants. This detail
is generally overlooked by spectators as it is very simple
and very private. What happens is this. The imam
or other officiating elder opens the proceedings with
a religious appeal, such as, " I exhort you to the fear of
Allah." To this his hearers reply, "Amen." Then the
bride's guardian 3 is expected to repeat a formula offering
the bride in marriage to the bridegroom and mentioning
1
Hari langsong.
A divorce, however, follows.
Wali,
36
the amount of the marriage-settlement. But as the

formula is long, and as it is in Arabic, and as the
guardian is usually too illiterate and too flustered to be
intelligible in a language that he does not know, he
appoints some more learned man to be his attorney 1 and
to make the offer in his name. The offer is then made
by the attorney. As soon as it has been made the
presiding elder gives a warning tug to the bridegroom's
arm by way of telling him that he must now express his
acceptance of the offer. He does soin Arabic. This
formula is short enough to present little difficulty even
to an illiterate man, but the nervousness of a bridegroom
occasionally makes him use some expression that is not
to be found in any Arabic dictionary. Everything has
then to be repeated all over againthe offer, the
warning tug, and the reply. At last the bridegroom
gets his words right and the marriage is nearly valid.
It is made quite valid by the two necessary witnesses
being appealed to, and by their replying that they have
heard everything that has taken place. The presiding
elder then repeats a prayer 2 more or less to this effect:
" 0 God, make union between these two as Thou didst
make union between the water and the earth." The
ceremony ends. The bride need not be present at all,
and if she is a maiden and under age her consent need
not be asked.
What is fairly evident from the elaborate wedding
ceremonies of the Malays is the fact that the actual
religious rite is looked upon as a legalising form like the
signing of the register in an English church or the
attendance at the Mairie in France. The major
incidentsthe henna-staining, the shaving of the fore1
Wakil.
The khutbah nikah.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: MARRIAGE,
37
head, the procession, the sitting in state, and the lustrations on the seventh dayall lie outside the scope of
Moslem law: they represent survivals of older customs
and religions. Henna-staining is a custom that prevails
in most Muhammadan countries and was probably
imported with Islam. The procession of the armed and
mounted bridegroom, the mimic resistance offered to him
and the efforts to overcome it either by bribery or battle
may be far-away echoes of a time when marriage by
capture or marriage by purchase was the recognised rule
of the day. Many of the other incidents have no special
reference to marriage. The sitting in state and the
ceremonial lustrations, for instance, are not confined to
weddings. The shaving of the forehead is hard to
explain: certain superstitions are connected with it;
inferences regarding the bride's virtue are drawn from
the way the hair behaves. In one old romance, the
" Hikayat Koris," a distinction is drawn between wives
for whom a bridegroom thought it worth his while to
shave his own forehead and those to whom he did not
pay that compliment. We can see traces of marriage by
purchase in the advances paid at betrothal and in the
other customary gifts. We find signs of the matriarchate
in the rule that the bridegroom must reside in his wife's
house for some considerable time after his wedding. Upon
the simple Moslem marriage-rite there is superimposed a
whole mass of ancient custom that the Malay refuses to
discard. He considers the religious ceremony to be
legal but inadequate; he wants the other things as well.
He does not change old customs for new: he adds the
new to the old. In old days high officers of state used
to come on painted elephants to their installation. In
1907 the Raja Bendahara arrived in a carriage and pair,
38
but the painted elephants followed behind. In 1908 the

Raja Muda came in a motor-car with carriages and
elephants in his train. " What will be used at the next
installation of a Malay Chief P " asked a critical spectator.
" An aeroplane," said the Dato' Sri Adika Raja. But it
is also safe to predict that the aeroplane will be followed
by a motor-car, the motor-car by a carriage and pair,
and the carriage and pair by a painted elephant. Last
of all will come a faithful retainer, prepared to carry the
Chief on his shoulders should our modern contrivances
end by leaving his old master in the lurch.
ADULT LIFE.
Immediately after his marriage a Malay husband

settles down to live in his father-in-law's house. He
gives his services to his wife's relatives, helps in their
rice-fields, looks after their fruit-trees and repairs the
family dwelling. This idyllic state of things may go
on for some time, but sooner or later it is apt to be
ended by the growth of the new family. When the old
home ceases to be big enough, the young couple desire
to set up an establishment of their own. This is not
a difficult matter. During some idle month, when rice is
not being planted, the husband and his friends clear an
acre or two of good dry soil on which to erect a small
house angl plant a little garden of coconuts and fruittrees. If the ancestral rice-lands are of small extent, they
proceed to extend them by adding a little field or two.
By degrees they build and furnish the new house, and
make everything ready for the flitting. The migration
would not, however, be reckoned as an incident in Malay
life if there were no ceremony attached to it. Ceremony
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: ADULT LIFE.
39
dogs every detail, from the propitiation of the Earth

Spirits when the soil is wounded by the digging of the
foundations of the new house, down to the great day
when the old parents invite the neighbours to witness
everything that has been done. The villagers assemble;
the old people make a speech enumerating all the articles
with which they are endowing the new household; the
young people express their complete satisfaction with all
that has been done for them, and the flitting is accomplished. These formalities are not intended, as a
cynic might suggest, to advertise the family reputation
for generosity; they are necessary to avoid disputes.
Should there subsequently be a quarrel or divorce, every
neighbour will be able to testify to the proper distribution of the family property. When the speeches are
over, the neighbours go home enriched by an additional
subject of conversation, while the new householders
indicate their approval of everything by keeping indoors
for three days, so as not to display their radiant faces
to any malignant spirit of envy that may be lurking
about the village. Possessed of a house, a garden and
a rice-field, they are now in a position to earn a comfortable living.
Of course the above procedure is not invariable. A
Malay official cannot afford to live in his wife's house if
the Government desires his presence in some other
place. Old parents, when their last remaining daughter
is married, sometimes move to an annexe or enlarge the
house so as to retain their daughter and to save themselves from the danger of being left alone in their old age.
Moreover, it is not always possible to find unoccupied
land in the vicinity of the house of the old people. The
cultivation of all available land in the rice-growing
4o
PAPERS 0N MALAY SUBJECTS.
districts of Penang and Province Wellesley has led to an

annual exodus to Krian for the padi-planting season.
In such cases the new household is apt to make its home
in the new country while the old parents keep to their
ancestral village. Krian has been largely populated by
this planting-out of young families from Province
Wellesley; the coast of Selangor is being settled from
Malacca; the whole Peninsula is being helped by a
similar tide of migration from Sumatra and Banjermasin.
But Perak itself is not yet over-populated, and the Perak
Malay does not leave his native country. Once settled
in his new house the young Malay is "king in his own
place " ; he can " think of what he pleases and sing whenever he likes." So the proverbs tell us. They also recognise that woman's kingdom is the homea fact which
militates against the young husband's perfect freedom.
Apart, however, from what the Malays call "the foe in
one's own blanket" the householder is independent
enough. He works whenever he likes and takes a holiday
as often as he pleases. For a few weeks in the year he is
very busy in the rice-fields; during the remaining ten
months he enjoys comparative leisure. He has his meals
at irregular times, goes to mosque irregularly, does a little
fishing at odd momentsindeed, apart from padiplanting, most Malay work is done at odd moments: it is
not the great business of life.
Religion supplies him with a time-tablethe lunar
calendar of the Muhammadanswith its incidents for
each day, week, month and year. It divides up the day
with the five daily prayers (which he forgets) and insists
on his attending mosque every Friday, unless he can find
some excuse for his habitual absences. It also marks off
certain days of the year as great religious festivals.
41
The general impression among Malays seems to be that

people go to mosque more consistently now than they
did in the days of native rule, but there can be no doubt
that the easy-going nature of the people is against
regularity in any form.
The Moslem year is a lunar year unconnected with
seasonal events. It begins with the month Muharram.
The first day of the year is not marked by any festivities nor does the month itself contain any special
Sunnite holidays, but Indian Shiite influence shows itself
in Penang in the boria performances and in occasional
lamentations over the death of the Prophet's grandson
Husain. A boria is a troupe of strolling minstrels,
generally dressed and drilled as soldiers and headed by
a Captain and an Army Chaplain, The troupe visits
the houses of wealthy or popular Moslems and serenades
them till paid to go away. The songs are sometimes
eulogistic and sometimes comic; the tunes are admirably suited for their purposepleasing at first and
monotonous after a time, so that the troupe is gladly
welcomed and gladly dismissed. The religious element
is entirely absent from the boria performances and there
is no apparent reason for their association with the
month of Muharram.
Safar, the second month, is regarded as unlucky: to
take up any enterprise in Safar is like beginning a
journey on a Friday. It is the month in which Muhammad's fatal illness declared itself. The last Wednesday
of the month is a religious event, a day of penitence and
of ceremonial purification from the sins of the world;
but it has been turned by the light-hearted Malays into
a sort of bathing-picnic known as the Mandi Safar.
The Malays do not take kindly to fasts, but they pay
42
very great attention to the fact that the month is an

unlucky one in the matter of work.
The twelfth day of the third month is the anniversary of the Prophet's birth and also of his death, but the
former event is regarded as the more important. The
day is wholly a day of rejoicing, marked by much good
cheer and by the chanting of many maulud or Arabic
hymns and discourses about the life of Muhammad. In
consequence of this great festival the name maulud is
often given to the whole month in preference to the
orthodox Arabic description of Rabi'u'-l-awwal. Malays
l
,
who do like long Arabic words, sometimes use the expression " t h e four months with the same name" when
speaking of the months Rabi'u-l-awwal, Rabi'u-'-l-akhir,
Jamadu-'l-awwal, and Jamada-l-akhir. The names are
not the same, but they seem to possess certain family
likenesses and are all equally unpronounceable.
The next great Moslem holiday is the 27th day of
the seventh month, Rajab, the anniversary of the
Prophet's journey to heaven. It is a great occasion for
chanting and prayer and it is commemorated by all
Malays of piety and learning.
The eighth month, Shaaban, is rendered dismal by
the approach of the ninth, the Fasting Month. The
fifteenth night of Shaaban is believed to be the time
when the Almighty shakes the Tree of Life causing the
fall of leaves that represent the lives of men. Throughout this night in some parts of Arabia the mosques are
thronged with agonised suppliants appealing to the
Almighty to allow their lives to be prolonged throughout the coming year. Such scenes are rare in the
Peninsula. The Malay calls this event the kanduri roti,
because of the cakes that they eat to commemorate it.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
ADULT LIFE.
43
The concluding days of Shaaban are marked by many

feasts, because the Great Fast is coming on when men
may no longer dine in comfort. They represent the
days of preparation for the Malay Lent and should be
marked by ceremonial ablutions to purify the soul and
by much food to fortify the body. They are soon over,
and the Great Fast begins.
Throughout the month of Ramazan a Moslem is
forbidden (between sunrise and sunset) to eat, drink,
chew, smoke or swallow. It is a time of misery, mitigated by the possibility of sleeping all day and feasting
all night. During the whole of this period the Spirits of
Evil are believed to be chained up, so that the superstitious Malay can (and does) go about at night without
fear of ghostly visitants. As each sunset approaches a
faithful few find their way to the mosque and await in
prayer and meditation the exact moment when they will
be permitted to break their fast. When sunset comes
the worshippers share a light meal of rice-gruel (kanji
buka puasa) before returning to their homes. The whole
of the month is treated as a sort of a religious retreat,
during which great princes like the Sultan of Perak offer
a generous hospitality to the pious poor who flock to the
palace-assemblies. All through the night there may be
heard the long wailing sound of the Arabic chants with
which the devotees beguile the weary hours. At last
the dawn approaches, the last long meal is taken, and
the exhausted worshipper curls up on the floor in sleep.
As the end of the month approaches, the fervour of
devotion becomes more intense, the special Arabic
chants (tarawih) become longer, and the strain becomes
more cruel. The 26th night is the "Night of Power" 1
1
Lailatu'l-kadir,
44
on which the Koran was sent down to Muhammad, a

night when the very trees of the forest are believed to
bow in homage towards Mecca; it is a great event and
is marked by ceremonial lustration, by nocturnal feasts
and by religious services of unusual length. It is the
culminating point of the Bamazan devotions. After the
" Night of Power" the weary worshipper scans the
horizon anxiously for a sight of the new moon that is
to put an end to his long-drawn troubles.
The new moon comes at last; the Great Fast is
followed by the Great Feast. Every Malay dons his
finest garments, calls on all his friends, gives his family
the best dinner he can afford, sends small gifts of cakes
to his European acquaintances and apologizes to his
seniors for any offence that he may have committed
during the past year. The rejoicings go on for the first
three days of the tenth month, Shawwal. This festival,
the hari raya besar, is the nearest Malay equivalent for
the English Christmas, the Greek Easter or the Chinese
New Year.
The next great day is the 10th of the twelfth month,
Dzu'l-hijjah. It is the month of the Pilgrimage. On
this 10th day the pilgrims at Mecca visit a place called
the Mina Bazaar, near Mount Arafat, and offer up a
sacrifice to mark the conclusion of the Haj. The day is
known in the Straits as the hari raya haji. It is the
great day of the haji, the man who has been to Mecca.
It is the anniversary of his pilgrimage. On this day
the hajiwho is often a humble Javanese gardener
working in some Singapore or Penang compoundputs
on the gorgeous robes and turban of the Arab, takes a
holiday and astonishes his employer by his sudden
magnificence. The transformation does not last long.
45
In two days the haji is back at work along with his less
fortunate friends who have never been to Mecca. This
festival is the last of the Moslem year.
The Malay possesses another year, a solar year, with
holidays and festivals that have no connection with
religion. It begins with some definite signthe height
of the Pleiades above the horizon or the seasonal ripening of some fruit 1 telling the ryot that the time for
planting is at hand. The true Malay year is a sort of
farmer's almanac. Its first festival is marked by the
reading of prayers, the burning of incense, and the
singing of chants over the mother-seed that is to be
used in the rice-nursery. The calendar is marked by
further festivals at every stage of cultivationat the
sowing, the transplanting and the harvesting. It is
supplemented by special holidays, when mimic fighting
or mock-propitiation is used to get the better of the
ghostly denizens of the district who prey upon the
crops. This solar calendar is only unsatisfactory
because it is unauthorised and uncontrolled by any
supreme authority, so that its details vary in every part
of the Peninsula. It is the relic of an old agricultural
religion and belongs properly to the province of Folklore and Malay Belief. None the less its holidays are
observed and its feasts are well attended. The exact
day for each event is fixed by the local pawang, but it
turns upon the state of the crops and the details of the
padi-planting industry. The industry is the subject of
a special pamphlet and need not be considered here.
One thing alone must be discussed: how does
rice-planting pay? The whole of Malay life turns on
this industry and the crucial point in it is Qne about
1
The perah fruit.
46
which we have singularly little information. Mr. Hale,

usually a reliable authority, estimated the average
harvest from a five-acre block of good irrigated land in
Krian at a total of 3,000 gantang of padi, representing a
gross value of $240. Against this he set the land-rent
($5), the water-rate ($10) and a sum of $48 for interest
on borrowed capital at the local money-lenders' rate of
24 per cent. Mr. Hale was appealing for a reduction of
taxation, and in his anxiety to forestall any criticism of
his figures he made out a strong case against himself.
His figures seem too high. In 1907 a most interesting
experiment was made in Krian by order of the Director
of Agriculture. Eight small pieces of land were
marked off and cultivated in different ways in order to
test the relative effectiveness of different processes of
planting. The bulkiest crop (366 gantang to the acre)
was obtained from the land cultivated by Banjarese
according to their own native methods. Some instructive differences were noticed in the three other fields
cultivated by Banjarese on their own lines as modified
in some small detail by the Director. The average for
the four Banjarese fields was 328 gantang per acre. A
field cultivated by Tamils gave a poorer result. A
field treated with bone manure gave a miserable crop
(128 gantang, to the acre); selection of local seed by
weight was a failure (164 gantang to the acre), and the
importation of special seed from Ceylon resulted in a
complete fiasco. The local ryots, who saw in these experiments an attempt to improve on their own methods,
summed up the situation with the pithy proverb that it
is useless to teach swimming to ducks. Still, these
figures make it abundantly clear that Mr. Hale's
estimate of 600 gantang to the acre is too high for an
47
average. The crop of 866 gantang was declared to be a

fair crop for the locality.1 Mr. Hale's estimated price
of 8 cents per gantang is also rather high. Taking
350 gantang at 8 cents as a conservative estimate we
find that the harvest of land in Krian, after deducting
land rent and water-rate, works out at $25 an acre. If
we set against this sum the tithe taken by the mosque,
the cost of buffaloes (if used for ploughing), and the
money-lender's interest at 24 per cent., it may fairly be
contended that rice-planting does not pay.
As a matter of fact, it does pay. Mr. P. A.
Thompson 2 estimates the gross value of the rice-crop in
Siam at about 3 5s. an acre, and looks upon this figure
as very profitable, though it corresponds almost exactly
with the Krian estimate. A loan at 24 per cent, is not
a business transaction, nor does a Malay borrow money
to open up new land; indeed, he could not get his loan
till he has cultivated his land and secured his title.
He borrows money for some wedding-ceremony or as
security for a friend; and we ought not to lay at the
door of the rice-growing industry the improvidence and
recklessness of individual ryots. When all is said and
done, a profit of $125 (on a five-acre block for some five
months' work) is good profit, as native incomes go,
especially when we remember that much of the work of
padi-planting is little more than the leisurely duty of
watching a growing crop.
Rice-growing is not the Malay peasant's sole means
of livelihood. He usually has his little holding with
its thirty or forty cocount trees round his house.3 With
1
In the following year much better crops were obtained, one plot yielding
600 gantang to the acre. The mill buys padi at 7 cents a gantang, paid in advance.
2
" Lotus-land," p. 183.
3
I have heard it said on good authority that 25 coconut trees will support a
Malay family.
48
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
an annual yield of 50 nuts per tree and an average price

of 4 cents a nut he may get anything from $50 to $80 a
year from this source. If he resides near the sea he can
earn an appreciable amount by working as a fisherman.
If he lives near a forest he may gather and sell rattans
and other jungle produce. In some places he can make
great profits by cutting the nipah palms and making
house-roofing. If his house is near a high road he may
keep a cart or carriage and earn an occasional dollar
by letting it out on hire. In many cases he has some
special source of income of his ownhe may be a
.mosque-official or a Koran-teacher or a school-master or
a smith. Separately considered these sources of profit
amount to very little; collectively they mean a great
deal. They must represent an average of some $15
to $20 a month and would be much more if the riceplanters made full use of their opportunities and leisure.
As it is, the Malay peasant is never likely to furnish
a plentiful supply of cheap labour; he is far too well-off
for that. He may take odd jobs and small contracts, but
he will not consent to exchange his lot for that of
a regular wage-earner on an estate. Why, indeed, should
he ? His life is varied, pleasant, and healthy ; it supplies
him with all that he needs; it allows him ample leisure
and absolute personal freedom. It enables us to understand why the ceremonies at a peasant's wedding can go
on for a week and be attended by the whole village
without dislocating the industries of the locality. All
that is necessary is the choice of a suitable seasonthe
month after the harvestwhen everyone is at leisure
and the granaries are full.
Agriculture is the soul of Malay life. The ryot may
hear of lunar months and of the years of the Hegira, but
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS
AND
DEATH.
49
he speaks of "years of rice" or "years of maize,"

and he dates an incident as "so many harvests ago."
He is essentially a planter; his festivals are seasonal;
his joys and sorrows depend on the crops; and his whole
life is regulated by the great rice-planting industry.
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
When a Malay becomes so ill that the ministrations

of the local herbalists are of no avail he sends for the
pawang. Now the pawang is a very unorthodox person :
historically he is the priest of an older religion and
theoretically a trafficker with evil spirits and a dabbler
in the blackest of black art. To the pious dignitaries of
the mosque the pawang is an abomination, because he
represents the accredited agent of the Devil. But the
sick man is not likely to stand upon such ceremony;
believing as he does that all sickness comes from the
Evil One he will not be deterred by any rules of propriety
from entering into negotiations with his tormentor.
He sends for the pawang. The pawang realises the
delicacy of the situation and begins with mild measures :
he tries to feed the Evil One. He hangs out baskets of
food and cakes in the jungleraw food and cooked food,
vegetable food and animal food, dainties to suit all
tastes. If the spirit is malicious enough to go on
tormenting the poor sick man after such kindness has
been shown, the pawang tries a little mild deception.
Having built a sacrificial boat, filled it with money
and provisions, and induced the evil spirits to step
on board, he sets it adrift on the river to float away to
its fate in the Great Sea. If the demon of disease is too
canny to be taken in by these temptationswell, there
PAPERS
50
ON MALAY SUBJECTS.
is no help for i t : a berhantu ceremony must be resorted

to. I t is wicked; but what else is the poor sick man
to do ?
Sir Frank Swettenham has described a berhantu
ceremony ; 1 so has Mr. Skeat. 2 These accounts must
suffice for those who desire to know what the performance
looks like. B u t descriptions are of all sorts: one may
dwell on the ridiculous aspect of an incident, and another
may resolve itself into detailed inventory of the pawang's
paraphernalia and a word-for-word record of the formulae
that he uttered. I n neither case does the description
give much of a clue to the real significance of a berhantu ;
and, after all, the principal question is, " W h a t does the
ceremony mean ? "
Sir Frank's sick man was a reigning Sultan; Mr.
Skeat's was a peasant, the brother of his collector. Sir
Frank's pawang was " a woman in male attirein
ordinary life she was an amusing lady named Raja Ngah,
a scion of the reigning house on the female s i d e " ;
Mr. Skeat's pawang was a man of no special importance.
Sir Frank's orchestra consisted of " five or six girls
holding native drums " and was headed by the daughter
of Raja N g a h ; Mr. Skeat's was only the pawang's wife,
" an aged woman whose office was to chant the invocation." Sir Frank's ghostly visitant was the aristocratic
Israng, the special familiar of Raja N g a h ; Mr. Skeat's
was the plebeian tiger-spirit, the common property of
the whole Malay world. There is a vast difference in
the importance of the incidents described; Mr. Skeat's
may be called a vulgar or workaday berhantu, while Sir
Frank's represented a minor incident in the history of
the State.
1
" Malay Sketches," pp. 153-159.
" Malay Magie," pp. 436-144.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS :
SICKNESS AND
DEATH.
51
In a shadowy way we can also find outlined for us

in the dry records of a Straits Settlements blue-book
the story of a much greater berhantuone that was a
major incident in the history of the State. When
Sultan Abdullah was charged with complicity in the
assassination of the British Resident, one of the allegations
against him was that he had " sent off a boat to Pasir
Panjang to fetch down the Raja Kechil Muda and his son,
Raja Ahmad, to conduct a main berhantu in his presence,"
and that the object of the performance was in some way
connected with the murder of Mr. Birch. Mr. Plunket,
who conducted the enquiry, had only a vague idea of
what a berhantu was. He described it as " a superstitious
performance which the Perak people have learnt from the
Sakais or wild men of the interior for looking into the
future by calling up spirits and questioning them; . . . .
on this occasion in all seriousness the Sultan sent for
Raja Kechil Muda and his son (as skilled persons in
such performances) to conduct a main berhantu as a
preliminary ceremony to carrying out the conspiracy,
already formed against Mr. Birch's life. . . . The
performances on the first and second nights were merely
preliminary introductions to what was to follow, but on
the third night Sultan Abdullah, having been possessed
by seven spirits in succession, spoke out and declared
that Mr. Birch would be dead in a month." Such was
Mr. Plunket's interpretation of the incident, though his
account is not borne out by the evidence. The performance took place at Batak Rabit on or about the 24th
August, 1875.
There is no doubt from the evidence that the -pawang
at this great berhantu were the Raja Kechil Muda and his
son, Raja Ahmad. " On this night," said one witness,
52
PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS,
" t h e devils asked to be paid, and Raja Kechil Muda

replied that the devils would be paid with a boatload of
offerings when Mr. Birch was dead. One of the Sultan's
devils declared that the devil which would kill Mr. Birch
resided at Kuala Perak." Another witness testified as
follows: " Raja Ahmad said that he could call up
Mr. Birch's spirit for $100. The Sultan agreed to pay
this sum. . . . Raja Ahmad said that what the Sultan
wanted was being done. The Sultan said, ' Will what
I want happen ? ' Raja Ahmad said,' I t will.' " Another
eye-witness described " the performance which took
place. At its conclusion Raja Ahmad said to Sultan
Abdullah, ' Now I have done for Mr. Birch, but I won't
do it properly unless you pay me.' Sultan Abdullah
replied, ' I will pay you without fail if you can only get
Mr. Birch out of Bandar Baharu.' " The evidence
records the surprise that was felt at a herhantu being
held when nobody was ill, and it works up to the conclusion that the Sultan " w a n t e d to do something wrong
to Mr. Birch and that he wanted to kill him by sorcery."
Although the eye-witnesses were very reluctant to talk
about what had happened, the general drift of their
evidence was that the wizards were the Raja Kechil Muda
and his son, that the fee was $100, besides the offerings
to the spirits, that the spirits invoked (" the Sultan's
devils") were the jin kerajaan or divinities of the State,
and that the hope was that these mighty spirits would
wreck Mr. Birch's launch off Kuala Perak and drown
him in the sea.
I n the three berhantu performances to which reference
has been made we find that the importance of the incident
increases with the importance of the pawang, the greatness of the spirits, and the magnitude of the fee. " A s
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
53
one star exceeds another in glory," says Sir F r a n k

Swettenham, " so one jin surpasses another in renowD,
and I have named them in the order of their renown.
I n their honour four white and. crimson umbrellas were
hung in the room, presumably for their use when they
arrived from their distant homes. Only the Sultan of
the State is entitled to traffic with these distinguished
Spirits; when summoned they decline to move unless
appealed to with their own special invocations, set to
their own peculiar music, sung by at least four singers,
and led by a Biduan (singer) of the royal family. . . .
There are common devils who look after common people;
such as Hantu Songkai, Hanta Melayu and Hantu Belian ;
the last the Tiger-Devil, but out of politeness he is called
Belian to save his feelings." I t was this last " t i g e r d e v i l " that Mr. Skeat saw; and even Raja Ngah's
familiar, Israng, whose antics are described in " M a l a y
Sketches," was not as aristocratic as the umbrella-using
dignitaries of whom Sir F r a n k speaks.
On one point Sir F r a n k is in error, though so near
the t r u t h t h a t the very subtlety of the distinction has led
him off the trail of an interesting fact. There are two
Sultans in P e r a k : one is " t h e Sultan of the S t a t e " and
the other is the Sultan " who is entitled to traffic with
these distinguished spirits." This latter sovereign, the
Saltan Muda as he is called, is chosen from the royal
house; his wife is a titular queen, the Raja Che' Puan
Muda; and he has a deputy or heir-apparent known as
the Raja Kechil Muda. But it is the law of the State
that this spiritual Sultan, prince of the blood-royal though
he be, may never succeed to the secular Sultanate of the
State. His kingdom has nothing to do with this visible
world of P e r a k ; he rules over the Spirits of the Land
54
and can convene eerie courts to be attended by ghosts of

all grades of dignity from the great " Twin Brother of
the Heavens," who came into existence when the universe
was created, down to the humble arak-arak jin sa-ribu,
" the ghosts who follow in procession, a thousand ghosts
at a time." The president of this ghostly court is the
Sultan Muda (or his deputy, the Raja Kechil Muda).
He knows the exact title by which each Spirit must be
addressed and the subtle distinctions of rank between
them. He alone can summon the very highest ghosts in
the land, and his fee for doing so is 100 in all. These
facts may throw some light on a few of the details
of the mysterious berhantu at Batak Rabit that was
brought up against Sultan Abdullah at his trial. They
may also explain the following minor incident in the
early history of British intervention in Perak.
When the Pangkor Treaty was made and Sir Andrew
Clarke's advisers were looking for a Malay title to serve
as a dignified equivalent for the English term " exSultan," some one in Singapore unfortunately coined the
expression Sultan Muda as suitable for the purpose in
view. With many expressions of goodwill and with the
very best intentions this devil-derived dignity was offered
by the British Government to the aged and religious
Sultan Ismail, a descendant of the Prophet, by way of
consoling him for the loss of the throne of Perak. The
embarrassed ex-Sultannot knowing exactly what to
thinksuggested in a mild way to Mr. Birch that
another title, such as Sultan Baginda, would suit him
better. Mr. Birch suspected that the new title might
conceal some deep design and referred the matter to the
Singapore adviser on Malay affairs (Mr. T. Braddell,
C.M.C.) for an explanation of the difference between the
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS
AND DEATH.
55
two designations. Mr. Braddell was completely nonplussed. I n the end, it was decided, with some misgivings, t h a t the ex-Sultan might be allowed to please
himself in this matter.
Among the regalia of Perak is a set of small cups
(resembling Chinese tea-cups but with serrated rims)
that are used by the Sultan Muda in his incantations.
So, too, a very handsome golden bowl, 1 with a cover of
gold and a saucer of suasa studded with precious stones,
is said to have done service in these berhantu ceremonies.
Under the ancient Government of Perak it was the
feudal obligation of the villagers of Pasir Garam to erect
the nine-staged pavilion used for the ceremonial lustrations after a princely berhautu.
Although few people
in Perak know who the Sultan Muda is and although his
office and that of the Raja Kechil Muda do not figure in
the Annual Estimates, every section of his duties and
every detail of his costume are most clearly defined by
the unwritten custom of the country. The ceremony of
the berhantu commenced at 8 p.m., when the Sultan
Muda, dressed in the prescribed robes, made his formal
entry and took his seat on the puadai, a narrow mat
only used on such occations. His head would be veiled
with a scarf of many colours. Rice-dust was scattered
about to avert ill-luck, incense was burnt, and the Sultan
Muda, grasping a handful of sambau grass, bowed,
folded his arms, and gave the signal for the invocation to
begin. The Chief Minstrel 2 to the accompaniment of
an orchestra of drumsthen chanted his appeal to the
Spirits of the Country, one by one in the strict order of
their precedence, to attend the audience of their King.
1
Known as a Mundam. It is an Achehnese bowl and is said to date back
to the time of Marhum Besar Aulia 'llah.
- Biduan.
56
A strange assembly was this ghostly Court of Perak. It

numbered among its aristocrats spirits borrowed from
all religions and from every part of the world, souls
of orthodox rulers like Ali, Ahmad and Solomon, deities
of India like Brahma and Vishnu, nature-gods like the
" Supporter of the Heavens" and the " Ruler of the
Storm," and divinities of special localities like the Dato'
of Mount Berembun. Invoked by their proper names
and titlesfor no mistake was permissible on this point
the Spirits would come in, one by one, announcing their
arrival by the flicker of the tapers used in the performance. As each Great Spirit arrived the Sultan
Muda 1 would turn to the Chief Singer and enquire in set
phrases if all was well. In language that was equally
well studied the Singer would reply that all was indeed
well, and that the object of the meeting was the convocation of all the Spirits to a great feast to be held on the
morrow. The Singer would then go on to invoke the
next Spirit in order of precedence, and, as the Ghosts of
Perak are many, the ceremony would drag on far into
the night.
Early the next morning the Sultan Muda and the
Raja Kechil Muda paid their first ceremonial visit to the
pavilion of lustration, the great nine-storeyed scaffolding
erected by the men of Pasir Garam. At the summit
of the pavilion was the image of a bird, the jentayu
that lives on the dew of heaven and is ever calling for
the rain. Below this image were many minor decorations and offeringsstreamers of cloth and paper,
strings of flowers and fronds, square rice-packets and
long rice-packets, cakes and pastry, jars of water, joints
of sugar-cane, food of all sortsand prominent among
1
As the medium of the Spirit in question.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
57
them all would be the grisly head of a pink buffalo

sacrificed in honour of the occasion. Everything was on
a lavish scale, befitting the greatness of the ghostly
guests. The Sultan Muda having seen that all was
ready would return home. Then in the half-light of
evening, " when faces can just be recognised," he would
come back and ascend the tower along with his heirapparent and a train of attendant pawang. Bowing to
the four quarters of the heavens he would wave the
offerings in each direction as an invitation to the Spirits
to approach and partake of the provisions that had been
consecrated to their use. Later on the whole party,
meeting at the palace, held another and wilder berhantu
appealing desperately to the Spirits of the Country to
help the sick king in his hour of distress. The great
drums of royalty, the holy regalia of the State and even
the maiden daughters of the royal house were brought
out to do honour to the invisible guests; the feast was of
the very best, and every effort would be made to
thoroughly propitiate the Spirits, The sick Sultan was
laid on a curious sixteen-sided dais, the peterakna
panchalogam, specially prepared for these occasions, and
the berhantu invocations would then go on as before.
On the third day (or later) the Sultan, if cured, was
taken to the lofty nine-staged pavilion and was ceremonially bathed by the Sultan Muda and his attendants.
This lustration marked the final recovery of the royal
patient. I t gave the Sultan Muda a claim to his fee of
$100$25 for himself, 25 for the Raja Kechil Muda, and
$50 for his suite of wizards. We are, of course, speaking
of royal illnesses. When the patient was a man of
humble birth, the ceremony was simpler, the pawang was
less authoritative, the spirit was a "common devil," and
58
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
the fee was lesswitness the ceremony recorded by

Mr. Skeat. All these things are questions of degree.
I n describing a berhantu we must allow for the importance of the occasion, and lastly we must reckon with
another possibility suggested in the pithy summing-up
of my Malay informant about these bcrhantu performances : " All these things cost moneyand sometimes
they only make the patient worse."
Was the Spirit at a berhantu ceremony to be
regarded as an enemy to whom the sick man had to pay
ransom ? Or was he an ally called in to fight the
hostile Demons of Disease ? Probably the latteror the
berhantu against Mr. Birch would have been meaninglessbut possibly he was a little of both. The ways of
demons are inscrutable. The ghosts of the State should
be the allies of the State, but they might consider it a
service to the country to remove a Sultan instead of
curing him. I n such a case the Sultan's appeals might
be promises of repentance. We will return therefore to
the eventuality already suggestedthe possibility that
the din and excitement of the coming of the Spirits may
have only pushed the patient a little nearer to the grave.
Hope is given u p ; the pawang returns home to find
excuses for his failure, and the poor despairing invalid,
having failed to get well either by fair means or foul,
hands himself over to the last ministrations of the
orthodox leaders of religion. The imam and his fellowdignitaries of the mosque are bound by duty to attend
at the deathbed of a dying believer and to prepare him
for the great change by repeating seven times in his ear
the assertion of the Unity of God, the cardinal pillar of
the Moslem faith. As with the Hebrew whose last
words should be " Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
59
One God," so also the dying Moslem should pass to the

hereafter while testifying to the same great truth. He
endeavours therefore to listen to the imam and to repeat
the Arabic formula after him, "though feebly and
incorrectly for the power of his tongue is broken."
He dies, and the attendants immediately bind up his jaw,
pinion his arms to his sides, fasten his lower limbs
together and lay him reverently on a couch in the great
centre-room of his house.
At nightfall torches are lit and the neighbours
assemble, the men to pray and the women to weep and
lament, while the inmates of the house are kept busy
providing refreshment for all who come to render the
last honours to the dead. All through the night, if
possible, the Koran should be chanted. In the morning
the preparations for interment commence. The men
prepare the loose coffin in which the body is borne
to the grave and the rough litter on which the coffin is
carried. The women get ready the sireh, the small
coins and the fragrant leaves that are to be used in the
course of the coming ceremony. As noon approaches
the body must be washed for the last time. For this
purpose it is usually laid on rollers of banana-trunk, but
in special cases of distinguished honour it may be allowed
to rest on the legs of relatives and friends. The lustration is done by an expert, and consists partly of real
cleansing and partly of ceremonial purification. When
all is over, the body is dried with a towel, perfumed with
camphor and sandal-wood, plugged against impurities,
and shrouded in a long white wrapper with fastenings
taken from its own unravelled edges. The last toilet of
the dead is now complete. A short prayer is said, a
little money is scattered about, and the body is placed in
6o
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
the coffin and borne outside the house. There a short

funeral service is held. When this is over, a pall is
thrown over the coffin and the litter is lifted on the
shoulders of the attendants and borne to the cemetery, a
procession following and singing the creed. It would be
quite wrong to use a wheeled vehicle for such purposes,
and many are the devices resorted to for evading the
difficulty. In some very stately funerals it is said that
concealed hearses have been used while the " b e a r e r s "
marched by the side of the hearse and pretended to carry
the coffin. In some cases the bearers have stood in the
carriage and supported the coffin on their shoulders.
But the law on the point is unmistakable. Even the
present constitutional Sultan of Turkey at the lowest ebb
of his fortunes was able to veto the use of a gun-carriage
at a military funeral given by the Young Turks.
A Malay grave is like an English grave, except that a
long niche or cavity is usually dug along the side of the
main trench. The body rests in the niche and not in
the principal hollow. Should the earth be too loose to
allow of a niche being made, a cavity is dug along the
bottom of the trench and the body is laid in this cavity.
In some cases a sort of three-sided bottomless coffin is
used. In all these methods the essential point is that
the body shall lie on the earth but not the earth on the
body. The niche or cavity is closed in by a plank, or
else the three-sided coffin is placed over the corpse to
protect it from the soil above. The loose coffin used in
the procession to the cemetery is not buried at all, the
body is taken out of it for interment. When this is done
a clod of earth is held to the nostrils of the dead to
suggest a notion of what is happening, and the fastening
of the grave-clothes is partially unloosed to allow him to
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
61
rise slightly when listening to the prayer known as the

talkin.
The body is then placed in its a p e r t u r e ; the
aperture is closed up and the trench is filled.
After the burial a few more prayers are saidnotabl y
the talkin or last exhortation to the deceasedand alms
are distributed among the pious poor. A few of the
friends go back to the house of mourning and assist in
chanting the Koran during the night. On the third day
a funeral feast is held in honour of the departed. If the
relatives can afford it, similar funeral feasts may be held
on the seventh, fortieth and hundredth day after the
death. Gifts are made to the mosque authoritiesa mat
to the expert who washes the body, the pall to the imam
who recites the burial service, and other customary fees
in rice, coconuts, sugar-cane and money.
Temporary wooden marks are set up to show the
place of interment, and are replaced at a later date by
tombstones if the relatives of the deceased are well-off.i
Round posts are set up for a man, flat planks for a
woman. Of the two marks put up, the headstone is
much the larger, and the space between the pair (about
three feet) is usually filled up by a low ridge of earth.
A few monuments are very elaborate. The tombs of the
early P e r a k kings were of the Achehnese typefour sided monumental headstones carved with the confession
of faith. So are the graves at the ancient Perak capital ,
Bruas, and so also is the tomb of the great Upper P e r a k
female saint, To' Temong, who played some part in the
legendary history of the country. About A.D. 1700 the
type seems to have suddenly changed. The gravestone
of the Sultan Marhum Besar Aulia 'llah is of a curious
polygonal type narrow at the base and increasing near
the top. The monument of Marhum- Kahar is of the
62
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
same type and far more elaborately carved; the headstone is joined to the other by a long stone block five or
six feet long and carved with the triple crescentic dokoh
that was the sign of royalty and a long narrow cutting
that fills with rain and supplies water for the birds
of the air to drinkbut whether this was its real
object I cannot say.
Older graves have been found in Perak; some indeed
are lined with slabs of stone and contain broken
pottery and even cornelian beads. But were they
Malay? Of their origin nothing is known. The Malays,
who are extremely conservative in the matter of
old ceremonial, give us nothing in their burial-customs
that is not of the most orthodox Moslem character.
It may be that they used formerly to dispose of
their dead otherwise than by intermentbut this
point must be left to be dealt with in the course of
another chapter.
CONCLUDING NOTES.
The Malay cares nothing for consistency; he does

not exchange old customs for new; he keeps both the
new and the old. He is indeed afraid to give up the old.
"Again and again have I tried to abandon this inconvenient system [of coinage]," said a Pahang prince to
Abdullah Munshi; "but the tigers took to eating men,
and the crocodiles became hungrier, and I desisted."
The Malay is afraid to give up an ancient practice
because he fears the vengeance of the creators of the
practice; he thinks that the dead hand of some old
lawgiver may reach out over the intervening centuries
and strike down the impious being who dares to alter
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CONCLUDING NOTES,
63
what past ages have approved. To meet this difficulty

he keeps the old while adopting the new. He has gone
on preserving custom after custom and ceremony after
ceremony till his whole life is a sort of museum of ancient
customsan ill-kept and ill-designed museum in which
no exhibit is dated, labelled or explained. For the Malay
has not retained these old ceremonies for their own sake
or because he loves them; he has preserved them as mere
formalities: dead things for the satisfaction of his dead
ancestors. If the European observer examines the
bridegroom's offerings at a Perak wedding he will see
that they are mere dummies of wood and paper got up
to represent coconuts, firewood and cattle. Malay
custom is largely a matter of dummies. Some day
when elephants become scarce the elephant at a raja's
installation will be replaced by a figure of bamboo and
tissue-paper, a mere symbol to be borne along in the
train of a prince. "Why indeed should it be otherwise ? The elephant is no longer there as a beast
of burden; he only figures in the procession to gratify
the ghostly majesty of ancient kings who like to see
their descendants keep up the traditional forms of
royalty.
Malay ceremonial, as we have said, is a museum
of dead customs kept up for the benefit of the dead. It
is unlabelled and unexplained because the men of old
who made each custom may be safely trusted to know
its nature and its meaning, and if the men of old
had left us records of their times in the form of ancient
history and literature they might have helped us to
understand every incident in the long drama of Malay
ceremonial. But they have left us very little. As guides
they fail us; they force us to infer and to surmise where
64
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
we ought to be able to speak with confidence; all that

they can do is to indicate the lines on which research must
proceed. We must work historically. We can best begin
by eliminating the modern Moslem elementsthe hennastaining, the marriage contract and prayers, the entire
funeral ceremony, the practice of circumcision, and the
festivals that make up the lunar year. Of the Hindu
elements we cannot speak so positively: they probably
include the bridal rice, the bridal thread, much of the
lustration ceremony and some details of the propitiatory
sacrifices. But when we have eliminated these Hindu
and Moslem details we are still far from the bedrock of
Indonesian custom; we have to distinguish between
essentials and accessories. Dances and feasting are
accessories to weddings all over the world, yet they are
not really a part of the marriage ceremony; they belong
to the great province of merrymaking. The " enthronement" at a Malay marriage is merely honorific; the
" lustrations " are rites of purification; the offerings to
evil spirits are made to avert ill-luck. Rites of this
sort, like feasts and dances, accompany every great
Malay ceremony; they are common accessories, not true
essentials. It is only when we have set aside these
items that we get at the real traces of old Indonesian
custom. To describe a Malay wedding by giving an
account of the bersanding is like publishing the menu of a
wedding breakfast as an example of an English marriageservice.
After this rough classification of the items that make
up our Malay museum of ancient custom we can proceed
to discuss the various exhibits one by one. Let us begin
with the Moslem exhibits as being the most modern and
the easiest to identify and understand. In the matter
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: CONCLUDING NOTES.
65
of marriage-custom Islam has exercised very little

influence. I t brought in the brief religious service at
which the contract is ratified and witnessed, and it
identified an old Indonesian customary payment, the
mas kahwin, with its own mahr or marriage-settlement.
These two items represent the barest requirements of
Muhammadan Law. In the matter of unessentials
Islam only introduced one ritethe henna-staining.
This henna-staining is accompanied in Malaya by a
peculiar dance performed to a special tune: the dancers
(men and women in turn) balance a cup or vessel to
which lighted tapers are affixed while they go through
the prescribed steps; they are expected to play with the
cup and even to invert it without extinguishing the
lights by the jerkiness of their movements. In the
matter of funeral-ceremonies Islam exercises a complete
monopoly. In circumcision we should expect a similar
monopoly, and we find it in Southern Malaya (if accessories are eliminated) but not in Northern Malaya, where
the circumcision-ceremonies are very elaborate, take
place at a comparatively late age and are regarded
almost as a recognition of puberty and as a preliminary
to marriage. In the matter of the calendar the influence
of Islam is very distinct: it monopolises the festivals of
the lunar year and surrenders the solar year to older
Malay creeds. These few points summarise Muhammadan influence on Malay ceremonial.
What are we to make of them all ? It would seem
that when Islam came to the Peninsula it found in existence a solar calendar, a very elaborate system of
wedding-ceremonies, a complete absence of burial
ceremonies andin the North but not in the Southan
important festival that was accepted as analogous to
66
circumcision. There is evidence to show that such inferences would not be incorrect.
Cremation was practised by the Malacca Malays
during the first half of the fifteenth centuryso every
contemporary Chinese navigator tells us most positively.
Cremation is still found in Hindu Bali and is constantly
mentioned in old Malay romances; it is, in fact, the
common practice of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is not
found among the aborigines of the Peninsula, nor is it to
be traced among such wild tribes as the Borneo Dyaks
and Philippine Igorrots. Under the circumstances, we
might have inferred that the ancient Malays buried their
dead till they accepted Hinduism and Buddhism; that
they then began to burn their dead, and that they
finally abandoned cremation for burial when they became
Moslems. Curiously enough, there is strong evidence
against such an inference, plausible though it seems at
first sight. In the North of the Peninsula there is
positive proof of the existence of tree-burial, a practice
that survives to this day in spite of the hostility of
Buddhist priests, Moslem Imams and Siamese Governors.
The Buddhist Malayo-Siamese are like their Moslem
cousins in that they believe ordinary religion to be
sufficient for ordinary cases, but consider that exceptional
cases demand exceptional treatment. If a man dies a
" bad " death he is not interred or cremated; he is given
tree-burial so that his soul may have peace. The body
is "rolled up in a mat and then in a casing of split
bamboo so as to form a cigar-shaped bundle which is
suspended between two trees in a waste place or hung
up in the fork between two branches." l Moreover, even
when a man has died a normal death his relatives some" Fasciculi Malayenses," Anthropology, Part I I (a), page 84.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS: CONCLUDING NOTES.
67
times attempt to combine the new and the old by putting

the body into an aerial coffin1 for some days prior to
cremation. Tree-burial must at one time have been
a very common practice in the Northern States of the
Peninsula though we cannot trace it in the South.
There were also other and stranger ways of disposing
of the dead. " Among the Malays [of Patani]," says
one authority, "interment is the universal rule at present;
but it is said that until recently people who had died
a bad or unlucky death were frequently cast out to be
eaten by dogs and vultures." 2 There are no vultures to
be found further south than Perak. We may, however,
compare with the Patani tradition the following passage
in the " Malay Annais" giving the words of the Aru
Ambassador to Pasai, " Better die at once and on this
spot: if the dogs of Pasai are to eat me, be it s o ! " Let
us also couple with these words the following statements
of ancient Chinese writers on Java:
When their parents die they carry them to the forest and allow
them to be eaten by dogs; if they are not devoured completely they
are very sorry. The remains are burned, and often the wives and
concubines are burned also to accompany the dead.3
Their burial rites are as follows. When a father or mother is
about to die the sons and daughters ask whether after death he or she
would prefer to be eaten by dogs, to be burnt or to be thrown into the
water. The parents give their orders according to their wishes and
after their death their directions are earned out. If it is their wish
to be eaten by dogs the body is carried to the seashore or into the
wilderness where dogs soon arrive; if the flesh of the corpse is
eaten completely it is considered propitious, but if not the sons and
daughters lament and weep and throw the remains into the water.4
1
Aerial coffins are said to be used by the Northern Sakai also in the case
of the death of one of their pawang.
2
"Fasciculi Malayenses," Anthropology, Part II (a), page 77.
3
History of the Ming Dynasty.
4
Ying Yai Sheng Lan (A.D. 1416).
68
The circumcision-ceremonies both in the North and

the South are very elaborate. In the South they are
made elaborate by the accessories (the enthronement,
the lustrations and the propitiation of evil spirits);
but the essentials are Moslem. In the North the rite of
circumcision is regarded as the equivalent of the
Buddhist tonsure ceremony: one is masok Melayu, the
other is masok Siam. When the Northern Malays
became Moslems they may well have grafted circumcision
upon the old tonsure ceremony. In any case, Malay
ceremonial bears out clearly enough the view that Islam
overlaid Hinduism in Southern Malay and Buddhism
in the North.
We can now pass to the Hindu elements in Malay
ceremonial. They are hard to identify because Malay
Muhammadanism itself came from a Hindu country
and has a strong South-Indian colouring. Still in
the bridal rice 1 shared by the newly-married pair, in
the bridal thread 2 passed round them at the lustration,
and in the bathing pavilion3 erected for this rite, we have
not only Indian customs but actual Indian names.
These, of course, are minor details. The influence of
Hinduism went further: by creating Malay dignities
and the whole theory of kingship it may be said to
be behind the entire ceremony of enthronement. But
Hinduism exercised its power at second-hand; its direct
influence is neither interesting nor important in matters
of custom.
The accessories of Malay ceremonialthe enthronement, the lustrations, and the propitiatory ritesdemand
some attention. The propitiatory rites belong to the
province of Malay Magic or Malay Belief; they need
1
Nasi berastakona,
- Benang pancharona.
:i
Pancha-persada.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CONCLUDING NOTES.
69
not be here discussed. The lustrations are probably

Hindu. The bersanding or enthronement is extremely
interesting, though not in the sense in which it is usually
studied. It is a ceremony in which the bride and bridegroom play at royalty; they sit in state on a royal dais,
wear regalia and receive the homage of the assembled
guests. They play most interesting partsthe parts of
an ancient king and queenacted to the staging of
an old-world throne and court. The European observer
looks on and thinks that he sees a wedding. But he
forgets that the subject of the drama is royalty and
not marriage; he will learn nothing about Malay
marriage-theories from a mere glorification of the
bridal pair.
Let us compare for a moment the enthronement of a
Perak bridegroom with the enthronement of the Sultan
himselfand in this connection it may be mentioned that
a Perak prince wears as his wedding-jewels articles taken
from the actual regalia of the State. At his coronation
a Sultan wears a golden chain, three gold breast-ornaments, golden bracelets shaped like dragons, a goldsheathed keris, a golden-hilted sword and a silver seal
mounted on a piece of wood. A Perak prince at his
wedding only wears the chain, the breast ornaments, the
bracelets and the heris. The difference is important.
The chain, the breast ornaments, the bracelets and the
heris are true regalia; the sword and the seal are dynastic
heirlooms. The sword is the " sword of Alexander " ;
the seal is the " seal of Alexander " ; they are historic
things, but there is no legend attaching to the regalia
worn by the bridegroom. The Perak bridegroom is
imitating royalty in general; he is not copying any particular line of kings. The drama at which he is playing
70
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
is older than the Perak dynasty; it has remaind practically unchanged (as the " Malay Annals " prove to us) since
the days of the Malacca kings; it probably goes back to
the old Palembang kingdom with its strong Javanese
affinities. Wherever the old Palembang tradition exists
in Pahang, Johor, Riau, Malacca, Selangor and Perak
the " enthronement" or bersanding varies very little.
But if we leave the Palembang area and cross into Patani,
we find a complete change. We see an " enthronement/'
it is true, but it is not the enthronement of a Palembang
king. The ceremony is different ; the regalia are
different. We see before us the ghost of the ancient
Northern Courts and of the old and high civilisations
that have been crushed out of existence by the Siamese.
From the custom and ceremonial of the Northern Malays
we may yet learn much about the history of this most
interesting part of the Peninsula.
We can go back further still, to the old Indonesian
days before the Malays knew aught about Hinduism
or Buddhism or Islam. Do the pantun-contests at a
wedding or betrothal speak of a time when women
had more liberty and when courtship was allowed
to precede marriage? Probably they do, though
that time is indeed remote. The freedom allowed
to unmarried girls among most of the less civilised Indonesian tribes and even among the Menangkabau Malays makes it seem probable enough that there
was a time when Malay marriage was a matter of mutual
selection. Despotism would soon change all that; the
will of a chief was not to be gainsaid. The poetic
elements remained, but their tone changed; the bride
became a diamond to be bought and not a girl to be
courted. It seems fairly clear that the position of women
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: CONCLUDING NOTES.
71
has sunk since the old Menangkabau days when they

owned all the land and treated a husband as " the dog
about the house." The fact that the Malay husband
still comes to live in his wife's house is evidence
that the wife's position must once have been the higher
one.
The customs of the Dyaks, Bataks and Igorrots
suggest a further question : Did the Malays ever practise
trial-marriage ? There is no evidence of it in the present
wedding ceremony; on the contrary, the virtue of the
bride is guarded, praised and prized. Still, it would be
unsafe to speak confidently on this point beyond saying
that if the practice of trial-marriage ever existed all
traces of it have long since passed away.
Again, we may ask ourselves : How long are these old
Malay ceremonies likely to survive ? Not long, perhaps.
The Malay is becoming educated; he is commencing to
believe in newspapers and books, and, above all, he is
beginning to have a good conceit of himself. Why
should he defer to the custodians of these ancient customs,
old and ignorant people who cannot read and write ? He
does not discardhe would not be a Malay if he did
but he improves upon what went before and his improvements are of a most deadly character. There was once
a Malay who tried to introduce poetic elements into the
official letter-writing of the State Secretariat with which
he was connected. The object was laudable enough, but
the fond expressions used by Malay lovers seemed
singularly out of place in official documents. Anyone
who attends a modern Malay ceremony, be it a wedding
or an ear-boring or even the installation of a prince, will
be struck by the inevitable confusion between the new
and the old. Not even Malay conservatism will suffice
72
to preserve the old customs of the country from the disintegrating influence of modern improvements.
The change in Malay life is not really for the worse.
The ancient Malay planted for his own consumption;
the Malay of the future will plant to sell. In the old
days of insecurity when trade was impossible the size of
a holding was regulated by the needs of the family and
rarely exceeded two or three acres of rice-land and a
garden of some ten or twelve coconut-trees. Surplus
rice was almost unsaleable; the extra labour was wasted.
But the modern Malayin Krian, at leastdeals with
five-acre blocks and exports what he does not need for
himself. The size of the holding of the future will be
regulated by capacity to produce rather than by capacity
to consume. The present time is a time of transition.
In their early admiration for foreign art many Malays
melted down their precious native silver and had it remade by Chinese craftsmen. They now regret it. Such
mistakes are inevitable in days of change. Compared
with the great economic movements that are going on all
round us the changes in ceremonial may seem of little
account, but seeing how much national history is crystallised in the old ceremonies of the people it would be a
pity if Malay custom was allowed to perish unrecorded.
APPENDICES.
A.
By Raja, Haji Yahya.
ANTE-NATAL
BAB PERI
MANDI
CEREMONIES.
BUNTING DAN MELENGGANG

MENEMPAH BIDAN.
PERUT
DAN
Maka sa-telah genap-lah 7 bulan perempuan itu mengandong,

maka ibu bapa laki-laki itu-pun bersiap-lah akan sakalian alat hendak
mnelenggang dan mandi bunting serta menempah bidan akan menantunya itu, serta bermuafakat dengan ibu bapa si-perempuan itu. Telah
bersatujuan muafakat-nya, kapada saat yang baik ya-itu hari khamis
malam jumaat, maka ibu bapa perempuan itu-pun bersiap menghiasi
rumah-nya, menggantong tabir langit-langit dan membentang hamparan yang indah-indah, serta menjemput sanak-saudara kaum-kelurga,
dan memotong ayam itek, serta membuat lemping penganan berbagaibagai jenis. Dan pada malam-nya, berhimpun-lah sakalian jemputan
tadi, daripada tuan haji, lebai, imam, khatib dan lain-lain-nya, karumah ibu bapa perempuan yang bersedia tadi. Maka adat-nya pada
sa-genap tempat orang khanduri atau Iain-lain jamuan pada mulamula sampai itu di-jamu makan sireh atau roko' kemudian baharulah di-angkatkan sakalian makanan yang hendak di-beri makan itu.
Maka sakalian mereka-itu dudok-lah beratur di-dalam majlis yang
telah di-sediakan oleh tuan rumah itu.
Sa-telah hadzir sakalian jemputan itu, baharu-lah di-angkat sakalian hidangan akan menjamu mereka-itu. Maka pada sa-panjang
resam Melayu apabila makanan itu sudah beratur datang-lah tuan
rumah itu mengatakan: 'Silakan enche'-enche, dan tuan-tuan serta
adek-kakak sakalian makan mana-mana yang hadzir bagi jamuan
hamba ini.' Maka baharu-lah sakalian mereka-itu makan. Sudah
makan lalu minum ayer ada yang sharbat atau coffee, kahwa, dan lainlain-nya. Lepas itu, makan sireh pula, dan perasapan-pun di-bawa
orang-lah ka-tengah majlis itu, ya-itu tempat membakar kemenyan
karna hendak berdzikir maulud, dengan empat biji buyong ayer
mandi yang bertutup dengan daun nyior berukir berawan dan bertebok aneka jenis bunga awan yang indah-indah, serta di-lilit pula
dengan kain puteh keempat-empat biji buyong itu, lalu di-letakkan
74
bersama-sama dengan sa-batang dian akan pelita maulud itu. Sa-telah

itu maka datang-lah bapa atau waris tua si-laki-laki itu kapada tuan
imam, khatib, bilal, atau penghulu dan sakalian yang hadzir itu, seraya
kata-nya: ' Tuan serta datok-datok dan enche'-enche' sakalian-nya,
sahaya ini ada berhajat sadikit hendak maulud memuji bagi junjongan kita, salla'llahu alaihi wa's-salam, akan pekerjaan mandi dan
melenggang perut menantu sahaya ini, serta menempah bidan-nya
sakali.'
Sa-telah sudah, maka sakalian-nya-pun memula-lah berdzikir
maulud, ya-itu di-bacha doa dahulu oleh khatib; lepas itu berdzikirlah berangkap-rangkap berempat atau bcrdua pada membuat dzikir
itu; dan di-jawab oleh sakalian mereka yang asing-asing itu, hingga
menderu-lah bunyi-nya di-dalam majlis itu. Maka adat-nya yang
mula-mula membawa dzikir itu, ya-itu orang tua-tua seperti tuan imam,
tuan kadzi, datok penghulu dan barang siapa yang tahu daripada
pegawai-pegawai masjid, atau-pun orang yang patut akan mendahulu
berdzikir itu. Lepas orang tua-tua baharu-lah orang muda-muda
pula punya giliran akan berdzikir itu, dengan berbagai-bagai lagu
dan lagham-nya, mengikut kepandaian mereka-itu masing-masing.
Maka sa-ketika berdzikir itu, di-angkat orang-lah makanan daripada
lemping penganan serta dengan ayer panas daripada daun teh, atau
coffee dan kahwa, atau-pun sharbat dan Iain-lain; terkadang tebu
dengan garam guna-nya menjadi pelampas suara mereka yang berdzikir itu supaya jangan menjadi serak atau garau dan sa-paroh
menambah-nambahkan molek lagi bunyi-nya.
Hata sa-telah hampir-lah bahagi dua, ya-itu hendak berdiri pada
kerja maulud itu, maka ibu bapa laki-laki dan perempuan-pun datanglah membawakan anak-nya yang hendak mandi bunting itu berdiri
bersama-sama dengan mereka yang berdzikir itu, maka dian maulud
itu-pun di-pasang orang-lah kedua-dua batang-nya, dengan berhulas
bertebok berukir awan yang sangat indah-indah perbuatan-nya kaki
dian kedua itu di-perbuat daripada kertas yang chantek molek. Satelah sampai-lah pada perkataan yang hendak berdiri itu, maka tuan
imam-pun berselawat-lah demikian bunyi-nya ' Allahumma.' Maka
di-sahut oleh sakalian mereka-itu ' Salla wa's-salam alai.' Maka tuan
imam itu-pun bangun-lah berdiri dengan memegang surat maulud itu,
dan sakalian mereka yang Iain-pun menurut-lah bangun bersamasama, dan dian itu-pun di-pasang-lah, dan pebaraan-pun di-buboh
api-nya serta dengan kemenyan. Sa-telah itu lalu-lah berdzikir membawa dzikir 'Ash'rasal,' naina permulaan-nya. Maka perempuan
APPENDICES.
75
dengan suami-nya bersama-sama-lah berdiri di-dalam majlis itu hingga

sampai tiga kali beraleh lagu baharu-lah kedua itu di-bawa oleh ibu
bapa masok ka-dalam ka-tempat tidur-nya.
Arakian tersebut-lah pula kesah orang yang maulud itu ; sudah
habis lagu yang berdiri itu, dudok-lah pula sambil berselawat seperti
dahulu juga. Maka angkatan yaani jamuan makanan-pun di-angkat
orang-lah daripada halwa lemping kukus berbagai-bagai bubur serta
penganan bakar dan sa-bagai-nya. Lepas makan itu berdzikir pula
sa-hingga khatam-lah dzikir itu baharu-lah berhenti; lalu di-beri pula
jamuan sa-kali lagi, ya-itu dengan nasi. Maka hari-pun siang-lah,
segala mereka yang berdzikir itu-pun pulang-lah ; ada sa-paroh tinggal
tidur di-situ karna pekerjaan itu belum lagi habis.
Maka tersebut-lah pula kesah ibu bapa laki-laki dan perempuan
itu. Sa-telah hari sudah siang masing-masing-pun bersiap-lah akan
alatan hendak khanduri itu menyembeleh kambing ayam itek serta
menchari ikan dan sayur-sayuran serta mengukus pulut sa-puloh atau
lima-belas gantang banyak-nya dan nasi jawi mengikut sa-banyak mana
jemputan sa-banyak itu-lah di-tanak-nya oleh hendak khanduri itu.
Hata sa-telah masak-lah sakalian nasi gulai lauk-pauk, hari-pun
hampir-lah akan petang; dan sakalian jemputan-pun datang-lah pula
lalu naik ka-rumah dudok beratur masing-masing. Maka hidanganpun di-angkat orang-lah: yang pertama dalong, ya-itu kepala arwah
nama-nya, serta satu pinggan asahan yang telah berisi dengan nasi
minyak dan ayam bulat di-tanam di-dalam-nya. Telah mustaed sakalian itu maka bapa laki-laki dengan bapa perempuan-pun keluarlah kedua berbisan, membawa suatu tepak sireh arwah dan sa-buyong
ayer arwah juga, dengan suatu perasapan, datang mendapatkan tuan
imam atau khatib dan Iain-lain pegawai, seraya berjabat tangan, lalu
berkata, ' Sahaya ini ada berhajat tuan hendak arwahkan nasi minyak
akan Rasul Allah, saH'allahu alaihi wa's-salam.'
Maka tepak sireh dan perasapan itu-pun di-sorongkan-nya kapada
tuan imam itu. Maka segera-lah di-sambut oleh tuan imam dengan
beberapa hormat-nya, serta ia membacha doa arwah dan tolak-bala,
dengan doa selamat lepas hidangan-pun; baharu-lah di-angkat orang
pula akan makanan mereka-itu sakalian. Masing-masing-pun lalu
basoh tangan seraya makan-lah. Sa-ketika makan, lalu-lah sudah;
sakalian-pun kembali-lah ka-rumah-nya.
Arakian tersebut-lah pula kesah ibu bapa laki-laki dan perempuan
itu telah sudah daripada menjamu itu dan khanduri itu, maka iapun bersiap-lah hendak membawa anak dan menantu-nya ka-sungai,
76
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
ya-itu dengan To' Bidan juga. Telah mustaed sakalian-nya, maka

masing-masing-pun berjalan-lah pergi ka-sungai, serta sa-puloh limabelas orang yang lain bersama-sama pula membawakan perkakas alatan
bagi pekerjaan itu. Apabila sampai ka-sungai, maka To' Bidan-pun
tampil-lah mengambil berteh beras kunyit beras basah ; lalu di-jampinya dan di-taburkan ka-dalam ayer. Lepas itu di-perehekkan pula
dengan ayer tepong tawar ka-dalam ayer itu j u g a ; dan kemenyan berjampi-pun di-bakar jua. Maka kedua laki isteri yang hendak mandi
itu-pun di-surohkan pada suatu tempat di-tepi sungai itu, langsong dimandikan kedua-nya. Sudah mandi bersuchi itu, di-bentangkan pula
kain puteh di-atas kepala-nya, kedua di-jiruskan ayer tolak bala dan
doa selamat. Maka mandi ini-pun berbunga ayer mandi juga, daripada daun nyior jua. Dan pada masa mandi itu di-permainkan bunga
seperti yang tersebut pada fasal kahwin ; mereka-itu telah tiga kali dipusing-pusingkan serta di-kirai-kiraikan oleh To' Bidan.
H a t a lepas itu, kain puteh itu-pun lalu di-berikan pada To' Bidan.
Kemudian Bidan-pun memasang benang pelulut pada kedua-nya lalu
di-alin pada suatu chermin muka, di-buboh dua batang dian yang
sudah di-pasangkan api-nya ka-muka mereka-itu kedua, tiga kali dikelilingkan; maka kedua-nya di-suroh oleh To' Bidan pandang tepattepat kapada chermin itu, dan jangan di-pandang serong takut juling
anak-nya kelak konon. Sudah selesai daripada itu To' Bidan-pun
lalu-lah membawa naik kedua mereka-itu ka-rumah; lalu di-dudokkan
kedua di-atas hamparan yang mulia bersanding juga keadaan-nya.
Ada-pun mandi itu mandi bangkar nama-nya; jika tiada di-perbuat
yang demikian menjadi kemaluan sangat-lah pada ibu bapa antara
kedua-nya. Arakian maka segala perkakas istiadat orang menempahpun sudah-lah di-sediakan oleh ibu bapa mereka-itu, ya-itu rempahrempah, garam, asam, lada china kering, lada hitam dua-belas macham,
di-bubohkan ka-dalam talam; beras sa-chupak, kundur sa-biji, damar
sa-batang, ayam sa-ekur dan tepak sireh satu. Telah mustaed sakaliannya, maka ibu laki-laki dan perempuan-pun dudok-lah menghadapi
To' Bidan dan To' Pawang seraya menyorongkan tepak sireh dengan
segala perkakas yang tersebut tadi serta duit kadar sa-jampal (50 sen),
ada yang sa-tengah tiada berduit-pun jadi juga, karna masing-masing
dengan resam kesukaan hati-nya To' Bidan itu, seraya berkata-lah
kedua-nya kapada To' Bidan itu ' ini-lah To' Bidan dan To' Pawang
sireh sahaya menempahkan anak sahaya ini atas mana-mana kadar
yang hadzir sahaja akan menjadi tanda pertarohan diri anak sahaya
pertama-tama kapada Allah, wabaadahu Rasul-nya, yang ketiga To'
APPENDICES,
77
Bidan-lah sahaya harapkan membela pelihara anak sahaya kedua ini

pada masa waktu ia hendak bersalin kelak; maka apabila sakit anak
sahaya ini hendak bersalin waktu siang atau tengah malam dinihari
ada-lah penyuroh sahaya akan menjemput To' Bidan dengan To' Pawang, pada masa itu harap-lah sahaya akan To' Bidan dan To' Pawang
kedua-nya bersama-sama silakan ka-mari pada menghadapi sakit anak
sahaya ini.'
Hata sa-telah di-dengar oleh To' Bidan dan Pawang kedua-nya
akan perkataan ibu bapa laki-laki dan perempuan itu maka ia-pun
segera-lah menyambut tepak sireh itu seraya berkata pula kata-nya:
" Insha'llah taala berkat mujizat Rasul Allah sireh ini sahaya terima-lah serta dengan sakalian-nya; jikalau tiada apa-apa aral sahaya
sakit mati, ada-lah sahaya datang mengadapi anak enche' sakit kelak;
dan jikalau sahaya sakit pening atau mati, silakan-lah enche' menchari bidan yang lain pula. Dan Pawang-pun demikian juga katanya; melainkan sama-sama-lah kita berserah kapada Allah dan
Rasul-nya. Sa-boleh-boleh-nya minta peliharakan daripada bahaya
pelayaran perempuan ini mohonkan selamat sejahtera, jangan-lah apaapa kesusahan-nya." Maka To' Bidan itu-pun lalu-lah mengambil
bekas sireh itu dengan isi-isi-nya itu di-tiarapkan ka-atas tikar berturut-turut, menyudi isharat petua-nya. Maka jikalau masa ditiarapkan-nya ka-tikar itu, habis semua-nya perkakasan itu bergugur
ka-tikar, tiada tinggal di-dalam bekas sireh itu : alamat-nya masa beranak kelak suatu-pun tiada bertinggalan; uri besar dan uri kechil
bersama-sama jadi dengan budak itu dengan selamat-nya. Dan
jikalau masa di-tiarapkan bekas sireh itu ka-tikar, ada bertinggal perkakasan sireh-sireh itu daripada salah suatu di-dalam tepak itu : maka
alamat kapada petua-nya masa beranak kelak ada-lah kesusahan
sadikit ada bertinggalan uri kechil tiada-lah bersama-sama jadi dengan
budak itu.
Arakian sa-telah sudah yang demikian itu ibu bapa laki-laki dan
ibu bapa perempuan itu-pun memberi suatu talam hidangan nasi dan
nasi kunyit dengan sa-chukup-nya, kapada To' Bidan sa-talam dan
To' Pawang sa-talam. Maka sa-ketika lagi hari-pun petang-lah.
Maka To' Bidan dan To' Pawang itu-pun kembali-lah masing-masing
ka-rumah-nya. Maka sakalian-pun kembali-lah ka-rumah-nya. Maka
tinggal-lah ibu bapa laki-laki dan ibu bapa perempuan makan minum
bersukaan di-situ.
Sa-telah datang keesokan hari-nya, ibu bapa laki-laki itu-pun
berkhabar kapada isteri-nya hendak kembali ka-rumah-nya. Telah
78
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
di-benarkan oleh ibu bapa perempuan itu, maka masing-masing-pun

kembali-lah ka-rumah-nya sementara menanti chukup bilangan genap
bulan menantu-nya, seinbilan bulan atau sa-puloh bulan akan sakit
bersalin itu; barang apa-apa idam-idaman hendak di-makan-nya,
sa-telah di-charikan-nya masing-masing di-berikan-nya kapada menantu-nya itu. Maka budak perempuan yang bamil itu-pun tiap-tiap
jumaat di-suroh oleh Bidan berlimau bersuchi diri-nya. Maka ayer
hujong rambut-nya di-suroh minum supaya jangan serat ia beranak
kelak, yaani jangan kesusahan masa budak hendak keluar. Maka didalam hal yang demikian itu laki perempuan itu-pun bersiap-lah
akan kayu api pediang-nya tiga atau empat ratus kerat ya-itu kayu
yang baik seperti ehenderi atau halban di-buang kulit di-jemurkan
perkakas sa-kadar menanti ketika perempuan itu hendak beranak
sahaja. Maka laki-laki itu-pun habis bertaroh sireh itu, tiada-lah
berchukur-chukur lagi pantang konon jikalau berehukur takut putus
uri isteri-nya beranak kelak. Maka demikian-lah peraturan orang
kebanyakan; adat-nya bertaroh sireh resam yang daripada zaman
dahulu-kala, ada-nya.
Kalakian bab peri menyatakan adat mereka-itu sakit hendak
beranak dan pantang-pantang beranak itu. Sa-bermula maka telah
genap-lah bulan-nya perempuan itu sembilan bulan atau sa-puloh
bulan, maka ia-pun sakit-lah merenyai-renyai yaani sakit sa-dikit
sa-dikit sahaja. Maka ibu bapa laki-laki dan waris-waris-nya, serta
ibu bapa perempuan dan waris-waris-nya, serta pula Iain-lain orang
datang-lah berhimpun ka-situ hendak mengadapi sakit itu. Maka
ada yang sa-tengah mereka-itu mengangkut ayer di-buboh ka-dalam
pasu, dan ada yang sa-tengah menehari daun kayu rabun seperti
daun kunyit terus dan duri mengkuang dan duri bulang. Hata saketika lagi mereka-itu-pun pergi-lah mengambil Bidan dan Pawang.
Maka sa-ketika lagi ia kedua-pun datang-lah ka-rumah itu. Maka
Pawang-pun lalu-lah membuka tanah, mana-mana tempat yang baik
bumi yang mahu menanggong kertau tempat beranak itu, di-jampinya kapada sa-belah parang puting atau mata beliong, lalu-lah dijatohkan-nya kapada bumi itu; maka parang atau mata beliong itupun jatoh-lah terchachak di-atas tanah itu. Maka kapada petua
mahu-lah bumi itu menanggong kertau. Maka di-suroh oleh Pawang
itu taroh duri mengkuang dan duri bulang di-tempat itu akan jadi
tangkal sakalian shaitan, dan di-suroh-nya pula gantong jala di-buboh
gambar orang segala itu serta pula daun terong asam; kemudian
di-gantong-pula suatu rotan yang berlengkar yang sudah berlilit kain
APPENDICES.
79
ya-itu tali agas nama-nya akan tempat orang yang hendak beranak
itu berpaut. Hata sa-telah mustaed sakalian-nya, maka To' Bidan itupun lalu-lah membawa orang yang hendak beranak ka-tempat itu.
Maka ibu bapa perempuan dan ibu bapa laki-laki itu-pun serta sakalian orang perempuan yang lain-lain-nya-pun datang-lah berhimpun
berkeliling dudok di-situ. Arakian sa-ketika lagi budak perempuan
itu-pun makin bertambah-tambah-lah sakit datang resa-nya bertimpatimpa sahaja. Maka sa-ketika lagi lalu-lah menchelakan, yaani maka
Bidan-pun menyuroh teran yaani menolak budak itu ka-bawah.
Maka To' Pawang-pun lalu-lah segera menjampi hujong rambut
perempuan itu. Maka tatkala itu datang-lah sa-orang perempuan
menolak ka-bawah. Maka bidan itu-pun berkata: " teran-teran
segera kuat-kuat." Maka lalu-lah di-kuat oleh orang yang menurut
itu. Hata maka dengan takdir Allah taala budak itu-pun keluar-lah
daripada perut ibu-nya dzahir ka-dalam dunia dengan selamat-nya;
lalu-lah segera di-sambut oleh Bidan-nya. Maka keluar sa-kali dengan
uri tembuni-nya: ada kala-nya budak sahaja keluar, tinggal uri
tembuni-nya, maka Bidan itu-lah pula mengurut serta menolakkan
keluar, maka baharu-lah keluar uri tembuni itu; maka ada kala-nya
sampai sa-hari sa-malam tiada keluar uri tembuni itu, maka lalu-lah
di-tempang oleh Bidan itu yaani di-kerat pusat budak itu, maka hujong
pusat itu di-ikat Bidan kapada paha perempuan itu. Maka machammacham ubat di-beri minum: minyak yang sudah di-jampi-nya.
Maka dengan takdir Allah taala habis lepas semua-nya. Hata budak
itu-pun menangis-lah. Maka baharu-lah di-kerat pusat oleh Bidan
itu, tujoh tebu ikat pusat-nya; jikalau kanak-kanak itu laki-laki
pengerat pusat sembilu buloh di-buat seperti bangun golok, dan
jikalau perempuan budak itu, pengerat pusat sembilu buloh juga dibuat seperti bangun chandong.
B.
MALAY LULLABIES.
THE
FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE DONDANO

FATIMAH OR "LULLABY OF OUR LADY FATIMAH."
SITI
Barang-siapa berpadi emping,

Padi emping huma di-tengah ;
Barang-siapa berhati mumin,
Hati yang mumin istana Allah.
So
PAPERS ON
MALAY SUBJECTS.
Padi emping huma di-tengah,

Geliga di-puncha kain;
Hati yang munmin istana Allah,
Masok shurga jannatu'n-naim.
Geliga di-puncha kain,
Orang bertanak di-bawah sentul;
Masok shurga jannatu'n-naim,
Ini-lah anak baginda Rasul.
Orang bertanak di-bawah sentul,
Cherana berisi timah;
Ini-lah anak baginda Rasul,
Yang bernama Siti Fatimah.
Cherana berisi timah,
Timah di-tempa si-Undang;
Yang bernama Siti Fatimah,
Dia yang pandai mengarang.
Timah di-tempa si-Undang,
Puchok kundur asam-nya kandis ;
Dia yang pandai mengarang,
Budak yang tidur, jangan menangis
Puchok kundur asam-nya kandis,
Pina-pina jalan ka-huma;
Budak yang tidur jangan menangis,
Fatimah tengah mengarang bunga.
Pina-pina jalan ka-huma,
Orang bergolok di-dalam padi;
Fatimah tengah mengarang bunga,
Mengisi tengkolok baginda Ali.
Orang bergolok di-dalam padi,
Pisau penyadap di-hujong galah ;
Isi tengkolok baginda Ali,
Hendak mengadap Rasul Allah.
Pisau penyadap di-hujong galah ,
Minta sadapkan umbi akar ;
Hendak mengadap Rasul Allah ,
Hendak meminta akan Dzu'l-fikar .
APPENDICES.
81
Another of these lullabies runs as follows:

Ratib rantau melawan tandang,
Di-sabong orang di-kedai China;
Igau rantau tiada di-pandang,
Laksana sudah terkena guna.
Berempat tidur di-pentas,
Berlima dengan guru-nya;
Laksana dawat dengan kertas,
Ketiga-nya kalam akan judu-nya.
Junjong perak gemala ganti,
Sauh di-laboh nakhoda-nya;
Jauh di-mata ingat di-hati,
Anak di-kawal ayah bonda-nya.
Tikar puchok tikar mengkuang,
Tempat dudok raja Melayu ;
Ikan busok jangan di-buang,
Buat perenchah dann kayu.
Anak itek mati-nya lemas,
Di-sembeleh orang dengan sikin-nya ;
Hilang bangsa karna mas,
Hilang budi karna miskin-nya.
The following Perak lullaby for royal babies is however by far the
most interesting owing to its historical allusions:
Bunga merah tinggi di-tambak,
Tambak berukir taman berawan ;
Seri Sultan Raja Perak,
Asal Iskandar Nushirwan.
Bunga merah banyak di-taman,
Smiting dayang masok ka-dalam ;
Di-Makkah Nabi Akhir-zaman,
Di-Johor Mahkota Alain.
82
Dari Tanjong mudek ka-Bota,

Singgah berhenti di-Berahmana;
Tuan di-junjong jadi mahkota,
Menjunjong sipat dengan sempurna.
Berahmana tebing-nya tinggi,
Pulau di-tengah pasir-nya halus ;
Tuan laksana mas pelangi,
Derja di-tentang badan akan haus.
Balai besar beratap kajang,
Istana di-selat di-sabelah k i r i ;
Entahkan mati gerangan abang,
Ka-mana lagi membawa diri.
Zaman raja di-Berahmana,
Gajah di-chelong di-bawah b u k i t ;
Jikalau ada tuan berguna,
Mohonkan tolong badan yang sakit.
Tetak sa-ranting buatkan golek,
Hendak menuba sungai Buiman ;
Engku bertentang adek beradek,
Laksana bunga kembang sa-taman.
Hendak menuba sungai Buiman,
Singgah bermalam di-rotan getah:
Raja ini raja beriman,
Sa-isi alam menjunjong titah.
Singgah bermalam di-rotan getah,
Pagi-pagi buka p u a s a ;
Kaja ini raja beriman,
Daulat-nya terdiri senentiasa.
C.
CIECUMCISION.
Maka budak itu-pun di-naikkan oleh mudin itu ka-atas batang
pisang atau ka-atas karong. Maka sepit-nya-pun lalu-lah segera dikenakan oleh To' Mudin kapada dzakar-nya itu tang sudah di-pumpun-
APPENDICES.
83
kan kulit-nya itu tiada terkena kapada isi-nya. Maka kepala budak
itu di-chongakkan oleh orang tua-tua, tiada di-beri ia memandang-nya
lagi. Hata sa-telah sudah yang demikian itu, maka To' Mudin itupun segera-lah mengajar menguchap dua kalimah shahadat. Maka
budak itu-pun mengikut-lah seperti pengajar mudin itu. Maka lepas
itu mudin itu berkata pula: " Halalkan darah kamu dunia akhirat."
Maka jawab budak itu: " Halal dunia akhirat." Maka mudin itu-pun
segera-lah menampar paha budak itu tiga kali berturut-turut; maka
lalu-lah segera di-keratkan-nya. Maka sa-telah sudah putus itu,
maka luka-nya itu-pun baharu-lah di-tasakkan oleh To Mudin itu
dengan ubat-nya yang berchampur dengan gula puteh, kertas api,
minyak nyiur, atau daging. Maka ubat itu-pun di-bubohkan di-atas
puchok daun pisang yang sudah berlayur, lalu-lah di-balutkan kapada
luka itu. Sa-telah sudah maka budak itu-pun di-angkatkan perlahanlahan ka-tempat tikar bantal-nya, tang sudah di-sediakan di-buboh
puchok pisang berlayur dan di-buboh pula abu; jikalau sa-kira-nya
turun darah kelak tiada-lah kena titek itu. Dan serta pula budak
itu di-beri memakai kain puteh lepas panjang lima hasta dan sa-helai
kain batek akan jadi punjut-nya supaya kesenangan ia tidur.
Maka sa-ketika lagi lepas berkhatan itu hari-pun malam-lah.
Maka bapa kanak-kanak itu dengan kaum keluarga-nya pun berjagalah melayan budak itu jangan tidur lesak ka-sana ka-mari; di-pegangkan paha-nya. Maka budak itu-pun tidur-lah bersandar dengan
bantal perlahan-lahan. Maka jikalau sa-kira-nya tiada orang jaga
memegangkan paha budak itu, maka di-bubohkan oleh mudin sengkang di-tambatkan kapada paha budak itu kanan dan kiri sa-belah
menyabelah.
Hata datang keesokan hari-nya, maka mudin itu-pun menyuroh
siapkan ayer hangat daun mersapat hendak di-tanggalkan kundang
budak itu. Maka lalu-lah di-bawa-nya turun ka-ayer perlahan-lahan
serta di-basoh dengan ayer sejok. Telah sudah di-buboh tangkal
pemantan terap berpintal itu, maka budak itu-pun di-mandikan,
langsong di-bawa-lah naik ka-rumah, langsong di-basoh luka itu
dengan ayer hangat itu di-persuchikan di-buboh pula ubat. Maka
budak itu-pun lalu-lah di-beri oleh ibu bapa-nya makan di-atas
pinggan berlapek dengan daun pisang yang sudah berlayur dengan
lauk-nya ikan daing atau daging kerbau itu sahaja yang boleh. Maka
makan itu tiada-lah boleh be.rtambah sa-kali-kali, takut lambat baik.
Maka sebab beralas pinggan itu dengan daun pisang takut luka itu
kelak sopak yaani puteh.
84
Maka bapa budak itu segera-lah memberi upah khatan itu kapada
mudin-nya, satu ringgit atau lebeh. Maka mudin itu-pun segera-lah
kembali ka-tempat-nya; maka tinggal-lah budak itu di-dalam bela
pelihara ibu bapa-nya.
D.
BETROTHAL
VERSES.
The following is the short series of verses referred to on page 2 4 :

Dari P a u h ka-Permatang,
Tetak tengar papan kemudi;
Dari jauh sahaya datang,
Dengar tuan yang baik budi.
Tatang puan tatang cherana,
Tatang bidok Seri R a m a ;
Datang tuan, datang-lah nyawa,
Datang dudok bersama-sama.
Orang mengambil siput di-lobok,
Ayer-nya dalam banyak lintah ;
Datang membaik atap yang tembok,
Hendak mengganti lantai yang patah.
Rimba di-bakar menanam padi,
Makan berhulam buah-nya p e t a i ;
Jikalau sudah tulus dan sudi,
Berbantalkan bendul, bertikarkan lantai.
But there are many other sets of such verses; cf. Skeat, " Malay
Magic," pp. 367, 368; and Snouck Hurgronje, " Achehnese," Vol. I.,
pp. 313-315.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States.")
R.
J.
WILKINSON,
F.M.S.
Cicil
Service
General Editor.
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS.
P A R T II.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MALAY LIFE.

KAMPONG.
THE HOUSE.
DRESS.
FURNITURE.
FOOD.
BY
F.M.S Civil Service.
PREFACE.
IN preparing this pamphlet I have to thank Messrs. Hale
and H. C. Robinson and Raja Said Tauphy for reading
several chapters and pointing out omissions; Mr. R. J.
Wilkinson, for many invaluable suggestions and for
allowing me to use in appendix an account of the Perak
regalia kindly communicated to him by H.H. the Sultan;
Mr. A. J. Sturrock, for a long account of Pahang costume
and court ceremony. By the kindness of the General
Editor I have also been privileged to read an account of
Patani wedding ceremony and dress taken down by
Mr. Berkeley, which would apparently show that there
is little, though essential, difference between the dress
and jewellery there adopted and the dress and jewellery
of the States that have inherited Malacca tradition; but
only inspection of the articles worn in Patani could
enable one to speak with authority on the matter. I
have to thank Abdulhamid, a Malay Writer in the Perak
Secretariat, for much patient assistance; and, above all,
Raja Haji Yahya, Penghulu now of Kota Setia, without
whose profound repertory of lore and unflagging industry in writing it down this pamphlet would probably
have been hardly more than a compilation from previous
accounts, and whose information, however carefully
tested by comparative investigation, I have never in one
single instance found inaccurate or at fault. The
harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few, and it will
be something if these pages shall merely evoke articles
on the wedding costume of Sri Menanti and Alur Star,
the carving of Patani and Sungai Ujong. More might
have been written on house-building, silver work and so
on, but they are topics which I am handling at length in
a pamphlet on Arts and Crafts.
R. 0. WINSTEDT.
MATANG,
PERAK.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS.
THE KAMPONG.
HE word kampong has come to bear two meanings:

it is used of a collection of houses, in which sense
it has given its name to villages throughout the Peninsula, or of a single house and enclosure. Marsden
speaks of Sumatran villages with " rows of houses
forming a quadrangle, . . . in the middle of the square
a town-hall" ;1 Crawfurd mentions " assemblages of
dwellings constantly surrounded by quickset hedges " ;
Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, writing of the Achinese kampong,
describes " villages surrounded by a fence of their own
and connected by a gate with the main road," and
surmises that " in former times each kampong comprised
a tribe or family, or sub-division of one, which added to
its numbers only by marriages within its own enclosure
or at most with the women of neighbouring fellowtribesmen." Probably a trace of these enclosed villages
survives in the Peninsula in the wide enclosures of rajas,
containing not only the palace but the houses and huts
of retainers and in the centre a hall of general audience;
and it is noteworthy that the fence which encircles
such yards in native States is generally built of wattled
bamboo, such as we find in one of the most primitive
types of Malay house. But even this trace is vanishing.
Apart from that possible survival of a fenced
territorial unit, the kampong of the Peninsula is unconfined and straggling, and it is hardly exaggeration to
1
Mr. Boden Kloss tells me " Trengganu town is built with steets running
at right-angles; the squares thus left, each a separate kampong, being enclosed
with high woven bamboo fences."
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
say that the Malay village growsan organism like the

jungle at its doors. " A path not six feet wide, here a
bridge of logs there a slough, dirty, obstructed by
thickets and trees; twisting and winding like a snake
that is beaten. Compounds and houses without order
Or arrangement, just as their owners liked to build them,
some unfenced, some with fences zigzag; about and
underneath the houses rubbish and damp filth and stores
of coconut husk for smoking the mosquitoes. None of
the houses facing the same way; some fronting the
path, others running parallel to it, others with their
backs to it." Thus of the East Coast in 1835 Munshi
Abdullah, supercilious, from Singapore, a. steadfast
sitter at the feet of utilitarian Europeans. But, despite
high-roads, his description is a faithful picture of most
villages in the Peninsula to-day; and broad native
theories, as that Perak houses always face the river
and Kedah houses are built according to the points
of the compass, mean little more than that if there
is a river the chances are the peasant will prefer his
"louse to face it, and if there is not he will avoid constructing a house on which the sun shall fall directly.
The only recorded instance of an attempt at order under
Malay rule was in Malacca, a cosmopolitan town, and in
the foreign quarter. " It was the custom of all the
young gentlemen of the household," we read in the
" Malay Annals," " when they wanted money, to go and
represent to the Bendahara that the market-place in
their quarter of the town was not placed even, and
had a great many shops irregularly projecting, and that
it wrould be proper to adjust it; for would not His
Highness be in a great passion if he should pass by and
see ? ' Well then,' said Tun Hassan, ' go all of you with
LIFE AND CUSTOMS :
THE KAMPONG.
a surveyor and make it even by the chain.' The young

gentlemen would go, and where they saw the houses of
the richest merchants, there would they extend the
chain and order the houses to be pulled down. Then
the merchants who were the proprietors of the ground
vould offer them money, some a hundred, some fifty
and some ten dollars. Such was the practice of the
young gentlemen, who would divide the money with the
surveyor and adjust the chain correctly and order the
houses out of line to be destroyed! "
Most often there is no fence about the compound, or
the boundary is marked by a row of pineapple plants or
betel palms. Sometimes the prickly dedap is planted or,
rarely, the fine bamboo. Whether there is a fence or
not will depend on the rank of the owner, on his industry,
on the nature of his cultivation and the proximity of pig,
deer, goats and buffaloes. In the north a rough fence is
sometimes constructed by piling up brushwood between
a couple of crossed sticks or poles. Of artificial fences
the most usual are the rail fence of round bamboo
or timber, or a stout wattled fence 1 of bamboos, as
Marsden has accurately described them "opened and
rendered flat by notching or splitting the circular joints
on the outside, clipping away the corresponding divisions
within and laying them to dry in the sun pressed down
with weights." 2 " A t times," writes Major McNair in
"Sarong and Kris," speaking particularly of the home 3
of the Mantri of Larut at Bukit Gantang in Perak, " at
times these fences are so strong that they will throw off
a musket ball; and those not acquainted with the
country have taken them for the stockades used by
Malays in time of war. Sometimes they are merely
1
Pagar sasak.
Pelu poh,
Built by a Patani man.
placed round the base of a house itself, thus enclosing

the open part between the posts through which an enemy
could otherwise make his way." Such fences, however,
would be found mainly about the houses of chiefs,
according to that root principle of Malay politics to
which Munshi Abdullah so often adverts. "Under
Malay rule men were afraid to build stone houses, or
gilded boats, or to wear fine clothes and shoes and
umbrellas, or to keep fine furniture, because all these
were the peculiar perquisites of the raja class." Even
under the democratic Menangkabau constitution it was
apparently not permitted ; and we find the Yam-Tuan of
Negri Sembilan, not two decades ago. by published order
forbidding the peasant to arrange his house similarly
to the royal hall at Pagar Ruyong, which, according to the
ancient custom of Menangkabau, had " arched-roof lychgates; with the exception of persons who are permitted
by the raja or penghulu"
It is not unusual to find an
insignificant raja or saiyid with a tiny palm-roof lychgate at the entrance to a very poor demesne, a harmless
make-believe of importance in these days when every
leech can play the serpent. To most fences there will
be no gate at all, or just a gate of bamboo, by an ingenious
trap-like arrangement of rattans made to swing back
and close automatically. In times of infectious sickness
a rattan, 1 like that used by Hindus, hung with twisted
palm-leaf streamers, will be stretched across the entrance
to warn passers not to visit. And in front of the neighbouring compounds may be seen a bamboo stick with
cotton streamer (such as Malays and Chinese place before
sacred trees and stones), a humble hint to the malignant
spirit of disease to be kind and pass on his way.
1
Gawai-gawoi.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
THE
KAMPONG.
In the older settlements, compounds will be planted

with a fine variety of fruit-treesmangosteen, rambutan,
chiku and so on. Hamilton, writing of Malacca at
the end of the seventeenth century, notes " several
excellent fruits and roots for the use of the inhabitants
and strangers who call there for refreshment. The
Malacca pineapple is accounted the best in the world,
for in other parts, if they are eaten to a small excess
they are apt to give surfeits, but those of Malacca
never offend the stomach. The mangostane is a
delicious fruit, almost in the shape of an apple;
the skin is thick and red, being dried it is a good
astringent; the kernels (if I may so call them) are like
cloves of garlick, of a very agreeable taste but very
cold. The rambostan is a fruit about the bigness of a
walnut, with a tough skin, beset with capillaments;
within the skin is a very savoury pulp. The durean is
another very excellent fruit, offensive to some people's
noses, but when once tasted the smell vanishes; the
skin is thick and yellow, and within is a pulp like
thick cream in colour and consistence but more delicious
in taste. They have coconuts in plenty and some grow
in marishes that are overflown with the sea in spring
tides. They have also plenty of lemons, oranges, limes,
sugar-canes and mangoes. They have a species of mango
called by the Dutch a stinker, which is very offensive
both to the smell and taste, and consequently of little
use." This were a good picture of the better kampong
to-day, but though in alienating native holdings land
officers now stipulate for so many fruit trees of economic
value to the acre, still in remote up-land places they have
often nothing more permanent than maize, bananas,
sugar-cane, pumpkins, yams.
Immediately in front of a house is a small open space

skirted perhaps with minor vegetation, with chillies, herbs
and sometimes a few straggling flowers or an hibiscus
tree or variegated medicinal shrubs. There may be a
well, or perhaps twoone for drinking, one for washing
fenced or not with palm-thatching or wicker-work, a
sarong slung over it as a sign of occupation, a bucket folded
of palm-spathe at hand. But river, if river be near, will
serve for washing and drinking. There will be a floating
bathing-house and latrine combined, covered or roofless.
Water will be carried home in hollow bamboos 2 or perhaps
conveyed by a neat contrivance of hollow bamboo pipes 3
and rattan lines. Bamboo is indispensable to the
peasant's hand: sometimes a large bamboo laid lengthwise across forked props and bored with holes will
provide a shower-bath ; handy against a tree will be the
tall bamboo with which fruit is cut or jerked off the trees;
and there are nearly always to be found one" or more
bamboo shelves on stilts, where fruit and drinks are set
for sale and clothes hung to dry.
Unless they find accommodation under the house,
thatched sheds will cover, according to locality, the beam
mortar 4 wherewith the rice is husked, a wooden coffeecrusher, a sugar furnace; and another larger shed,5 raised
like the dwelling-house on posts, will contain the huge
round bark rice-tun.6 If the owner be a neat-herd and
the district infested with tigers, a hut, raised some dozen
feet or more off the ground and approached by a ladder
consisting of one nibong palm trunk, will afford lofty
security to his goats. Perhaps he is religious and lives
up-country where mosques are far; he will build a small
1
Halaman.
2 Tabong oyer.
5 Kepok, berembong.
3 Panchur.
6 Kembong.
Lesong.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
THE
K AM PONG.
private chapel,1 thatched and barn-like, in his garden.

Perhaps his daughter is about to be married or has just
been wedded; there may be, separate from the house, a
temporary hall for the reception of guests. Or the place
may be ancestral property with long mounds under the
trees, the graves of its dead owners, and with the shell
of an older house standing dilapidated, unoccupied, at
best a store for nets and nooses. " Whenever a Malay
has occasion to build a new house," writes Newbold, " he
leaves the old one standing; to pull it down is considered
unlucky, as also to repair any house that has been seriously
damaged." The superstition is moribund or even dead,
but the indolent practice has survived.
The compound of a chief may be graced with a
summer-house; and that of a ruling raja with a bandstand 2 fenced, in Perak, at time of occupation, with a
magic string of fowl's feathers, which not even members
of the royal house may pass without payment of a fine
of twenty-five dollars to the musicians.
Goats, dogs, fowl, geese, ducks, cats, the amusing
wa-wa, the useful beroh trained to climb and pluck coconuts, pet-birds of many kinds, from the gray dismal heron
of the coast to the plaintive ground dove or the fierce
parroquet, are all to be found; poultry seldom in excess
of the household needs. When the prince of romance
enters the palace yard, always
" Decoy cock crows and strains his tether,
Crows the fighting cock in chorus,
The ring-dove coos three notes of welcome."
The pet bird will be caged and hung by the roofed

house-ladder,or in the verandah, or on the top of a post;
1
Suruu.
'2 Balai angkat-angkat.
pigeons and doves will flutter in the court-yard or their

cotes. Buffaloes and cows have their separate stalls.
But many kinds of buffaloes1 even were " k o r b a n " to
rajadom of yore.
As for the space under, the house,2 it is generally
devoted to an olla-podrida of filthiness. Sometimes a
cow or a pony are tied to the house-post. We read in the
"Sejarah Melayu" how Raja Zainal, the brother of Sultan
Mahmud Shah, "had a horse named, 'the Skiddler,' of
which he was extremely fond, and which he stabled hard
by his sleeping apartment and emptied a lower room
for that purpose, and twice or thrice in a night he would
go and see him! " All the small live stock inhabit the
shady recesses: the poultry confined at night on an
enclosed shelf under creels. To add variety to the
nastiness, kitchen refuse is thrown from above, and
there is a hole cut in the floor of the back verandah to
serve as a latrine for children and sick elders! For the
rest Dr. Snouck Hurgronje has well summarised its
contents: " The see-saw rice-pounder for husking rice,
the kepok a space between four or six posts separated
off by a partition of plaited coconut leaves or similar
material thrown round the posts, in which the newly
harvested rice is kept till threshed and threshing itself
takes place, the great tun-shaped barrels made of the
bark of trees or plaited bamboo or rattan wherein is
kept the unhusked rice after threshing, the press for
extracting the oil from decayed coconuts, and a bamboo
or wooden rack on which lies the firewood cleft by the
women, these are the principal inanimate objects to be
met with." In addition, fishing traps, snares, agricultural
tools, stacks of ataps all find room. And in the day1
See Appendix I.
2 Bawah rumah : Kelong.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
THE HOUSE.
time women will squat there at household duties, shaded

from the sun, perhaps a cradle within reach swinging
from the joists of the floor.
THE HOUSE.
The Malay house bears many marks of complex

origin. Merely to guess at the earliest influences that
went to shape it would require wide comparative
study not only of philology but of material and design.
As well attempt to trace to their origin the primitive
animistic ceremonies performed by builders to propitiate
the spirits of the soil; the customs common throughout
the Archipelago (as in Burma) of covering the top of the
centre pillars with pieces of white and red cloth to
ward oft' evil spirits; the superstitions collected by Sir
William Maxwell. " It is unlucky to place ladder or
steps which form the approach to a Malay house in such
a position that one of the main rafters of the roof is
exactly over the centre of them: quarrels or fighting in
the house will certainly be the result. . . . It is unlucky
to stand with arms resting on the steps of a ladder
going up to the house for the purpose of talking to one
of the inmates, because if a corpse is carried out of the
house there must be a man below in that position to
receive it: to assume this attitude unnecessarily therefore is to wish for a death in the family. In selecting
timber for the uprights of a Malay house, care must be
taken to reject any log which is indented by the pressure
of parasitic creeper that may have wound round it when
it was a living tree : a log so marked, if used in building
a house, will exercise unfavourable influence in childbirth, protracting delivery."
10
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
To what prehistoric civilisations are due the

grilled floor, the Avails of palm, of bark, of flattened
bamboo ? Probably the earliest historical description of
the Malay house is in the graphic Chinese account of
Malacca in the fifteenth century; and the Chinese
chronicler seems to have been struck most by the same
feature that has attracted the notice of modern travellers, " t h e perilous elastic gridiron" for a floor. " T h e
manners and customs of the people are pure and simple,"
he observes, "their houses are built rather high and
have no flooring of board, but at the height of about four
feet they make a floor of split coconut trees which are
fastened with rattan, just as if it were a pig-sty ; on this
floor they spread their beds and mats, on which they sit
cross-legged whilst they also eat sleep and cook here."
The high floor raised on piles is a feature that deserves
attention in view of a possible Indo-Chinese influence on
the Malay race. Colonel Yule long ago pointed out that
" the custom of erecting the village dwellings on bamboo
posts at various heights above the ground is very general
from the frontiers of Tibet to the islands of the Southern
Sea. Crawfurd, after mentioning that the Malays and
most of the people of Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes
build on piles, while the Javanese, Balinese and some
others build on the level of the ground, proceeds to say:
' The distinction has its origin in the different circumstances under which the two classes exist, and their
different state of society. The maritime tribes inhabit
the marshy banks of rivers and the sea-coast and for the
purposes of health their habitations must be raised from
the ground: the superior salubrity natural to the wellcultivated countries of the agricultural tribes renders
the precaution of building on posts unnecessary.' But
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
THE
HOUSE,
II
some curious facts seem to show that however the difference of practice may have originated, it has now got as
it were into the blood and may almost be regarded as a
test of race, having often no traceable relation to local
circumstances. The Bengali inhabits a marshy country;
his villages are for several months of the year almost
lacustrine; but 1 think I am right in saying that he
never builds on piles. On the other hand the IndoChinese tribes on his eastern border, as far as I have
seen them, all build on piles, though many of them
inhabit mountains in place of marshes
The
Burmese and Karens always raise their houses from the
earth, whether dwelling in high ground or low. Even in
Java, whilst the true Javanese builds on the ground,
the people of Sunda mountain districts, a different race,
raise their dwellings on posts."
Again, Raffles describes the Javanese house as
having " t h e sides of walls formed of bamboo flattened
and plaited together." Marsden writing of Sumatra
alludes only to walls of bark and of flattened bamboo.
Neither of these accurate observers mention two other
less primitive types which occur in the Peninsula: the
Avail of plank and the wall of cane wicker-work. 1 One
of them, the wall of carved plank, rough-hewu not sawn,
Marsden would certainly have described had he penetrated up-country in Sumatra. Wallace relates how,
Avhen he went inland from Palembang, he found " houses
built entirely of plank, always more or less ornamented
Avith carving and having high-pitched roofs and overhanging eaves, the gable ends and all the chief posts
and beams covered sometimes with exceedingly tasteful
carved work, which is still more the case in the district
1
Tepas berturup.
12
PAPERS ON
MALAY SUBJECTS.
of Menangkabau, further west." The carved plank

housethe roof concave, " like the swooping flight of
a hawk," with ridge-pole also concave and high at ends,
and gables not flush and parallel with the wall but projecting far out and sloping back like the wings of a bird 1
as they descendthis type occurs in the Negri Sembilan
and was introduced directly from Menangkabau. The
only other part of the Peninsula where Malay woodcarving is found is in Patani, and there we get carved
wooden gateways and the " kingfisher" keris-handle,
both decorated with apparently kindred foliated design.
Whence did Menangkabau acquire the art of carving ?
Malays look to Java :
" 'Bove the royal portal carving,
W o r k of craftsmen come from Java,
Flowers knit and interwoven,
Like grains of salt the beaded pattern,
Very like to life the carving,
Worms had ate the pictured blossoms.
But Java, apparently, has nothing quite of the same

nature to show, and why should Javanese influence have
made itself felt in isolated up-country Menangkabau and
not rather in Palembang and its colonies like Malacca V
The concave roof, modelled it is supposed on the slopes
of the tent,
" Ridge-pole curved like a writhing snake,
Painted red its carved top-angles,"
are certainly Indo-Chinese. Did carving come from the

same source? And have we in the Patani work confirmation of the philological surmise that Indo-Chinese
influence was once great in the north of the Peninsula
1
'Bersuyap layang-layang
Hikayat Awang Sulong Merah Muda.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
THE HOUSE.
13
and that the Malays swept down into the Archipelago

from the same region ?
Another feature which Malay buildings have in
common with those of Indo-China is the tiered roof. I t
is hardly a prominent feature in the Peninsula but
possibly the form of the village mosque may be a
survival, and, according to the traditional etiquette of
Perak, 1 the palaces of the Sultan, the Raja Muda and the
Bendahara alone may have roofs of two tiers, the houses
of lesser rajas and chiefs concave, and those of lesser
folk straight roof-slopes.
" W e find," said Colonel
Yule, " i n the public and religious architecture of the
more civilised nations of Indo-China and of the Archipelago a propensity to indicate importance and dignity
in timber palaces and places of worship by a multiplication of pitched roofs rising one over the other. In Java
this ensign of dignity has passed from heathen times to
Islam and marks the mosque in the principal villages.
There also, as applied to private or palatial residences,
the number of these roofs appropriate to each class is
regulated by inexorable custom, and precisely the same
is the case in Burma and Siam. No trace of such a system
remains, so far as I know, in India proper. Yet, judging
from the similar forms in Tibet and the Himalayas,
from the evident imitation of them in the stone temples
of Kashmir and from the sculptured cities in the basreliefs of Sanchi, I should guess that the custom was of
Indian origin."
Certain carved wooden quail-traps and designs in
paper at the back of the marriage dais exactly exhibit the
tiered roof with up-curving crockets found in Buddhist
wats, but Buddhism has left no mark on the buildings
1
Cf. Law 96 in " The Ninety-nine Laws of P e r a k " (Law Part I I in this series).
14
of the Peninsula, probably because Kedah the northern

State in which traces of an old Buddhist kingdom should
be sought, has no more permanent architecture to display
than that of the fine cane wicker already alluded to.
This, to be sure, shows simple workmanship of considerable merit; the gable ends of its houses elaborated into
patterns which are dubbed " the sun's rays," " the starfenced moon " ; the lower walls also having a variety of
patterns, " t h e bat's elbow," " the pumpkin," " t h e folded
blossom," or merely cross or zig-zag lattice: all picked
out and painted white and red, yellow and black. As we
have seen, the style would appear to have no parallel
in the Archipelago and the finest specimens are to be
found in the north of the Peninsula. There, too, in
Patani, we find another distinctive feature in a broad
gridiron platform at the head of the front house-ladder,
and a cluster of houses united thereby to the original
home.
The elementary ground-plan of a house is extremely
simple. It must contain a place for the reception of
visitors, a sleeping place and a place for cooking. In
houses of the poorest type these may be all under
one roof; the sleeping apartment curtained off perhaps
merely by a mosquito-curtain, the cooking place at
the back of the one room (as in Banjarese huts) or under
an extension of the eavesthat is, in the back verandah.
Out of this plan, apparently, the more elaborate types
have been evolved. The place for the reception of
visitors becomes a long closed front verandah, 1 a short
board balcony closed 2 or open 3 projecting at right
angles to the centre building on the same or a lower
level, or in the house of prince and chief becomes the
1
Serambi.
Anjong.
3 Beranda.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: THE HOUSE.
15
audience hall. The main building constitutes the sleeping

apartments and may or may not be cut up into rooms.
A closed back verandah may be added and becomes
the women's gallery. The kitchen is separated, behind
the house, or if close to the river, and by association of
ideas if away from it even, on the down-stream side from
simple sanitary logic; a raised outside platform tacked
directly on the house at a slightly lower level, open1 or
covered under a sloping pent-roof, when it is known as
pisang sa-sikat or sengkuap; or built at right-angles with a
double-roof, when it is called "the suckling elephant";
or,2 yet again, in palace and larger houses a separate
hut 3 joined by a covered or uncovered way.4 If extra
sleeping room is required, the unmarried girls occupy
an attic 5 reached by a ladder, situate between ceiling
and roof, lighted by a window in the gable end. Yet
again, if a daughter marries and more commodious
accommodation be required, the anjong may become
an annex of the house, built on to it generally from
the kitchen passage and forming another building
of equal size.6 The house is lighted in front (and
behind if at all) by a horizontal aperture running sometimes the whole length of the verandah, and level with
the head of a squatter on the floor; and there will be
the same aperture or taller barred windows at the sides
of the house.7
It is noteworthy that the Malay raja's audience hall,
like the cottage, has three divisions: the little hall
reserved for members of the family; the large for
ceremonya throne with a Sanskrit name in place of
the huge decorated bedstead that often adorns the
1
a
2
:i
Pelantaran.
Gojah menyusu.
Penanggah.
6
Para, payu (Mal.) peran.
Rumah sa-bandong.
7
Selasar; Selang.
Tingkap ibu rumah
16
central part of a chief's house; the front hall for the

common fry. Students of origins may wonder if there
are not here and in the marriage balai of common folk
survivals of a guest-house common in many primitive
communities and discernible in Acheen in the uses to
which is put the meunasah. Traces of Indian influence
are to be met everywhere in the raja's hall: in the Sanskrit names of a palace, its compartments, its furniture.
We find the central pillars, called the " r a j a " and the
" princess"; the tall assertive end-pillars reaching to
the roof-tree the " Maharaja Lela " after the Malay court
Malvolio; the pillars in mid hall the "expectant suppliants " ; the corner pillars, distant but important the
"eight viziers." Probably it was due to the same
influence that sumptuary laws forbade certain types of
house to commoners. In folk romance there is frequent
mention of an upper chamber sacred to the unmarried
hero or heroine:
" The fair silver'd upper chamber,
Roof'd with diamonds and glisters;
Every corner-post a bull's horn : "
and in the " code " of Raja Muhammad Shah, of Malacca,

common folk are prohibited from building houses " with
an alcove supported on flying pillars not reaching to the
ground or on pillars built up through the atop roof"
a survival, perhaps, of the dignity of the tiered roof.
Degrees of rank were also exhibited in the length of the
hall. The palace in the folk-romance of " Sri Rama " had
seven spaces between its pillars, that in " Awang Sulong "
nine, while the Malacca palace of Raja Mansur Shah
had seventeen ! In Perak there is supposed to have been
a very precise etiquette. "Formerly the Sultan of Perak's
palace had seven interspaces between the pillars, that
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
THE
HOUSE.
17
of the Raja Muda six, that of the Bendahara five, the

houses of lesser rajas and of great chiefs four, those of
the lesser chiefs and considerable commoners three, and
those of other folk two only. " The Malacca " codes "
give strict rules of precedence in hall. " W h e n e v e r the
raja gives audience in his hall of state the bendahara, the
chief treasurer, the temenggong, the viziers, chiefs and
eunuchs sit on the raised central platform, while all the
scions of royalty sit on the right and left of the hall and
the young eunuchs among the heralds in the passage.
The young captains sit in the side galleries; the select
sea captains from Champa have seats on the central
platform; and all the young nobles with no particular
occupation in the side galleries."
Besides Indian influence, there was also Chinese,
which directly invaded the Peninsula centuries ago, not
indeed an influence of the spirit but of material and
workmanship, to be found in sawn planks, in paint,
gilding, joinery. Princes and nobles who to-day employ
Chinese artisans to erect brick palaces of bizarre design
had their forerunners in the old Sultans of Malacca.
The " M a l a y A n n a l s " tell how the palace of Sultan
Mansur Shah was painted and gilded, had fretted dripboards under the eaves, was glazed with Chinese glass
and roofed with pieces of tin and brass. A Chinese
chronicler relates how " the king of Malacca lives in a
house of which the fore-part is covered with tiles left
here by the eunuch Cheng Ho in the time of Yung-po
(1403-1424); other buildings all arrogate the form of
imperial halls and are adorned with tin-foil." On the
East coast Munshi Abdullah notes how the palace of the
Yam-tuan of Trengganu was of stone and of Chinese
design in 1835.
18
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
Last phase of all, we come to European and Chinese

influence operating together. In 1845 Mr. Logan wrote
of a Malay at Bukit Tengah in Province Wellesley,
" He conducted me along the foot of the hill through a
grove of trees to his house, which I found to be quite
an uncommon edifice for a Malay, being very neat
and having a pleasant little verandah with Venetian
windows." " The Sultan of Selangor," writes Sir Frank
Swettenham of a time some thirty years ago, " had
choseu to build himself a habitation of, for those days,
a somewhat pretentious order. The house was raised
from muddy ground on short brick pillars; it was
built of squared timbers and the roof was tiled." Such
buildings are common now and the house of the well-todo Malay is fast losing native distinction. The change
is not to be regretted. Outside the Negri Sembilan
even the houses of chiefs seem to have been poor enough
before the days of protection, except where might could
hold its own. " A very modest dwelling it was," remarks
Sir Frank Swettenham of the house of a Perak princess
of the first rank in 1874, " a building of mat sides and
thatched roof, raised from the damp and muddy earth on
wooden piles, a flight of steps led into the front of the
house and a ladder served for exit at the back. The
interior accommodation consisted of a closed-in verandah and large room and a kitchen tacked on behind."
"Mostly atap, even the walls, and very dirty," is
Abdullah's comment on the houses of the East Coast in
1885. But though it has always been a trait of the
Malay character to welcome whatever is new and foreign,
he adapts and seldom discards, so that though Chinese
carpentry and European models have altered much,
bringing improved material and workmanship, larger
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
FURNITURE.
19
windows and plank floors, yet they have destroyed little,

and the earlier archetype, if it can so be called, abides.
There are still types of house no peasant would erect in
the proximity of his chief and no chief in the proximity
of his raja. In comparatively recent days, in Perak, we
find Sultan Ali and Sultan Yusuf regarding with jealous
eye the fine house built by the Mantri of Larut at
Matang, and though his widow could not well be
deprived of the property, by a convenient fiction it was
presumed to have devolved as a gift of the State.
Sultans and chiefs may build palaces externally renaissance or moresque, but there remain the old primary
divisionsthe hall for visitors, the central palace with
sleeping apartments, and, away at the back, a kitchen.
Finally we must not forget that the vast majority of
huts are still untouched or touched but imperceptibly by
modern influences.
FURNITURE
The feature that strikes the casual observer on

entering a Malay house is the absence of what the
European conceives to be furniture; and should he be
interested further and discover that the words for chair l
and book-rest 2 are-Arabic, the words for towel 3 table 4 and
cupboard 5 Portuguese, the words for curtain 6 bedstead 7
and box 8 Tamil, then he will certainly imagine that
there is no such thing as native Malay furniture. This
impression will be confirmed if the house he has chosen
for inspection be that of a schoolmaster or some such
hybrid mind and reveal all the horrors of crocheted
antimacassars and bentwood Austrian chairs, photos of
1
Kerusi.
Rihal.
Tuala.
Katil
Meja.
Peti
Almari.
Tirai.
20
PAPERS
ON MALAY SUBJECTS.
the owner by a Chinese perpetrator and oleographs of

Queen Victoria or the Sultan of Turkey. Yet the
Malay hut has furniture as much its own as ours is,
though, like ours, built up of borrowings from many
ancient sources.
Ascend the verandah, the part of the house proper
to the mere male, his gatherings and his pursuits, and
the visitor will find himself in a space empty, save for a
few shelves or bamboo racks, for the plank or bamboo
bed platform of an unmarried son at the further end,
for the fisherman's net, the hunter's noose, and the birdcage of rattan hanging from the roof; save, too, for the
half-finished trap or basket that lies scattered on the
floor to employ the indoor hours of men and boys. Look
around at these things and at the household furniture
and he is in the midst of a prehistoric civilisation. There
is a fable telling how a fairy taught Malay women to
copy the patterns of those remnants of nets and baskets
which Sang Kelembai left behind when fear of the
human race drove him away to the sky's edge. Here is
every variety of article plaited 1 of dried palm-leaf:
mats 2 spread over part of the floor; mats piled aside to
be unrolled for the accommodation of visitors; a small
prayer-mat3 of Arabic name but home workmanship;
4
5
6
the plaited tobacco pouch or box, or the bag receptacle
for betel utensils handy for daily use; plaited sacks 7
stacked in a corner, full of rice from the clearing. They
are sometimes plain, sometimes adorned with open-work,8
or the interweaving of strips dyed red black yellow, in
both of which styles the craftsman's hand, subdued to what
it works in, has evolved graceful geometrical designs.
1
Anyam. 2 Tikar hampar. 3 Tikar sajadah. 4 Kampit. 5 Lopak-lopak.
7
6 Bujam.
Kampit (open) ; Sumpit (closed like a sack). 8 Kerawang.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS : FURNITURE.
21
The specimens of plaited palm-leaf1 work kept in the

verandah are often little better than the coarse rough
work of the aboriginal tribes, but in the inner room the
women's apartment, there will be articles of more delicate
material 2 and intricate manipulation. Perak, Pahang,
Patani, Kedah, Kelantan, all produce fine goods. And
women store clothes in baskets 3 (in Malacca of curious
pyramidal shapes) adorned with raised fancy stitches
called" "the jasmine bud," " t h e roof-angle," and so on;
decorated or debased by the frippery of later civilisations-the addition of coloured paper pasted 1 upon them
and the attachment of gold filigree chains or silver bosses.
Even here however, in the ordinary way, articles of the
most primitive kind will predominate. You may find
the women plaiting a pattern like that of the bird-shaped
receptacle 5 for sweet rice which possibly dates from the
days of belief in a bird-soul; or wrappers 6 of coconut,
plantain or palm-leaf wherein to boil rice, triangular,
diamond, heptagonal, 7 octagonal 8 in shapes called " the
country's pride"'' " t h e onion" " t h e paddle handle,"
or pre-Muhammadan models of birds, buffaloes, stags,
the crab, the horse, the durian, the dog.
Watergourds may be suspended from a beam in hanging
palm-leaf holders.10 A keris may be stuck in a palm11
leaf holder and pinned to the mosquito-net. For
the central room of a Malay house is the place where
sleep old married folk, men and women, with their
children ; sometimes on a raised platform,12 more often in
cubicles formed by mosquito-nets and outer curtains,13 or
1
2
Mengkuang.
Pandan.
3 Kembal or (Malacca) rombong.
Kembal gundi: used at weddings.
5 Enggak (Ked.) : katang-katang
7
8
(Perak).
6 Lepat; ketupot.
Ketupal'bawang.
Ketupat pasar or
k,telur
9 Seri negeri .
10
(Gantong-gantong.
11 Sangkut keris.
12
Gerai or gel a.
13 Tiral.
22
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
merely by the mosquito-nets. The omnipresent baby

hangs from the rafters in a cradle1 composed of three,
five or seven layers of cloth, according to his degree;
that is, after the young probationer has lain for the first
seven days of his life on a mat in a rice-strewn tray, and
before he descends to the indignity of a rattan basket
cradle. In a loft that is lighted by a window or hole
in the roof, the unmarried girls spend day and night
above their parents' heads, safe from the invitation of
admirers who might else slip love-tokens through the
interspaces of the gridiron floor. On the walls of the
room may be nailed, perhaps, a "tiger's skull or a wildgoat's horns, or more probably, a pair or so of mouldering antlers, or ricketty pegs from which dangles the
daily wear of the occupants; or the less prized daggers
may hang there, while spears and an old gun stand in
the corner. There may be a tall cupboard 2 of Portuguese name and Chinese manufacture, wherein will be
stored spare pillows, papers and the best crockery.
There will be a wooden shelf 3 or stand,4 on which, placed
in plates or brass holders, will be natural 5 or clay
gourds 6 and broad clay water-jars. 7 A clay or brass
brazier will be filled with charcoal and incense to
accompany religious chantings. In old days the largest
light in the house proceeded from resin torches 8 stuck
in a roughly carved wooden stand 9 that was placed on
the floor in the central room. Or shells fixed to wooden
sticks 10 and clay boats were used to hold oil. Later,
probably, candles u stuck in coconut shells, and eventually in brass sticks, were employed. Heavy brass
lamps of Indian origin, suspended from the chains
6
11
1
Buaian.
Labu tanah.
Lilin.
2
Almari.
7 Buyong.
'3 Para.
Damar.
5
Kuda-kuda.
Labu.
10
Ketai.
Rumah panjut,
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
FURNITURE.
23
(that sometimes contain an interesting bird-shaped

link), may still be collected in the form, apparently,
of lotus cups, from the hollows of whose several petals
wicks projected. Brass supplies a number of household
utensils, some heavy and thick, such as lamps, bowls,
basins; some thin and decorated with florid realistic
representations of butterflies, deer, flowers and birds, of
which sort trays and large lidded boxes offer example;
yet a third kind, fretted with chisel or file, provides
glass-stands braziers and betel-trays.
Womem and children feed generally in the kitchen,
male guests in the verandah, but female guests, and in the
absence of guests the lordly male proprietor, feed in the
central room, so that writing of its furniture we may
conveniently deal with the utensils of a Malay meal in conjunction with that brass-work which has played so large
a part in its service. Here Ave have layer upon layer of
civilisations. The most primitive plate in the Malay Avorld
is a banana leaf; next a shalloAv coconut shell 1 (whose
existence of course premises some kind of settled cultivation) ; and then the Avooden platter. 2 The Chinese in the
sixteenth century note that the king of Johor affected
gold and silver eating utensils and other folk earthenware.
Rare specimens of obsolete green celadon 8 ware from
Sawankalok in Siamese territory, survive among the oldworld treasures of rajas under the name of " t h e ware of
a thousand cracks." Cheap Chinese eartheirware is common everywhere now, but examples of fine early work are
extant in large flat dishes used for rice, and an enamelled
Chinese curry-tray is occasionally found. Europe has
long imported earthenAvare,4 ranging from old Dutch Avare
or fine old willow pattern to German coffee-cups with
1
Dasar.
Chapah.
Pinggan retak sa-ribu buatan Jin.
Tembikar.
24
PAPERS
ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
the legend Selamat minuim. The most primitive drinking

cup is a half coconut shell 1 carved or plain; then came a
small silver bowl 2 modelled upon it; then the European
glass, for which a brass stand 3 is provided. The most
primitive jug, as we have seen, will be a dried gourd or
a large polished coconut shell 4 with a hole about three
inches across at the top, and both are still in vogue even
in palaces, where they will be tied up in a covering of
yellow cloth, a string with a golden knob at the end
being pulled to close the mouth of the covering: it is
also customary to place a plate 5 of silver or brass atop
the mouth of the coconut shell, and to set thereon the
small drinking bowl. Next came the gourd of pottery,
fitted sometimes with a silver stopper top; being often
round-bottomed 6 and always porous, it is put in a shallow
metal basin.7 Very rarely a brass vessel of gourd shape,
or a brass kettle,8 or a kettle of Ligor niello ware will be
used for cold water; and now also an earthenware jar,9
or a horrible thick muddy-blue decanter 10 of European
manufacture. All these vessels serve both to fill the
drinking bowl or glass and for pouring water over thS
hands preliminary and subsequent to feeding. The
water of ablution is caught in a large silver or brass
bowl 11 or in a vessel12 that is employed alike for that purpose and for a spittoon. Trays are of many kinds:
there is the flat wooden or lacquer tray,13 high of rim;
there is the brass tray, flat and rimmed;14 there is the
wooden pedestal tray, sometimes very large; 1 3 there is
the brass pedestal tray for a single cake plate,16 and the
large brass pedestal tray for a number of saucers.17
1
3
Chebok.
2
Batil.
Kaki glass berpuchok rebong berkerawang
4
5
7
8
banji.
Gelok .
Chepir.
6 Tila
.
Bokor.
Cherek.
9 Kendil.
l
10 Balang.
11 Batil.
12 Ketur sanyku.
13 Dulany.
17
14 Talam. 15 Pahar.
16 Semberip .
Pahar; dalong.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
FURNITURE.
25
Pedestal trays are decorated on festivals with an embroidered and bead-work fringe, 1 like the fringe on the
marriage mosquito-net, of Hindu name and shaped
perhaps after the leaf of the sacred peepul-tree. Trays,
plates and gourds are protected from flies and dirt by
conical covers, embroidered 2 or made of bamboo3 cut into
concentric geometric and floral patterns dyed red and
black, or similar covers decorated with blue green red and
gilt paper cut into scrolls. Chinese and European wares
are used for coffee services.
Finally, there are tobacco and betel boxes, those
appanages of the last course of a Malay meal. Considering the universal habit and ceremony of betel-chewing
in the Archipelago and the portability and number of its
utensils, it is not surprising to find a great variety of
material and shapes, a vocabulary rather vague in its
terminology, the name for a wooden article improperly
transferred to a brass one, and so on. The most
primitive kind are plaited of screw-palm as already noted.
Then come small wooden chests, 4 fitted with trays to contain the requisites of betel-chewing, shaped like the coffers
Malay sailors use, larger at base than lid, rudely carved;
one shape has a drawer that pulls out at the side; 5 one
shape6 has an ornamental end of wood or silver projecti n g 7 as it is carried under the armthese last are commonly used for the presentation of betel at betrothal and
some Perak specimens have realistic bobbing models of
snakes made of wax and fastened dependent from pliant
rattan by human hair. Specimens made entirely of
gold, or Ligor niello, or silver, of brass or tin, also
occur, and then there is only a tray for the betel-vine
1
2
Daun budi (Hindoo).
Adai-badai.
3 Tudong saji : Sangai.
5
(Palembang).
Jorong (Mangkasar).
6 Puan.
7 Sulur
4 Tepak
bayong.
26
PAPERS ON
MALAY SUBJECTS.
leaves and in place of the other divisions in the tray we

have four tiny caskets; 1 but there are other specimens,
open at the top and taking the form rather of a small,
deep tray than of a chest. Commoner in metal, are open
salvers,2 round or oblong, or round and on pedestals:
" Betel-nut that's cleft in four ;
Lime that's mixed with scented water;
Tobacco clinging to its stem,"
and gambir are the contents of the four caskets. If the

caskets be presented on an open salver, then a metal
vase,3 shaped like a triangle upside down with its apex
cut off, takes the place of the casket's tray for the vine
leaves. The casket 4 that holds the betel-nut is commonly open, unlike the others; that 5 containing the
lime is round, its sides parallel from base to lid, or it is
octagonal, or round and stunted: the other two caskets
may be modelled after the seed-pod of the sacred lotus ;
the lid is often decorated, like waist-belts, with a conventionalised lotus flower pattern. Round boxes6 are
made for tobacco, decorated with conventional foliated
scrolls common in all Malay silver-work, or a box 7 like
a huge old silver watch is used. It is caskets and boxes
which of all Malay work are the most interesting as
representative obviously of very various influences,
which too have found their way more than any other
articles into European collections and, with an almost
tiresome iteration, into museums : like Tennyson's " little
flower in the crannied wall," they embody a large problem
in a small compass, and could we tell all about them, we
should know a lot about the comings and goings of the
1
Chembul.
2 Cherana (Skt.)
s o m e t i m e s held b y a mempelai
.
6 Kap or kupi.
7
Chepu bergelugur,
3 Kelongsong or champpelu ( K e d a h )
4 Chawan
pinang.
5
Pekapur
awan bunga sa-tangkai.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
FURNITURE.
27
Malay race. Betel-nut scissors,1 shaped in the form of

the head of a bird or dragon, whichever it be, and in the
form of the magic steed, kuda sembrani, exhibit some of
the earliest iron work.
Malay life, even in palaces, is essentially simple, and
this may serve to excuse transition from the refinements
of the table (or rather the floor) to the mere utensils of
the kitchen. Also the kitchen, if not in the back of
the central room itself, is not far separated; moreover,
it is as interesting as any part of the house, and though
it is impossible absolutely to distinguish the most primitive utensils from later accretions, more perhaps than
any other room it bears traces of ultimate civilisations.
There are examples of bamboo work in a bamboo bellows,
or rather blower; in a cooking-pot for rice, constructed of
a single joint of bamboo, the green cane resisting the
fire long enough to cook one mess; in bamboo racks.2
There are specimens of bamboo and rattan weaving in
hanging plate-holders,3 in stands 4 for round bottomed
cooking-pots, in fish creels,5 in baskets 0 for fish or
vegetables, in strainers, 7 in rice sieves.8 There are
utensils of dried coconut shell: ladles,9 bowls10 with
rattan handles, spoons.11 There is some important
carved wood-work : a parrot-shaped handle to sweet-rice
spoons,12 spoons with rudely carved foliated handles, oval
carved enscrolled blocks13 (such as are used also by
Dyaks) for crushing salt and pepper, and last, but not
least, cake-moulds,14 and a spurred coconut rasper.15 In
the south of the Peninsula the coconut rasper is decorated
with foliated carving like the pepper-block: in the
7
12
15
1
2
Kachip.
Sal ang.
8 Nyiru.
Tapisan.
Sudip: if l a r g e , chentong
Kukuran nyiru .
3
9
Sarau.
Gayong.
13
G
Lekar.
5 Rajut.
Raga..
Sekul (Pers.)
11 Sendok.
14
Sengkalan.
Achuan kueh.
10
28
far north, in Patani there is far wider scope in design,

probably due to Cambodian influence, and coconut raspers
are carved in the form of grotesque beasts, of human
figures kneeling prostrate with the spur-scraper offered
in uplifted h a n d s ; and there too cake-moulds bear the
carved impress of buffaloes, elephants, cows, cocks,
tortoises, axes, keris, horses even and pistols, while
cake-moulds in the south have only conventional foliated
designs.
Considerable interest "attaches to the four methods
of fire-making once in vogue in the Peninsula, the firesaw, the fire-drill and the fire-syringe, as they have
been called, and the familiar flint and steel. The use of
the fire-saw is still known to jungle Malays. A branch
of soft, dry wood 1 is taken, scooped out till a small
orifice appears in the centre of the hollow; it is notched
transversely across the orifice on the outer side and
a piece of r a t t a n 2 passed underneath it and worked to
and fro by hand till dust rises through the orifice and
presently ignites. Another kind of fire-saw is made from
a piece of sharp-edged split bamboo, which is worked
quickly to and fro in a notch across a piece of bamboo
split in half and filled with tinder. 3
The fire-drill 4
consists of a piece of friable wood in which a shallow
groove or orifice is cut, the point of a hard stick is
inserted and the drill stick twirled rapidly between the
palms of the hands with the action of one whisking
an egg or a cocktail, till the dust got from the soft
wood by friction smoulders.
The fire-syringe5 is made
sometimes of wood, sometimes of t i n ; its piston of tin
or hard wood is bound round the end with cloth, just
1
Telamponq terap.
Rotan saya.
3 Rabok dudor.
5 Gobek api
Pusar basong.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
29
FURNITURE.
as the piston-end of a European glass syringe is bound

with cotton, and the end of the piston is slightly hollowed
to receive tinder; to make the tinder catch fire, the
piston is driven smartly into the cylinder and abruptly
withdrawn. It has been found rarely in the Peninsula
and also in Borneo (where it is called the tin firesyringe). I am not certain if its use is known in the
south of the Peninsula. It is obviously a fairly advanced
method of fire-making, and it is said to be commonly
found among Indonesian peoples.
For cooking-vessels, there is the earthenware pot 1
and steamer ;2 and of later use a number of brass and
iron vessels, a covered brass rice-pot,3 a large open brass
pot 4 for sweetmeat cookery, a large open iron stew pot,5
a huge iron cauldron,6 an open iron frying pan.7 The
cooking place 8 is an arrangement of stones on which the
pots are placed; above it is a shelf9 on which firewood
is laid to dry, and more wood is stacked beside the fireplace. There is a grindstone 10 for curry-stuffs and a
tiny stone mortar 11 for pounding chillies and other edible
pods. In the purlieus of the kitchen there will be large
earthenware water-jars 12 and some basins 13 for washing
and culinary purposes.
The rest of the house is devoted to middle-age and
meals: the best bed-room, in homes where there are
daughters of marriageable age, to the apotheosis of youth.
Here will be kept the finest furniture, the softest clothes,
the best embroidery. The door will be curtained and
its curtain adorned with the bo-leaf fringe or, alas for
modern taste, hideous white crocheted work.
There
1
Belanga.
Kanchah.
10
Batu giling.
pasu.
2
3
Kukusan tanah.
Perik.
8
Kawah.
7
Kuali.
Tungku.
11
Batu lesong.
12
Tempayan.
13
6
Gerengsing.
Para api.
Terenang (brass) :
9
30
will be a stand just inside for the drinking vessels such

as we have already described. Athwart the room, in the
corner next the window and outer wall, will be a small
day couch1 of one storey only, made of wood, with
fretted skirting-board 2 in front, or board pasted with
coloured papers in floral scrolls. Thereon will be laid a mat
of several thicknesses 3 according to the house-owner's
rank, edged 4 with gold-threaded silk border and silver
or embroidered corners; and at the head of the couch a
large round pillow 5 with embroidered or gold or silver
"faces" or ends. On this day couch will be found the
best betel utensils in the house. But the greatest care
will have been lavished on the large bed-platform 6 that
runs lengthwise along the room against the inner
partition; it will be storied according to rank, with
fretted or paper-pasted 7 front; it will be enclosed in a
large mosquito-net adorned within and without along the
top with the bo-leaf fringe embroidered, and often
having silver leaves among the embroidery. Like the
day couch 7 and the stand for water vessels, it will have
hung above it a ceiling-cloth8 to keep off the dust and
debris of the palm-leaf roof. At the head, and extending
the full width of the bed-platform, will be an oblong
hollow pillow,9 made of white cloth stretched over a
wooden frame, its ends adorned with embroidery or
1
2
Pentas kechil.
Papan bertebok awan Jawa atau awan Pelembang, bunga
3
banji, aican larat, etc.
Tikar berlangkat, e.g., peterana, used by reigning
princes of seven thicknesses ; pachar, of five used by chiefs like the bendahara,
4
5
6
chiu of three.
Rampok.
Bantal sa-raga.
Pentas besar or gerai.
Kedah folk, it is said, used only this bed-platform for the sanding, whereas Perak
and the southern States, with more delicacy, have a similar platform erected in
the central room for that function. The arch over the front of the sanding plat7
form is called pintu gedong : the inner space goa.
Di-hulas dengan kertas
merah kuning ijau biru anika jenis warna kertas-nya itu; bertebok berawan larat
semua-nya ya-itu tebok buang-buangan nama-nya ya-ani yang tebok berawan itu
kertas merah atau apa-apa macham warna-nya dan tanah-nya kertas puteh atau
perada keresek atau perada Siam: yang sudah di-tebok itu di-pelkatkan di-atas
8
9
kertas tanah itu.
Langit-Iangit.
Bantal sa-raga awan bunga nagasari.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
FURNITURE,
31
silver plates, and on this pillow will be laid a prized

keris and two or three round pillows with decorated
ends facing outwards. Above it all will tower the
triangular pyramidal back 1 to the dais, decorated with
coloured paper, and sometimes exhibiting the tiered roof
with upcurving crockets found in Buddhist wats, though
the pyramidal shape is not, I believe, common in the
south. Below the hollow oblong pillow are laid flat2
sleeping pillows, and then comes the bed proper, covered
with a mattress, on which are laid two mats, one for
bride and one for groom, with embroidered corners and
of several thicknesses according to rank; one or more
long Dutch-wife pillows 3 stretch the length of the mats;
perhaps a silk coverlet 4 will be spread. There will be
various household articles inside this mosquito-curtain:
on the inner wall side of the bed, at the head, between
the sleeping pillows and the bantal saraga, are kept squat,
round-lidded boxes 5 of Palembang brass or Palembang
lacquer, receptacles for clothes and toilet necessaries;
and there is a wooden clothes-rack,6 carved with upturned crockets, suspended from the mosquito-net or
standing in the inner side of the bed.
Such in outline, tiresome skeleton outline as I have
had to make it, are the articles of furniture in a Malay
house. Not a tithe of them will be found in the ordinary
house, for it is not a museum but a home, generally
untidy, disordered, yet neat in the effect of dim backgrounds and recesses and dun natural colours.
1
2
8
Gunong-gunong.
Bantal pipeh.
Bantal galang: bantal pelok.
5
Gebar.
Tabah (Ar.) Bintang (Malacca), Bangking urn-shaped and used
at weddings.
6 Sangkut bersulor bayong.
32
DRESS.
The Malay Annals relate how one of the bendaharas

of old Malacca would change his garments four or five
times a day; how he had coats and turbans of all
colours and such a number of each colour that they
could be counted by tens; some of his turbans kept
always ready rolled; his coats some half-sewed, others
nearly finished, others just cut out: and how he had
a tall mirror by which he dressed himself daily, asking
his wife if this coat suited that turban and following her
advice exactly. It is a story that goes to the root
of the matter, because the Malay has been a fop for
centuries and is a fop still. Turning over his wardrobe,
one is only astonished that head or tail can be made
of such admired disorder. For centuries the fashions
and stuffs of India, China, Persia, Arabia, Europe have
been pouring into it. The Chinese records tell how
this king and that throughout the Archipelago sent
envoys to the Celestial kingdom and got in return
" suits of clothes embroidered with golden dragons,"
" a girdle with precious stones, pieces of silk-gauze, pieces
of plain silk, pieces of silk with golden flowers." The
early voyagers narrate how Cambay, Coromandel and
Bengal trafficked with Java and Malacca in "cotton
lynen sarampuras, cassas, sateposas, black satopasen,
black cannequins, red toriaes, red beyzamen," names
that make the eye dizzy; and how " the heathenish
Indians that dwelt in Goa not only sold all kindes of
silkes, sattins, damaskes and curious workes of porselyne
from China and other places, but all manner of wares
of velvet, silke, sattin and such like, brought out of
Portingall." The Malay welcomed all with the avidity
of the born wanderer that his Archipelago had made him,
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: DRESS.
33
and took such an Elizabethan gusto in things foreign

that the remoter its origin the finer the object in his
eyes, till, to rouse enthusiasm, his bards had to sing
of " steel from Khorassan," keris " wrought of the iron
left after the making of the keys of the Kaabah"1
scarves " made of the mosquito-net of the prophet of
Allah;"2
" Narrow lengths of patterned fabric,
Work of Coromandel craftsmen,
Woven part in looms of China,
Part by weavers gilled like fishes :
Stretched, as wide as earth and heaven;
Folded, small as nail on finger."
With marvellous dexterity he contrived to adjust this

barbaric plenty to a fair standard of good taste. It is
true that he often revels in grandiloquent phrases from
Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Arabic and so on; they are heirlooms and sound like that " blessed word Mesopotamia"
in romance, but they do not command his attention.
All the time he is busy peering over his acquisitions with
the curious eyes of a naive child, inventing labels for
them drawn from aboriginal intimacy with nature. The
gold spots on his coat are labelled " the scattered ricegrains " or " bees on the wing " ; the patterns on his skirt
" the chequer board," " the bamboo spikes," " the jump
three stripe " ; if his skirt be heavy with gold thread, it is
dubbed " the cloth that would sink a junk." His bracelet
is oval without and flat within, and he names it " t h e
split rattan " bangle. He welcomes foreign skill, but he
insists on having goods conform to his taste: there is a
story that Sultan Muhamad, of Malacca, sent a messenger
to the land of the Klings to order forty lengths of forty
1
Lebeh penganching Kaabat Allah,
Puncha kelambu rasal Allah.
34
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
different kinds of flowered cloth,1 and that none of the

designs brought suited the messenger's fancy till, at last,
he drew designs himself, so beautiful and intricate as to
amaze the craftsmen. The Malay has the faculty of
criticising as well as the generous faculty of admiration.
In " Anggun Che Tunggal" the young hero dresses all in
black, but his mother tells him he looks like a flock of
crows; changes into complete white, whereupon she
likens him to a flock of storks; changes into red, when
she compares him with i h e hibiscus aflame at daybreak;
and he only satisfies her by donning garments of contrasted colour. But though he assorts, the Malay never
discards. He adopts the jacket, and the old shoulderscarf becomes a head shawl 2 for his women, a waist-band
for himself, a stole at court, a cordon at wedding ceremonies; he adopts trousers, and the skirt is a useful
receptacle of baggage, a handy change at the journey's
end, a decent tribute to the dictates of his religion. He
has an accumulation of centuries and civilisations in the
way of jewellery, the greater part sacred from immemorial
superstition; good taste forbids him to flaunt it all, but
apportions this to his tiny children, that to his unmarried
daughters, and only sows with the sack on the occasion
of a wedding. Moreover, not all the gold of the Indies
has ousted the wrist-string as an amulet, nor till recently
the ancient vanity of blackened teeth. 3 It is this conservatism which has left such a bewildering abundance of
material for the study of his dress, and it was this
conservatism which led Marsden to write, " We appear
to the Sumatrans to have degenerated from the more
1
2
Kain serasah.
The following kinds are common: Kain limau, kain
tenggarun; kain Bali; kain Muntok; kain pelangi or kain Rawa ; kain buanga
6
chwigkeh; kain pengiring yu'ilu bersulur merah puteh kuning.
Dibubuh
baja seperti sayap kumbang padang berkilat-kilat.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
35
DRESS.
splendid virtues of our predecessors. Even the richness

of their laced suits and the gravity of their perukes
attracted a degree of admiration, and I have heard the
disuse of the large hoops worn by the ladies pathetically
lamented : the quick, and to them inexplicable, revolutions
of our fashions are subject of much astonishment, and
they naturally conclude that those modes can have but
little intrinsic merit which we are so ready to change;
or at least that our caprice renders us very incompetent
to be the guides of their improvement." In the light of
actual fact the concluding sentence seems singularly
unfortunate. Criticism has assailed the originality of
every Malay garment except the chequer skirt.
The Malay skirt as it exists to-day in the north of the
Peninsula, and as it probably existed in the far days
of its primal investiture, is a piece of cloth home-spun, of
coarse vegetable fibre,1 chequer, coloured with vegetable
dyes, unsewn,2 bound about the waist reaching hardly to
the knees,3 " t h e knee-caps often exposed even in the
king's balai, a practice which would not be tolerated
in any other part of the Peninsula." From that it
has developed into a garment 4 about forty inches in
depth and eighty in length, the ends sewn together
so that the made skirt is a wrapper like a bottomless
sack, lacking pleat or intricacy of tailoring, its openings
equal in size at top and bottom, the latter indeed being
convertible terms. It has depended for its continued
vogue on an infinite adaptability: it can serve as a
nether garment, a bathing cloth, a night-shirt, a turban, a
wallet, a cradle, a shroud; it was retained and respected
as a shibboleth of Islam when the use of trousers became
almost universal. There are several ways of fastening
1
Tali pisany, benang nanas.
Kainlepas.
Kain chokiu.
Sarong.
36
it about the waist, from loosely bundling it so as to hold

a dagger or parang, to folding it so neatly that a long
pleat will open down either leg as the wearer strides:
the country mouse can be distinguished from the town
mouse by the hang of his skirt. There were modes
fashionable at court: for chiefs the " skirt in puffs," 1 for
ladies the "billowy" 2 tempestuous swell.
The range in material and pattern is wide. To point
a common distinction, there are two kinds of sarong, the
chequer skirt of geometrical design 3 and the flowered
Javanese skirt 4 on which figure birds and warriors. Did
the chequer skirt accompany the race in a migration from
the north ? The kain Champa is of geometrical draughtboard pattern : Patani and Kelantan still produce coarse
chequer skirts of vegetable fibre : the chequer style must
have been long and firmly established to resist the inroad
of Javanese fashion, which succeeded only in capturing
the head-kerchief. In addition to these, there are two
other kinds of material that deserve especial emphasis.
There is the material of which Palembang and Batu Bara
(and Asahan) produce varieties and which Trengganu
imitates with its thin inferior silk; the style of the cloth of
gold,5 the silk ground almost always a rich red, sometimes
having, a faint chequer traced in sparse white or blue or
black threads; generally plain, and dependent for beauty
on small geometrical and floral patterns 6 interwoven in
gold thread, with a mass of gold-thread decoration 7 at the
edge and on the kepala sarong. There is a Malay saying,
" If you are about to die, go to Malacca; if you want,
pleasant dreams, to Palembang; if you desire good food,
1
2
3
Kain kembong,
Ombak beralun
e.g., Chorak damdam; tapak
4
5
6
chatur, belah ketupat.
Kain Batek.
Kain benang emas.
Emas
bertabur, bent* patah, bunga kiambang, bung a tuujong, bunga kerat nasi, etc.
7 Tekat songkit, puchok rebong, Jong sarat.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
DRESS.
37
to Java; if you like fine clothes, to Batu Bara." Batu

Bara silk was and is the wear for Malay nobility on occasions of state, for commoners at weddings : of it not only
skirts but trousers, jackets and pillow-cases are made.
The other silk 1 which deserves study, being, so far as
I know, peculiar to the north and hardly affected south
of Perak, is woven in Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan,
and is found not only in sarongs but more particularly
in that shoulder scarf which was the forerunner of the
jacket; it is of exquisite harmonious sober colours, a
blend of reds, yellows and greens, the shape of the
pattern, if closely inspected, bearing a distant resemblance to the lime from which it has acquired its
name; for that is the best and most typical pattern
out of several species, such as the " clove-head," and so
on.2 There is one kind of silk which combines this
pattern with the gold thread ornament of the Sumatran style. 3 Yet another kind of fabric,1 employed less
for skirt than for coat and kerchief, is a calendered
silk stamped with design in gold-leaf by means of carved
wooden blocks, a kind manufactured in Patani and
Pahang. The word for silk is Sanskrit, 5 which gives a
clue to the source of its original adoption, but plain
woven silk from China has long been used for the
manufacture of some kinds of skirt and scarf. It is
stained with aniline dyes to produce the " rainbow " 6 silk
made by Boyanese and in Singapore, now fashionable in
place of costlier and heavier stuffs, worn oftenest as a
scarf but sometimes as a sarong both by men and women.
Formerly the cotton sarong was either coarse home1
2
Kain limau.
Bunga chengkeh, bunga rumput, biji asam, selumbar
nibong, Andak Mesah, masam kelat, perang rosak are all patterns of Trengganu
3
4
and Kelantan sarongs.
Kain tenggarun.
Kain telepok,
5 Sutera,
6 Kain pelangi.
38
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
spun or, for the higher classes, calendered Bugis tartan

cloth, but now the Coromandel 1 or German tartan holds
the field. The flowered Javanese skirt is worn sometimes by men as a loin-cloth with trousers, but, as a long
skirt, is considered effeminate except for indoor deshabille.
The Malay certainly went coatless in early historical
times; the Chinese chroniclers repeatedly advert to the
fact and it is only in their later records that " a short,
jacket" is sometimes mentioned. Folk romances devoting lines of ballad verse to picturing the hero's skirt,
dagger and head-kerchief dismiss his coat in a few
Persian, Arabic or Portuguese phrases 2 descriptive of
a foreign cloth, and there has never been any rigid royal
etiquette in the matter of coats except in Java, where
the garment was forbidden at courts. If Langgasu can
refer -to the old traditional kingdom of Langkasuka,
then the chronicles give a picture of dress in the north
of the Peninsula in the sixth century describing how
" men and women have the upper part of the body
naked, their hair hangs loosely down, and around their
lower limbs they use only a sarong of cotton ; the kings
and nobles wearing a thin, flowered cloth (seleadang) for
covering the upper part of the body." Colonel Low,
who went up the Perak river in 1826, remarks that " the
women display a good deal of the upper part of the
body, only throwing their upper dress, which is a narrow
piece of cloth, carelessly across the breast." Even now
Kelantan and Patani men wear no coats, but wrap a long
sash about their waists which is often shifted to the
shoulders, while the women following a fashion that
obtains alike in Siam and in Java, " hitch a cloth round
the body under the arms and above the bust,3 which falls
1
Di-gerus.
Baju
ain'ul-banat, b. sakhlat , b. beledu.
Kemban.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS: DRESS.
39
over the sarong to a few inches below the hips, being

usually adjusted to reveal the figure as much as
possible." In the fifteenth century the Chinese chronicles tell us how the " people of Banjermasin wore a
jacket with short sleeves, which they put on over their
heads," and those of Malacca " a short jacket of flowered
cotton" : the former statement being the earliest
explicit allusion to the baju kurong . A coat with short
sleeves l is the usual garb of princes of romance and
may date from the days of the armlet; being worn with
trousers of similar name and shortness, it was probably
affected for fighting, while the common rank and file
wore a straight coat 2 altogether sleeveless. The " Malay
Annals" relate it was Tun Hassan, a great fop and
temenggong in the reign of Mahmud Shah, who first
lengthened the skirts of the Malay coat and wore large
and long sleeves, it having been formerly both short and
straight, and how Tun Hassan was therefore celebrated
in topical verse as requiring four cubits of cloth for
his coat. There are, in brief, two styles, the coat open
all down the front 3 and coats with only a hole for the
head to slip through. 4 Commenting on them as they
occur in a Besisi saying :
" Who was it made the land Semujoug ?
They who donned the round coat became retainers,
And mixed with strangers, the Malays of Rembau;
They who donned the split coat speak Besisi,"
Mr. Skeat boldly suggests that the styles possibly distinguished those who followed the adat Temenggong
and the adat perpateh respectively. He remarks that the
baju kurong is generally worn by Menangkabau Malays
of the Negri Sembilan, and he might have added that the
1
Baju alang.
Baju, pokok.
Baju belah.
Baju kurong.
40
PAPERS OX MALAY SUBJECTS.
Naning regalia include such a coat, whose narrow opening, according to popular belief, will fit none but the
penghulu or his destined successor.1 Java certainly
would appear to affect the " split coat " : Malay wedding
garments are mostly derived from Java and the wedding
coat is open down the front: but the baju kurong has so
long been universal among both sexes of the Malays
that conjecture as to its original adoption is probably
futile. Prior to the introduction of the kebaya, it was
commonly the wear for women, short and reaching
only to the sarong, or in the Malacca of Logan's day,
" reaching to a little above the ankle, its cuffs fastened
with buttons of gold and sometimes of diamonds." It is
not surprising that feminine vanity soon discarded a
style so disastrous to ordered tresses; and the long,
shapeless kebaya of Portuguese name, and for indoors
a short open jacket 2 fastened with brooches, are now
universally worn by women. Men's coats are variations
of the two main types; Chinese, Arabic and European
influences leaving their mark, local Brummels and
Worths of Johor and Malacca Kedah and Penang
accounting for minor differences of style. The coat
double-breasted and tied at the side of the waist with
strings, the coat 3 open down the front with frogged
buttons are Chinese. Raffles detected traces of the old
Friesland coat in Java; and many now obsolete Malay
stylesthe collar high at nape of neck, 4 the sleeve tight
at wrist and buttoned from the elbow down, the tailed 5
1
" T o this day," wrote Newbold, " i t is firmly believed by many that the
elder brother of Abdul Syed was rejected solely on account of his inability to get
his head through the neck of the vest, which is represented to be so small as
scarcely to admit of the insertion of two fingers.
How the ex-penghulu
contrived to slip his large head through must remain a matter of conjecture."
2
4
Baju, Jipun.
3 Baju hanyut.
Baju kepok.
5 Baju bersayap
layany-layang.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
DRESS.
41
or " winged " coatall show traces probably of European

patterns. The Zouave tunic and the pilgrim's flowing
gown 1 are Arabic. Women have borrowed underwear
from India 2 and lately from Europe. Men have long
worn an undervest of linen or silk and now affect the
zephyr. Newbold's picture of the Dato Klana of Sungai
Ujong in 1833, shows how elaborate the vest would sometimes be: the passage is worth quoting in full. " His
dress betrayed a taste for finery, consisting of gaudy
red surcoat flowered with yellow; a broad crimson sash
encircling his waist, in which were inserted several
weapons of the Malayan fashion; a Batek handkerchief
with the bi-cornute tie and a plaid silk sarong, resembling
the tartan worn by Highlanders, descending to the
knees; underneath the plaid he wore short embroidered
trousers. In the left-hand sash of his close vest of
purple broadcloth, lined with light green silk and
adorned with silk lace and small round buttons of gold
filagree, was a watch 3 of antique shape, to which were
appended a gold chain and seals. He wore his hair
long, and very obvious it was to two of the five senses
that he, when studying the graces, had no more spared
the oil than Demosthenes himself."
Trousers 4 carry their alien origin even in their
designation. Apart from the extreme improbability of
a primitive race indulging in two entirely different
kinds of garment for the nether limbs and from the
silence of early travellers, we have the evidence of the
chronicles that the people of Langgasu wore nothing
but sarongs, and we know that the word is Persian out
of Arabic. It is significant that Acheen, the earliest
1
2
3
Baju saderiah. Jubah.
Chuli.
Or was this the watch-like
box, chepu, for tobacco, commonly knotted to a corner of the sapu-tangan, which
4
was often thrown over the shoulder: now obsolete.
Seluar.
42
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
stronghold of Muhammadanism, has always been famous

for its patterns :1 a sack-like shape designed, one might
fancy, for the nether limbs of a bear, of enormous width
and depth of seat, with a three-cornered embroidered
piece called the " duck's web " 2 at the back of the ankles.
This pattern dominated the Peninsula, both for men and
women of the higher class, till Chinese and European
styles ousted it, and the passion for trousers, inspired
presumably by Islamic sentiment, took such a hold of
the Malay mind that, south of Patani and Kelantan, the
man who omitted the garment was considered a craven
and Don Juan before the settled days of British protection. A confusing number of styles was in vogue:
some were decorated with gold lace; 3 some had gold
thread interwoven in the material up to the knee; 4 some
were stamped with tracings in gold paint 5 or adorned
with inlet pieces 6 of coloured glass; some woven in
latitudinal stripes 7 of red, yellow, white, black and so on.
The " c u t " in all cases was Achinese, or founded on
Achinese but without the " duck web." 8 And, indeed,
in the Malay world, the only other patterns that are found
are Chinese and European and variations of them. Two
kinds of scant workaday trews deserve mention: the
short, tight Bugis trousers 9 worn by Malay miners, and
the short loose Chinese trousers,10 reaching barely below
the knee, which are commonly worn in the wet rice-fields.
A very early fashion in belts was a narrow woven
band,11 with a loop for the keris at one end, to be wound
outside the deep waist-cloth; and we also find a band
1
Direct Achinese influence is discernible in Perak in the seluar lam Sayong
(vide p. 80), lam being, as Mr. Wilkinson has reminded me, the Achinese word for
Kampong : Sayong must be the village, formerly the seat of royalty on the Perak
3
4
river.
2 Tapah itek.
S. pedendang.
S. berchanggal emas.
5
6
7
S. bertelepok.
S. berchermin.
S. empat sa-karap; tiga sa-lumpat
8
!l
10
S. Batu Bara.
S. sampak.
S. kotong, or katok . 11 Betong.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
DRESS.
43
of scarlet cloth, adorned with inlet pieces of glass, with

sequins and embroidery. A few decades ago there was
common a pouch-belt,1 the pouch a foot long and two or
three inches deep with a slit in the middle; looped at
one end, with a string ending in a button at the other,
by which it was fastened round the body. Quite recently
and. still up-country, for ornament rather than utility,
was worn a loose hanging belt 2 derived, perhaps, from
Chinese influence, of woven silver wire 3 or of silver
coins, such as is worn at Patani weddings and often
affected by ma'yong dancers. Women have always worn
a silver or silk waist-band with a large metal buckle
in front, a buckle which was once and for wealthy fops
is still a part of male attire. But the waist-cloth of
romance, the waist-cloth 4 of princes and warriors in
turbulent times was a deep fringed sash, wound round and
round the body and capable of resisting a dagger thrust.
Sometimes it was the product of Malay looms, stiff with
gold or silver thread or interwoven with Arabic texts;
sometimes it was an Indian fabric, whose sheen of shot
mottled colour, probably, won it a nickname after a snake 5
and a reputation for being able, if fumigated, to turn
itself into its reptile prototype and render its owner's
body invulnerable and his house safe from thieves.
" Round his waist he wrapped a waist-band,
With the fringe some thirty cubits
Long with large and snaky pattern:
Thrice a day it changed its colour:
In the morning dew-like tissue,
Noon-day saw it turn to purple
And at eve 'twas'shining yellow:
Such the raiment of Sri Rama."
1
2
3
4
Pembelit.
Gendit.
Bertulang belut.
Bengkong (or sabok,
Jav.)
5 Kain chindai from Gujerat C. and S.: " A Kelewang wrapped in
unmade chindai" is enumerated by Marsden among the regalia of Menangkabau.
44
In this broad sash were thrust betel utensils and an

array of weapons. For an invariable item of Malay
dress before European regulations were enforced, was
one or more often three daggers. Munshi Abdullah
relates how, when it was proposed to forbid the wearing
of weapons at Singapore, the chiefs complained to Raffles
that daggerless they felt naked; and he tells us how, on
his visit to Trengganu and Kelantan, he found the
inhabitants of those countries all armed with " six or
seven javelins, a heris, a chopper, or cutlass, or sword, or
a long keris in their hands and sometimes a gun." The
dagger is still a part of court dress and the quality of the
mounting a privilege of rank. Princes of the highest
rank may have sheath and hilt of gold;1 others only the
long piece of the sheath; 2 chiefs only the lower halflength of the sheath,3 with ornament of silver or gold
cord4 above. The Malacca code laid down that "persons
not attached to the palace are not allowed to wear a
heris with a golden handle 5 weighing an ounce without
express permission from the king, except the bendahara
and children and grand-children of the king; the
penalty being confiscation of the weapon." The fashion
of wearing a dagger is almost obsolete in the Protected
States and the only enthusiasts in the matter are a few
old men to whom the Sultan's permit to carry a heris is a
visible sign of their untitled gentility. If an offensive
weapon is required, the small " pepper-crusher" 6 the
straight badik or the curved Arabic " ripper," all of which
are easy to conceal, are carried under the coat. But a
superstitious reverence for the heris still obtains and folk
1
2
4
Keris terapang gabus.
K. terapang.
3 K.pendok (Jav.)
Tulituli. Does Newbold's reference to the " tali-tali, a rattan appendage for fastening
the dagger into the belt," throw light on the origin of this ornament ? The
shape would lead one to suppose so. 5 Ulu kenchana (Jav.). 6 Tumbuk lada.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DRESS.
45
are readier to dispose of its gold sheath than of a rusted

blade, which may bring good luck to house and crops.
The keris has gone. But every peasant tucks into the
folds of his skirt a chopper,1 which serves, like Hudibras'
sword, for almost all those manual purposes of life that
require a knife.
If the wearing of weapons has died out, the use
of shoes has come in. Shoes and socks are modern
additions to Malay attire. In his voyage referred to
above, Munshi Abdullah tells how, in 1835, he saw no
shoes in Kelantan on the foot of man, woman or prince,
and the description of princely raiment in folk romances
never includes any foot-covering. India, by way of
Palembang, has furnished a sandal with cross-strap,2 such
as Chetties always wear; China, pattens 3 with a large
bone or silver knob to be gripped by the big toe; Turkey,
velvet heelless slippers, worked with gold and silver
thread and sequins; Portugal, the name of a boot; 4
Europe generally, a variety of wonderful fashions so little
understood that there are still many counterparts to the
Sultan whom Sir Frank Swettenham describes as wearing
sky-blue canvas shoes on stockingless feet. Tamil 5 and
Arabic6 names for shoes furnish epithets for royalty
which may embody a primitive respect for foot-gear, but
have left no special patterns.
Crawfurd would further rob the Malay of the credit
of a head-dress, remarking that " the ancient practice of
the Indian islanders with respect to the head appears to
have been to leave it uncovered, and the Balinese still
adhere to this practice." The Chinese chronicles give
colour to the theory. I speak under correction, but it is
1
Golok(Jav )
Cha put.
3
Terompa.
6 Kaus.
Sepalu.
Cherpu.
46
strange that the name for the head-kerchief seems Malay.

Of Kedah, if Kalah be Kedah, before the tenth century,
the chronicles record that "only functionaries are allowed
to tie up their hair and to wrap a handkerchief round
their heads " ; of Malacca in the fifteenth century, that
" the men of the people wrap up their heads in a square
piece of cloth." The oldest style known is that " square
piece of cloth, 5 ' l a form evidently determined by the
obsolete fashion of wearing the hair long. The kerchief
of heroes of folk-romance is always " rainbow" silk,
probably of Indian manufacture, though nowadays the
attribute would signify a famous modern pattern of
Boyanese design. But the universal wear for at least a
century has been, for chiefs and commoners batek cloth;
for rajas on high occasions gold-threaded Batu Bara or
gold-painted silk kerchiefs. The methods of tying them
have been legion and had considerable significance. In
Java, in Acheen, in the Negri Sembilan, the origin
of the wearer could be inferred from his manner
of folding it. In Perak only the three highest officers
of state could fold it high on one side and low on
the other, " like a young coconut split in halves" ; a
only rajas could fold it with one corner erect " like the
leaf of a bean ";3 only great chiefs could wear it down
over the poll, " taut as the cover of a pickle p o t " ; 4
warriors used the style called " the fighting elephants " 5
with two corners of the kerchief drawn forward like
jutting tusks; commoners wrapped their kerchiefs in
the style of " the fowl with the broken wing,"6
throwing one end limp over the top. Other fashions
have such picturesque names as " the tail of the
1
Teugkolok.
2 Solek mumbang di-belah dua.
4
S. getang perkasam.
S. gajah berjuang.
3 S. kachang sa-helai.
S. ayam patah kepak.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
DRESS.
47
bulbul," " the beak of the parrot," " the calladium

leaf," " the deer's ear," each expressive of the most
prominent peculiarities in the folding. Logan has
recorded that even in his day the fashions were practically obsolete in Johore and Singapore ; and the younger
generation is everywhere discarding the kerchief and
does not know the names of its styles.
The head-kerchief was supplanted by a succession of
cylindrical caps, all ultimately, it would appear, of Arab
origin. 1 There is the light neat cap woven of rotan or
fern-stem,2 surmounted often by a gold or silver buttonornament on the top; there is the cap 3 " which greatly
resembles the Malacca cap in colour, its body is made of
close-pressed tree-cotton divided into narrow, vertical
ribs by stitching on the lining; on this thin strips of
silk or cotton stuffs of various colours are worked
together so as to give the impression, when seen from a
distance, of a piece of coarse European worsted work;
between these ribs is often fastened gold thread, spreading
at the top into ornamental designs." The hideous pert
Turkish fez is common. A white crocheted skull cap 4
is affected by the religious. All the foregoing may have
a kerchief wound round their lower edge as turban.
Commonest of all styles is the natty, low, cylindrical cap
of velvet or frieze, sometimes decorated with slashed
borders of black and coloured silk. Peasants don, as a
sun-guard, a conical-shaped hat 5 made of palm-leaf and
rotan, like the hats depicted on Chinese tea-caddies but
straight from top to brim and not concave. Bridegrooms
often wear merely the head-kerchief, but common is a
turban-like head-dress", which has, among others, a
1
Kopiah
Resam.
3 Kopiah Arab.
5 Terendak bentan
Songkok
48
Persian name 1 like the bride's fringe.

I t is a round
band, stuffed with cotton-wool, covered with red cloth
pasted over with gilt paper cut into patterns, or, in the
case of royalty, of gold or bound round and round with
gold tinsel; it may have a fine gold fringe 2 along its
lower e d g e ; one end is upturned; an erect aigrette 3 is
tucked above it, from which hang pendants 4 of tinsel
or fine gold filigree. I t is worn in Perak by the Raja
Muda (and, I believe, by the Sultan) on the occasion of
his installation : a fashion which, in conjunction with the
jewellery of the Perak Court, shows the remarkable
continuity of custom inherited by Perak from the usages
of the court of the old kingdom of Malacca: the same
tradition obtains, of course, in Johore and Pahang, but
circumstances have given these countries little opportunity of conserving it intact. The " Malay Annals " are
quite clear on the point: " Every candidate for installation got a change of costume; a candidate for the office
of bendahara, five trays-fullone containing a coat, one a
skirt, one a turban (destar), one a scarf, one a waist-cloth ;
sons of rajas, viziers and men of princely rank (kshatriya)
four trays-full, the waist-cloth omitted; court attendants
warriors, three trays-fullnamely, skirt, coat and turban.
After they had donned this costume, attendants adjusted
a frontlet on their brows and armlets on the upper arm,
because all candidates wore armlets according to r a n k :
some armlets decorated with dragons, full of charms and
enchantments, some jewelled armlets, some armlets with
projecting ends, some in the form of a blue ring, some
silver armlets, some a pair, some a single armlet."
1
Destar. (How Persian and Arabian influence worked its way into a Court
may be seen from Mr. Wilkinson's Introduction to The Ninety-nine Laics of Perak in
this series). Mr. Skeat says it is also culled sigar in Selangor; in Perak it is
6
tengkolok bersering; in Patani, pemuntal
- Kida-kida.
Tajok,
4
Rumbai ; gunjai, malai, gedabah.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DRESS,
49
This passage introduces us to jewellery, which forms

a part ethnologically very important in Malay dress,
and which may be studied preeminently in the dress of
bride and bridegroom. Again the Perak court has
preserved tradition. Both sexes wear the dragonheaded armlet 1 as it occurs in Java; both sexes wear a
long gold chain of Javanese name 2 tucked into the
waist-band on the left side. Besides these, they wear
a number of other ornaments which differ not in character but only in quality from those used by lesser folk.
Both sexes, as in Java, wear an oval buckle,3 or rather
ornament of gold or silver or jadam-ware or even brass,
according to their rank and means: the older specimens
all having conventionalised lotus-flower centres, others
the signs of the Zodiac, and some of jadam an Arabic
text. Both sexes wear hollow anklets 4 and bracelets 5 such as occur in Java; but the bride wears, in
addition, peculiar bracelets,0 a badge of virginity, whose
ends are shaped like the side of a flat triangular spoon.
Both sexes wear a breast ornament 7 worn in Java,
consisting of tiers of gold plates, and above it, as in Java,
an ornament 8 commonly worn by children, circular 9 for
male, crescent-shaped for female, of gold filigree-work.
In place of turban, the bride wears a gold (or gilt-paper)
frontlet 10 upon her brows, like that used both by bride
and groom in Java; it is surmounted by a garden of
paper blossoms11 stuck on nodding wires; and gold
flowers are fixed by golden hair-pins 12 on the top of her
chignon. Both sexes wear a variety of rings, some
plain and dubbed after their shapes, the " sated leech " 13
1
2
4
Pont oh bernaga and pontoh.
Kengkalong. 3 Pending.
Keronchong.
5
Gelang kana bertunjal berkerawang berpahat terus bersiku keluang
6
7
8
9
dua tingkat.
Gelang bersudu.
Dokoh.
Agok.
Bunga kiam10
u
12
bang.
Kelat dahi (gandek, Mai.)
Bunga ketar.
Pachak tunggal;
18
tumang sendok.
Chinchin pachat kenyang.
50
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
(on the index finger of the right hand), the " elephantfoot bezel 5 ' 1 (on the little finger of the same h a n d ) ;
some set with stones and called, for example, " the garden
of fire-flies." 2 on the ring-finger.
The bride also wears
a ring remarkable for a ruby-eyed filigree gold peacock 3
perched in place of a bezel; a ring which is always
worn along jwith a protector 4 for the long finger-nail of
leisure t h a t looks like a glorified cheese-scoop. " They
wore a girdle of gold and golden rings in their ears,"
we are told of the kings and nobles of Langgasu. At the
foundation of Palembang both sexes were adorned with
ear-rings but now the bride only wears ear-rings, 5 round,
the size of a penny, a badge of virginity, and these are
giving way to small drops6 and pendants. 7
The bridegroom's dagger 8 may have a golden sheath and gold or
ivory haft: for is he not a king for the day ?
Such is the older jewellery. Perak tradition vaguely
ascribes most of it to craftsmen immigrant from Java, and
old Malacca of course not only represented the Palembang
tradition, with its Indo-Javanese culture, but also had a
Javanese settlement. Clearly gold work exhibits styles
quite different from that of the foliated scrolls common
to Malay silver, and, curiously enough, Indian influence
is patent in the Sanskrit names for gold pinchbeck and
jewels but not in the terminology of silver. But if most
of the wedding finery be derived from Java, there must be
other old elements on which comparative investigation
should throw further light. Whence comes the virgin's
bracelet with flat triangular spoon-like ends ? Whence
the cheese-scoop nail protector and the peacock ring ?
The bride wears necklaces other than those already
1
3
Ch. tapak gajah.
2 Kunang-kunang sa-kabun.
Merak.
6
4 Changgal (vide " Malay Magic," p. 46).
5 Subang.
Subang gavtong.
7
8 In Patani he wears the Tajong or ' kingfisher' hilted keris.
Orlit.
51
cited, but they are of foreign origin and comparatively

modern : the Manilla chain,1 to which allusion is made in
the " Sejarah Melayu;" a chain named after a Persian
coin ; 2 a necklace of oval beads, usually of gold, but
called after Arabian coral; 3 a chain with tiny casket
containing an Arabian amulet.4 Among the heirlooms of
the Perak sultanate is " a very strange breast ornament 5
for adorning the front of a woman's dress; it is made up of
six dragons : the two upper dragons approach each other
with their heads and tails while their bodies curve outwards; between their heads is a fish; below them are two
dragons stretching downwards parallel to one another;
below these, two more dragons crossed. The whole
ornament is made of a sort of mosaic of poor gems.
I t is not Malayan," and it has an Arabic name.
The trail of Chinese and European influence,
tiresome as mediocrity, is over all Malay ornament
now that the feudal age with its patient unpaid
craftsmen has passed and fearful respect for rank
has given place to a democratic ostentation which
would have been quashed by keris and fine of old.
Women and children, both boys and girls, wear necklaces,
bracelets, anklets and rings with their best clothes, but
the oldest ornaments are dying out, except that children
still wear the agok and a fig-shaped " modesty-piece,6
fastened by a string, where the sculptor from similar
motives places a leaf." Men's jewellery consists, now,
of gold coat buttons, watch-chain and rings; for which
the poorer substitute iron, silver, pinchbeck or brass,
while the severe and the poorest wear no jewellery at
all, excusing poverty of attire with a wealth of religious
1
Rantai Manilla.
2
Rantai derham.
Kanching alkah.
3 Merjan
.
Chaping.
Azimat.
52
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
conviction. The kebaya has brought into fashion a set

of three brooches, 1 sometimes studded with brilliants,
oftener with rubies or cornelians, two of them circular,
one heart-shaped. Tiger claws, mounted in gold, are a
favourite ornament. The ear-rings now commonly worn
are tiny studs,2 drops 3 and pendants. 4
Ladies daub their faces and the faces of their children
with a white 5 or yellow6 paste which takes the place of
the European lady's puff-powder and, like that, finds
excuse in alleged cooling properties. Both sexes once
affected blackened teeth 7 in preference to the white
teeth "of a dog"; but the dog and better taste have
now won the day, though it is still usual for girls to
have their teeth filed down to a uniform level. The
bride's nodding artificial flowers, the bridegroom's floral
pendants, the blossoms stuck behind the ear of the
candidate installed in office, all bear witness to a time
when the use of flowers was usual. In the " Malay
Annals," we are told, as the mark of a dandy, that he
wore over the ear a nosegay of green chempaka blossoms.
Folk-tales often allude to the ear posy, a symbolical
present between lovers. Probably it is to the severity
of Islam that we owe the entire discontinuance of this
pretty fashion for men and the fact that flowers in hair
are considered the sign of a light woman. In the north
of the Peninsula women still wear jasmine in their
chignons, and munshi Abdullah tells how he saw women
of Kelantan decked with garlands of flowers down to
the knee, strung in beautiful patterns such as were never
heard of in Malacca or Singapore.
1
2
3
4
Kerosang,
Kerabu.
Subang gantong.
Anting-anting;
tauge (Chinese and bean-shaped) ; orlit, of diamond and attached behind the
5
6
7
lobe of the ear.
Bedak.
Bar Hi.
Vide "Malay Magic" pp. 352300, and for the Malay locus clatsicus, Ht. Awang Sulong Merah Muda (pp. 15 and
67), edited by A. J. Sturroek and R. 0. Winstedt.
53
The Chinese records describe Malay women as

wearing their hair in a knot; men as sometimes
following a like fashion, generally as wearing those long
flowing locks which till recent days were considered
a sign of bravery :
Apa guna berambut panjang,
Kalau tidak berani mati ?
Isolated instances may still be found, though Muhammadanism and European example have made shaving, or
at least short hair, the rule, as also shaving for the
chin and lip : a beard is a sign of staidness and religion.
Women's coiffure can no longer be dismissed as a
knot. "The axe," as the Malay proverb runs, "must
be pardoned for trespassing on the carpet," the rude
male intelligence for handling the mysteries of the toilet.
But there is the style of " knot" like a big bow 1 athwart
the back of the head and fastened in the middle, a
style common in the south of the Peninsula and worn
everywhere at weddings; there is the " roll " ; 2 there is a
trefoil knot" sometimes askew to the right; there is a
quinquefoil fashion4 with various names according to
its positions; and Chinese and European models are
imitated in towns. The Malay has a keen appreciation
for the roll as "smooth as a grain of rice." A princess
in " Trong Pipit" is pictured
" I n seven folds her tresses tiring,
Seven up-foldings nine down-turnings,
Like snakes a-coil or dragons a-fight,
H e r curls close tucked as lovers delight,
Bunch round as monkey on branch and tight."
Lipat pandan or lintang sangkut .

2 Sanggul siput
.
'' Terongsit
bernama
nasi si-hebat, ya-an't bulat dan kemas : gonjong.
Sanggul
kelong.
Sanggul nonia, if in f r o n t ; S. a yam mengeram, if on top of the hoad. Othe r
fashions are sanggul Serani, sanggul roda lambong.
5
Sanggul bernama tujoh, lipat,
Tujoh lipat, sembilan kulai ,
Ular berbelit naga berkelahi ,
Anak rambut sunting pelai ;
Ekur rambut kera berjuntai.
54
The heads of tiny children of both sexes are shaved,

but girls' hair is allowed to grow at the back and boys
have one or sometimes two tufts left, until, say, at
the age of twelve or the time of their circumcision
they are allowed the style of the grown man. These
fashions for children are due, of course, to Arabic
influence, as also is the staining of the fingers with
henna and the darkening of the eyes with kohl at
marriages.
For Arabic influence was powerfully at work prior
to our coming. Tt has captured the wedding dais and
puts the bridegroom into its flowing robes, unless he be
a prince from whom heathen pride and heathen frippery
are difficult of expulsion; it would even forbid this
wedding dais as a dangerous incentive to the lust of
the eye. Perhaps this may be a consolation to us in
contemplating the change that we have wrought on the
silks and velvets and the gold and sequins of Malay
romance; this and the thought that these splendours
were confined to the few and then aired only at holiday.
A few toothless old men and women regret them,
members of families who with the passing of the feudal
dispensation so gay for aristocrats, so cruel for others,
have suffered the proverbial fate of those golden
coconuts,1 nurtured in their prime in princes' gardens
but destined to become some drinking vessels, some cups
for rain-water and some to fall downwards so that
neither rain can assuage their thirst nor earth their
emptiness. Let us take a last glimpse at the wardrobe of romance, through eyes that knew the Perak
court more than a generation ago, dim unregenerate
1
Nyiur gading.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS : DRESS.
55
eyes that hardly see how their treasures are faded, and
mildewed, and moth-eaten, and vain.
This is an account 1 of the dress of rajas, chiefs, gentry, sayids
and their descendants of various degree, of rajas' slaves and of the
common folk, both male and female. A great raja would wear red
silk trousers, with a chevron pattern in gold thread running up each
leg from the bottom, fastened at the waist by a piece of thinner
cloth sewn on the top of the silk trouser and by a cord. His coat
would be short-sleeved and have one gold button at the t h r o a t ; his
skirt be of Bugis silk ; his waist cord of gold thread with fringed
ends wound outside the skirt, nine cubits in length. I n t h a t cord he
would thrust a keris mounted with ivory hilt, the entire scabbard and
fittings being of gold. His head-kerchief would be of silk, decorated
with tiny gold patterns, or embroidered with the Creed in Arabic
characters : it would be tied in the fashion called " t h e young cocon u t split in halves " : that is, it would stand up on the right side and
lie smooth on the left, one end jutting out prominently. H e would
wear a short-sleeved silk inner vest with a fine pattern in white,
yellow and black, like shredded ginger to look at.
The Raja
Muda and the Raja Bendahara would affect trousers adorned with
gold braid, inlet pieces of coloured glass and sequins round
the bottoms. Their skirts would be decorated with tiny patterns
in gold. Their waist-bands, in length ten cubits or eleven with
the fringes, would have a large mottled snaky pattern. Their kerises
would be sheathed in gold only half way up the scabbard, and
above have gold cord ornament, Their jackets would be (?) shortsleeved, and their skirts of medium length. Their head-kerchiefs
would be tied in the fashion called " the single bean-leaf": t h a t is, three
of its points would be brought forward and one stand erect. The
Raja Muda's dress would be all yellow. The four great chiefs and
the eight great chiefs and members of their families would wear
trousers woven in latitudinal stripes of four colours; coats with
" winged " skirts, collars high at the back, and one gold button at the
throat. As for the sixteen lesser chiefs and the thirty-two lesser
chiefs, the old men wore any kind of cylindrical cap if they fancied i t ;
trousers of silk or cotton, of the Achinese pattern, for which Kampong
Sayong was famous, the bottoms of the trousers decorated with sparse
gold thread only as far as their calves; a full skirt of Batu Bara
1
For the Malay original, see Appendix pp. 79-82.
56
silk or chequered Peninsular p a t t e r n ; a silk waist cloth of the

" l i m e " pattern, without or with gold thread interwoven; a headkerchief of fine Batek cloth, tied either in the style called " t h e
fowl with the broken wing," with one end lopping over in front, or
taut over the skull in the style called " the pickle-pot cover " ; if they
preferred the cylindrical cap, it was of fern-stem, or embroidered
with the Creed, or of Arab fashion. All headmen wore trousers
long, or of Chinese pattern but narrower in the leg; jackets with
only a slit for the head, one button at the throat, and wide sleeves;
or jackets of the Teluk Blanga style, t h a t is, with collar, three buttons
and three pockets ; inside the coat skirts with a tiny bee-like pattern ;
they affected Batek head-kerchiefs tied in the style of " the picklepot cover," or else cylindrical Arab caps. Sayids dressed, some like
headmen some like pilgrims returned from the Haj ; their descendants
wore trousers of Batu Bara silk with the " duck's web " ornament at the
ankles ; white coats open down the front, with five buttons and three
pockets ; skirts of Palembang silk ; black cylindrical hats of fern-stem
or head-kerchief of Batek cloth tied taut in the "pickle-pot l i d " fashion.
Court attendants dressed in similar style, but all who had free entrance
to the palace would wrap their skirts outside their coats. On the
left side of their waist-bands they thrust a keris sheathed in yellow
wood with a gold-cupped ivory haft, the nose of the haft pointing to
the left too and the haft itself wrapped in a kerchief of cloth of gold
Commoners wore Chinese trousers; a coat open down the front and
folded across, with one button at the t h r o a t ; tartan cotton skirt; a
head-kerchief of Batek cloth from Semarang looms, two of the ends
pointing towards the back of the head and a piece of them covering
the nape of the neck in the style known as " the sitting hen." Old
folk wore a cap twisted of screw-palm leaf wound round with white or
coloured cloth, their coats, trousers and skirts of coarse white linen.
Princesses wore silk cloth-of-gold trousers of the Achinese shape, with
the " duck's web " flap at ankle and full silk skirts ; their jackets were
short, of satin flowered in various colours, red, blue, purple or with
gold thread ; they had a slit for the head to go through and sleeves
t h a t were tight at wrist, the hem round edge of neck and sleeves
being set with gold ornaments; they wore a waist-buckle to fasten
their skirts; their shoulder-scarves were of cloth-of-gold of various
patterns, or silk of various patterns, or Batek cloth, or Siamese silk
their skirts were cloth-of-gold from Batu Bara, silk of fine patterns,
silk from Palembang, or silk with tiny embroidered flowers tied in the
APPENDICES.
I.KAMPONG.
KENYATAAN KAPADA SEGALA RAYAT TANTERA 1ST
NEGERI SEMBILAN.
DARI HAL KERBAU PANTANG
LARANG.
Hai mereka-mereka sekelian rayat tantera isi Negeri Sembilan:

Titah Duli Yang Maha Mulia membuangkan istiadat yang telah
jadi pantang larang fasal kerbau-kerbau.
Bahwa di-beri tabu kapada sekelian mereka-mereka telah dimerdehekakan kerbau-kerbau pantang larang dan tiada di-milek lagi
kapada tuan kerbau itu dan atas sa-barang jenis rupa kerbau-kerbau
itu menjadi harta kapada tuan yang mempunya'i dia tiada-lah terpulang pada keadilan ya'itu Duli Yang di-Pertuan.
Di-dalam Balai Istana Besar,
Seri Menanti,
Kapada 8th March, 1904.
Ahwal maka ini-lah nama-nama kerbau yang larang pantang kapada rayat pada masa yang telah lalu:
1. Kerbau jantan badol, ya'itu ujong tandok-nya ka-bawah lepas
daripada telinga-nya.
2. Kerbau jantan sampaian kain, ya'itu lurus tandok-nya ka-kiri
dan ka-kanan, atau pun salah suatu kedua-nya.
3. Kerbau jantan sinar matahari, ya'itu mengadap tandok-nya
ka-hadapan atau hitam badan-nya, kepala-nya merah atau tandok-nya.
4. Kerbau bungkal ganti, ya'itu ujong tandok-nya sa-lama-lamanya seperti sa-biji buah.
5. Kerbau bungkal ganti, ya'itu bulat ujong tandok-nya kadangkadang jatoh bungkal-nya tetapi berganti balek.
6. Kerbau changgal puteri, jangkir atau kuku-nya lentek atau
berkalok.
7. Kerbau buloh sa-ruas, ya'itu kuku-nya tiada pechah.
72
8. Kerbau sopak munchong-nya.

9. Kerbau bintang badan-nya.
10. Kerbau bara api, ya'itu merah seperti kain kesumba.
11. Kerbau kumbang bertedoh, ya'itu besar di-bawah pangkal
ekur-nya. Maka sumbat labu pun nama-nya kerbau itu.
12. Kerbau bangkah kening, atau pangkah kening.
13. Kerbau jantan puncha ekur-nya, ya'itu panjang sa-jengkal diujong.
14. Kerbau tepok lalat, ya'itu kembang daging ujong ekur-nya.
15. Kerbau-kerbau yang menyalahi daripada adat kerbau.
II.THE
HOUSE.
(1). "As for the design of Malay houses in the old days in Perak,
the Sultan's palace had seven interspaces between its pillars, and its
main rafters reached only to the top of the pillars, not to a ridge-pole
(sa-lari ka-tulang bubong-nya). The hall of audience was on the landside and the kitchen on the water-side. There were verandahs on
either side of the house. The roofs were all of nipah, the walls of
interlaced wicker-work, the floor of laths of ibul. The palaces of the
Raja Muda and the Raja Bendahara were similar, except that the
former had six and the latter five interspaces only, but the audience
halls were on the water-side (baroh) and the kitchens on the land-side.
The houses of lesser rajas and of the great chiefs had four spaces
between their pillars; the roofs were slanting and concave and reached
right up to the ridge-pole (i.e., were not tiered) ; the audience hall and
kitchen ran parallel and of equal length with the main building and
did not project lengthwise as in the palaces of the greater rajas; the
roofs were made of sago palm; the walls of wicker-work; the flooring
of ibul laths; the audience hall was on the water-side. So also the
houses of lesser chiefs and of penghulus, except that their interspaces
were three only and the audience balai in penghulus' houses was built
on lengthwise and on the water-side that access might be easy for
rayats. The houses of common folk had two or three interspaces ;
verandahs on either side; a kitchen (gajah menyusu) on the downstream
side; a straight roof-slope, bertam ataps; walls of wicker or bark;
floors of bamboo."An account written by Raja Haji Yahya.
(2). " The State hall in a modern Malay Court in the Peninsula
consists of a long building oblong in shape, down the centre of which
APPENDICES.
73
runs a long raised platform (seri Balai) reserved for the use of rajas
and saiyids. The space which surrounds this platform is called the
pesiban. The whole building is called the Balai rong or Balai besar:
it is usually joined to the palace at one of the narrower sides and a
door from the interior of the palace communicates with it on that side;
it has a number of pillars (tiang Balai) placed round it at regular
intervals supporting the roof, but it is not walled in and is open to the
air on every side except that on which it adjoins the palace. The
broad verandah (serambi) which encompasses the seri Balai is reserved
for the use of chiefs and gentry who are not of royal blood
When any ceremony, such as the circumcision or marriage of any of
the raja's relatives, is about to be celebrated, a temporary building is
erected at the end of the Balai rong, which is situated farthest from
the palace, running at right angles (melintang) to the main balai."
See Clifford and Swettenham's Dictionary, under Balai.
III.DRESS.
REGALIA AND HEIRLOOMS OF THE PERAK SULTANATE.
(1). The actual regalia of the Sultan are very few in number,
They consist, strictly speaking, of five indispensable articles worn by
the Sultan at installation. To these five articles may be added two
ornaments worn by the Sultan's principal wife, the betel-nut caskets
(puan) borne along behind the Sultan and his principal wife, and a
"talisman of petrified dew" to which great honour is paid. These
regalia are said all to have belonged to Mudzafar Shah, the first
Sultan. The other "regalia" are really heirlooms. Many Sultans
made a point of adding one or two articles to the regalia inherited by
them from their predecessors, but it is of course extremely hard
definitely to lay down what is an heirloom and what is not. When
Sultan Ismail was being pursued by the English in 1876 he carried
the regalia with him in his flight: some of the articles were thus lost
and others were damaged or destroyed. Furthermore the Colonial
Government insisted on the surrender of the swords of State (bawar)
held by the chiefs who were exiled to the Seychellesex-Sultan
Abdullah, the Manteri, the Laksamana and the Shahbandar: these
articles were (I believe) all lost. Another sword of Statethat of the
Bendaharais also said to have been lost. The rest of the Crown
properties are still in the Sultan's possession.
74
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
(2). The regalia that every Sultan must wear at his installation
are the following:
(a) The sword known as chura si-manjakini,
(b) The chain known as rantai bunga nyiur,
(c) The armlets known as pontoh bernaga,
(d) The signet called chap halilintar kayu gamut,
(e) The keris pestaka.
The Sultan has to wear these five things and to sit absolutely
motionless while the band plays a certain series of notes a certain
number of times. Each series is called a man. The Sultan fixes the
number of man that he can sit out, but the number should not exceed
nine or be less than four. Any movement on the Sultan's part at this
time would be extremely inauspicious. The most important of the
regalia is the sword of state known as chura si-manjakini. I t is worn
with a chain slung over the shoulder. The sword is associated with
the spirit of the kingdom (Jin Kerajaan) who is apt to press upon it
at the time of installation. To satisfy the widow of Sultan Ali who
insisted on this detail the present Sultan put a little pad on his
shoulder to prevent it being injured by the weight of the Jin, and
His Highness states that he did feel a curious pressure on three
separate occasions at his installation. The Malay tradition about this
sword chura si-manjakini is that it was the sword of Alexander the
Great and that it was used by Sang Sapurba to kill the great serpent
Sikatimuna which infested the land of Menangkabau.
On that
occasion the sword got terribly notched, and the notchesaccording to
the storycan be seen to this day. But I must add that several Malay
dynasties claim to possess this sword and t h a t the Perak sword is not
notched. I t is a fine, light bladeprobably a Damascus bladeof
good workmanship, with a hilt of gold and a scabbard of cloth-of-gold :
the hilt has no guard whatever, the upper portion of the hilt is
covered with Arabic lettering and the lower portion has a rough surface
made to resemble shagreen. I have no doubt whatever that the sword
is neither European nor Malayan; its make is distinctly traceable to
Syrian or Arabian influence, but of course the hilt may have been
actually made in India or Persia. The Arabic inscription has not been
deciphered; portions of it, at all events, are Koran texts. His Highness
said that a local pundit had inferred from the Arabic that the sword
had been used at the Prophet's great victory of Badr. But the lettering
is modern Arabic and not the Kufic character that was used for some,
centuries after the battle of Badr.
APPENDICES.
75
The rantai bunga nyiur is a very pretty chain but has no special
interest. The armlet (pontoh bernaga) is in the form of a dragon
coiling round the arm. The keris pestaka (also known as the keris
terjewa lok lima) has a sheath covered with gold, the gold being
adorned with very minute thread or filigree work: it is a very beautiful object but has no history or tradition attached to it.
The only point worth noticing about these three last items is that
similar articles enter into the costume of every Malay bridegroom.
The armlet, the chain and the keris are appurtenances of every king;
the sword chura simanjakini and the seal (kayu gamat chap halilintar)
are the special distinction of the " line of Alexander." The seal in
question is a small silver seal with a piece of wood passing through the
handle. The original piece of woodthe kayu gamathas rotted away
and has been replaced by a new piece. The inscription on the seal is
Seri Sultan Muhamat Shah Dzil Allah fi'l Alam (the Illustrious Sultan
Muhamad Shah, God's shadow on Earth). The seal kayu gamat is
mentioned (under the name kayu kampit) as the seal of the Great
Alexander in the " Malay Annals " of A.D. 1612. The word kampit in
Sanskrit seems to mean "seal" just as the word chura means "sword,"
so that these two traditional properties of Alexander are obviously
traceable to Hinduism. But as the original wooden seal has rotted
away we have no guide to what the kayu gamat really was. The royal
armlet worn at an installation by the Raja Perempuan is known as the
pontoh ular lidi and is only a small replica of the Sultan's armlet. One
is the "dragon" and the other is by contrast the "little snake" (dendrophis pictus). The two betel-boxes borne behind the king and queen
are known as the puan naga tarn and thepuan bujur respectively. The
fittings are of gold. The royal talisman (mestika embun) is said by
tradition to have been given by To' Temong, a great Upper Perak
girl-Saint to Mudzafar Shah the first Sultan of Perak. It has always
been reputed to possess the most marvellous medicinal properties. His
Highness sent it to England for examination land it was pronounced
to be a ball of glass. It is very slightly smaller than a billiard ball.
The Malays still maintain that it is " petrified dew," and even His
Highness is unwilling to accept the prosaic explanation given him by
the people in London. Nevertheless this " petrified dew " illustrates a
point that was brought very emphatically to my notice in this examination of the Sultan's heirlooms. The objects to which special value
was attached by the old Perak Kings were either articles of gold and
gems or strange foreign things that might be of little real value but
76
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
were prized because the Perak people did not know what they were and
could produce nothing like them. A ball of glass left by a casual
stranger in an Upper Perak village some 300 years ago would be a
source of endless wonder to the people and would become the subject
of innumerable stories.
(3). His Highness the Sultan gave me every information and
assistance when he permitted me to examine his heirlooms, and the
following articles were declared by him to belong to the Crown as such
and not to individual holders of the Sultanate. There is the Jceris
known as the kceris Hang Tuah because it is said to have belonged to
the great Laksamana who fought against the Portuguese between
A.D. 1509 and 1526. This kceris has a handle of the usual type and the
lower part of the sheath was covered with gold, making it a Jcrris
terapang:
His Highness has now had the upper portion (sampir)
covered with gold, making it a kceris terapang gabus hulu . There are
two heavy swords of the European type with heavy basket h i l t s : the
hilt of the smaller one (the pedang perbujang) is suasa, i.e., of an alloy
of gold and silver: the hilt of the larger one (the pedang rajawali) is
of a curious cloisonne or niello work. I cannot speak with any
confidence as to the origin of these swords.
There is a handsome covered bowl (mundam) resting on a platter:
these things are made of gold and there are some stones set along the
edge of the bowl; the work is Malayan and the reputed date is about
1700 A.D. 1 There is a kceris said to have been made by His Highness's
own father, the Bendahara Alang I s k a n d a r : this Jceris (known as the
kceris Bali Istambul) possesses a sheath of the most beautiful wood t h a t
I have ever seen. There is a small kceris the very blade of which is
made of gold: this is ascribed to a Sultan who lived about A.D. 1700.
There is a very curious waist-belt made up of sixteen plates, each plate
being of a sort of niello or cloisonne. I t is certainly not Malayan.
There is a very strange breast ornament (the kanching alkah) for
adorning the front of a woman's dress. I t is made u p of six dragons :
the two upper dragons approach each other with their heads and tails
while their bodies curve outwards ; between their heads is a fish; below
them are two dragons stretching downwards parallel to one another;
below these again are two more dragons crossed. The whole ornament
is made up of a sort of mosaic of poor g e m s ; it is non-Malayan.
1
This bowl, since alas ! stolen, was used for ayer limau. Snouck Hurgronje
alludes to " Achinese vessels of brass, mundam:" the word is hardly known in tho
Peninsula; and perhaps this specimen was a relic of Achinese invasion and influence.
APPENDICES.
77
There are two large platter-tables of silver. These are in regular use
at the Sultan's meals. There is a very fine gold-topped betel-box made
of the rare Ligor niello work with its fittings all of niello.From an
account given by Mr. R. J. Wilkinson on information supplied by the
kindness of H.H. the Sultan of Perak.
PERAK WEDDING COSTUME.

(I). Of the wedding dress of the scions of great princes:
First, a medicine-man dispels evil influences, Portuguese thread
is tied at the groom's neck, two candles are stuck before a lookingglass, sacrificial water is sprinkled, saffron rice strewn, and a little of
the bridegroom's hair clipped. Then the hair on his brow and his
eyebrows is dressed and the hair on the nape of his neck cut in the
shape of a sparrow's tail. All his finger-nails are stained red with
henna. When the legal rites are over and the time comes for the
bridegroom to sit in state, attendants dress him as follows:
Silk trousers, with a pattern of gold thread a foot and a half deep
at the bottom, a piece at the back of the ankle shaped like a ' duck's web,'
a cord down the seams ; a coat of the style called sedermelkah, adorned
with tiny patterns in flowered gold and silver and patterns in Portuguese
gold-leaf; a long skirt, heavy with gold thread; a turban, bound with
gold, decorated with brilliants and fringed with pearls and all manner
of beads; a gold diamond-studded aigrette, with filigree pendant; a
waist-buckle of gold repousse work or studded with diamonds and
rubies; a circular gold ornament, hung by a chain round his neck; a
gold breast-plate of nine tiers of plates; a gold collar that came
out the sea; armlets with dragon-heads on each upper arm; gold
bracelets with perforated zigzag pattern raised in two tiers fastened
by a screw; hollow fretted gold anklets ; on the index-finger of his
ring hand a gold ring, called " the sated leech "; and on the little finger
a gold ring with heavy bezel called the "elephant's footprint"; a
diamond ring on the little finger of his left hand and a ring with three
stones set in the pattern called " the garden of fire-flies "; on the fourth
finger a keris with a ivory haft in fretted gold cup, the cross-piece of
the sheath cased in gold set with diamonds and brilliants, the stem in
gold alloy set with all manner of jewels, a piece of gold-threaded silk
wrapped round the top of the keris; across the shoulders a scarf of thin
silk adorned with gold thread, brought down under each arm (like the
78
cordon of an order). Thereafter he is seated in state on a pandam

mat of nine layers covered with yellow silk, with its corners embroidered
in fern pattern. All the eunuchs, heralds, chamber-women and pages
sit before him carrying the regalia and awaiting the mandate of his
royal parents to start on the wedding procession. A golden fan is held
before his face.
As for the dress of the brideFirst of all, an old wise-woman
sets to work to dispel all evil influences: Portuguese thread of several
colours is tied at the bride's neck; two candles are stuck before a
looking-glass; sacrificial water is sprinkled; saffron rice strewn; the
old woman takes and waxes seven long hairs and then clips them off.
(Now if the end of the hairs fall towards the bride or the stump of
hair remaining move after the clipping, it is a sign the girl has been
deflowered, but if the clipped tresses fell straight outwards and the
stumps do not move, then she is a maiden). After that, her front-hair
and her eye-brows are dressed and the short curling hair at the back
of her neck is arranged in the shape of a sparrow's tail. Her hair is
done into a roll. She is invested in bride's dress: silk trousers of
Achinese cut, gold threaded at the bottom, and with the ' duck-web';
a gold threaded silk skirt of fine, small pattern; a crimson jacket stamped
with gold-leaf with quilted collar, the edge of collar and wrists adorned
with jewelled gold work; a scarf of cloth-of-gold or of the lime
pattern interwoven with gold and with heavy gold-threaded border;
a crescent-shaped pendant ornament; twelve tiers of gold breast-plates ;
a bead necklace of gold; nine rows of gold bean necklace; a long chain
tucked into the waist-band; a Manilla chain of five rows; three rows
of a necklace of gold coin-like discs; fine Arabian belt; on each arm four
rows of solid gemmed gold bracelets with spoon-like e n d s ; on each
upper arm a gold armlet with snake's-head ends ; hollow gold anklets ;
a large, round gemmed gold earring; on the index-finger of the right
hand a plain, thick, round gold ring ; on the little finger of the right
hand a ring set with rubies and other precious stones; on the little
finger-nail of the left hand a nail-guard surmounted by a jewelled
filigree peacock; rings set with small rubies on every finger; on her
brow a gold gem-studded frontlet; and above her chignon gold jewelled
flowers. W h e n all is ready, the bride is seated on a golden mat and
fanned by her maidens so t h a t she may not swelter under her excess
of clothing.
( I I ) . Of the bridal dress of saiyids, sheikhs and pilgrims:
First of all, ill-luck has to be dispelled and hair fringed. Then
APPENDICES.
79
the groom is invested in pilgrim dress : white Arabian drawers, small at

the ankle; a jacket of coarse white linen, embroidered at neck and wrists ;
a short, long-sleeved vest, open in front, with three b u t t o n s ; a Cashmere
waist-band tied with a plaited k n o t ; in front a tight sleeveless undervest; a head-dress tied in the Medina style, above it being wound a
white or Cashmere shawl decorated with pearl bead lace, and outside
that a gold-paper aigrette. A short curved Arab dagger, with gold hilt
and silver sheath, is stuck in the waist-band. A long robe is donned,
of expensive fine material. Then the bridegroom is seated on a mat
of seven thicknesses, with embroidered corners, in the presence of
pilgrims and the pious and his relations, to wait till the hour of evening
prayer is past before they shall go in procession with drums and fencers
prior to the sitting-in-state. For Sharifas, first of all, evil influences
are dispelled as in the case of princesses, their short front hair is
brushed down and fringed, their tresses are combed and oiled and
scented with ambergris. Then they are dressed in drawers of Arab
p a t t e r n ; a long jacket; a face-veil; a head-veil with shredded gold; a
long shawl with gold fringe; on each wrist a gold bracelet fastened
with a screw; gemmed pendants in the ears, two rows of gold chain
round the neck ; a ruby ring and rings with various gems on the indexfingers, and the little fingers and the ring-fingers of both hands; tinkling tiered hollow gold anklets. Kohl is drawn along the lower edges
of both the eyes. W h e n all is ready, etc.
( I I I ) . The dress of the brides and bridegrooms who are children
of chiefs, gentry and saiyids, is like the dress of lesser princes, no finer
and no worse. If the head-kerchief is disliked, a head-dress like t h a t
of great princes may be worn, made of red cloth and decorated with
gold-paper scrolls and chevron ends and stuffed with cotton-wool; gold
earrings being pinned on the ends. A crackling tinsel aigrette or a
nosegay or rice fixed on rotan in fancy shapes will be stuck above the
head-dress.
PAKAIAN
ZAMAN
DAHULU
Peri menyatakan pakaian Raja-raja dan orang Besar-besar anak

Baik, Saiyid-saiyid, Inche'-inche'' Wan-wan, Sharif dan Megat Miur dan
yang perempuan pula, anak Raja, anak orang Besar, anak orang Baih
Sarifa, Siti-siti puteri pothun mai anak ka-pada anak inang ayer kaki
ayer tangan raja aorta pula orang yang kebanyakan itu:
Sa-bermula: ada-pun pakaian raja besar-besar itu berseluar her-
80
changgal sutera batang merah berpuchok rebong benang emas di-kaki

seluar itu sa-belah menyabelah bertongkah bertali pula; berbaju alang
berbuah emas sa-biji; berkain Bugis sutera; berikat pinggang tali
betong berbenang emas berambu-rambu pula panjang sembilan hasta
berbulang luar. Maka di-sisipkan keris terapang berulu gading berpenongkok emas urai, sampir dan sarong sampai ka-buntut-nya semuanya emas; di-kenakan pula tengkolok bertelepok dengan benang emas
atau tengkolok bersurat kalimah Arab, ikatan solek belah mumbang
yaani tengkolok itu di-tinggikan di-sa-belah kanan rata sa-belah kiri
nyata kelihatan rupa-nya itu puncha tengkolok itu keluar. Dan baju
dalam-nya baju pendek lengan nama-nya sutera beragi aneka jenis
ragi-nya itu seperti rupa hiris halua ragi-nya puteh kuning hitam.
Maka Raja Muda Raja Bendahara berseluar pedendang berbenang
emas sedikit berchermin dan buboh pula kelip-kelip di-kaki-nya i t u ;
kain peranak telepok; berikat pinggang kain chindai jantan panjang
sa-puloh sa-belas dengan rambu-rambu-nya; berkeris pendok yaani
pendok itu sarong-nya sahaja di-salut dengan emas dan bertuli-tuli
emas p u l a ; memakai baju alang kain alang. Maka bertengkolok alang
bersolek daun kachang sa-helai, yaani melintek ka-hadapan ketiganya, suatu puncha keluar terdiri seperti sa-helai daun kayu sahaja
rupa-nya. Bahawa pakaian Raja Muda kuning semua-nya. Dan
pakaian orang besar-besar empat dan orang besar delapan seluar
' p a ' sekarap (? empat sa-karap) dan inche'-inche' wan-wan bakal jadi
orang besar i t u : maka baju-nya sayap layang-layang kepok tinggi
tertebing, buah emas sa-biji. Akan-akan pakaian orang besar enambelas dan orang besar tiga-puloh dua itu, jikalau yang tua-tua berkopiah mana-mana kesukaan hati-nya: maka seluar-nya itu ' lam
Sayong' pesak bersongkit ragi rinek-rinek kaki seluar itu hingga
betis-nya sahaja, sa-tengah sutera dan sa-tengah benang; kain
kembong kain B a t u Bara atau kain Mesah sutera; berikat pinggang
kain limau atau kain tenggarun bulang luar keris tersisip; tengkoloknya Batek lasam halus seperti kertas bangun ikatan tengkolok-nya itu
solek bernama ayam patah kepak lingkup sa-kali sahaja puncha kahadapan; atau ikat getang pekasam: jikalau berkopiah pun kopiah
resam atau kopiah bertekat kalimah Arab atau kopiah Arab. Dan
penghulu-penghulu nai seluar-nya seluar panjang atau seluar gadok
baju kurong tangan besar buah sa-biji atau baju berkepok Teluk
Belanga buah tiga biji tiga saku-nya; berkain bulang dalam kain-nya
kain chorak anak lebah; bertengkolok Batek ikat-nya getang pekasam
atau berkopiah Arab. Dan pakaian saiyid seperti pakaian haji yang
APPENDICES.
81
sa-tengah pakaian peraturan penghulu-penghulu itu juga dan pakaian

Sharif Megat Amir, seluar pasang Batu Bara sutera bertapak itek dikaki seluar itu bertali, baju-nya kain puteh gunting hanyut kanching
lima biji tiga saku-nya, kain-nya kain M u n t o k ; kopiah resam hitam
atau bertengkolok batek Betawi ikat-nya getang pekasam. Dan
pakaian anak kanda dan anak inang demikian juga tetapi kain bulang
luar ya'itu orang bebas masok ka-dalam tiada bertegah tiada berlarang.
Demikian juga anak bentara-bentara raja itu pakaian sa-rupa belaka.
Maka di-sisipkan sa-bilah keris di-sa-belah kiri-nya ya'itu keris sapukal bersarong dan bersampir kayu kamuning ulu-nya gading berpenungkok emas ; bahwa keris itu-pun changut ulu-nya sa-belah kiri
juga dan sa-helai ramal sutera yang bertaburkan benang emas disimpaikan di-ulu keris itu. Shabadan lagi pakaian orang yang kebanyakkan pula pakai seluar gunting China baju pesak sa-belah berbelah dada berbuah sa-biji kain-nya pelekat benang mantah; tengkolok-nya Batek Semarang puncha kedua-nya ka-belakang sa-kerat
pula menudong tengkok-nya ayam mengeram nama-nya, dan yang tuatua kopiah-nya mengkuang lepar di-lengkar di-buat sa-ukur-ukur
kepala-nya di-balut dengan kain puteh atau kain beragi-ragi di-jadikan
kopiah-nya serta seluar baju kain kembong-nya kain puteh belachu ya'itu kain puteh kasar. Maka ada-pun pakaian raja-raja perempuan itu
berseluar pasang Acheh sutera berbenang emas di-kaki-nya bertapak
itek pula kain kembong-nya sutera puhalam baju-nya baju kain sitin
yang berbunga-bunga bermacham-bermacham ragi-nya; ada yang
merah, ada yang biru, ada ungu biji rumeniya, ada yang sitin berbunga
batang emas. Maka baju kurong tangan berlengsar ya'itu tangan
kechil dan baju itu singkat hingga bawah ponggong labuh-nya itu
sahaja. Maka di-buboh-nya bunga baju pula dari-pada tengkok sahingga ka-dada-nya dan ujong tangan-nya kiri dan k a n a n : maka ada
pun bunga baju itu emas berkarang: berpending emas pula pengikat
kain itu dari luar: berselendang kain jong sarat atau kain chelari berbenang emas seperti hiris halua atau kain duri nibong sutera puehoknya benang emas atau kain limau tenggarun atau kain tiga sa-lumpat
atau kain beras patah atau kain bunga chengkeh atau kain Bali atau
kain Champa atau kain pelang-pelangai atau kain batek selendang
atau batek kembong kain perai China hitam merah biru ungu kuning
puteh. Maka ada pun kain kembong-nya pula kain mastuli kain
tenun Batu Bara kain sutera pualam halus nipis chorak-nya rinekrinek empat, kain Pelembang dan kain peranak telepok: nama ikat
kain-nya itu ombak beralun ya'itu berputar daripada kanan permati-
82
an-nya di-sa-belah kiri. Maka ini-lah pakaian sekelian perempuan

tiada di-tegahkan yang menjadi ketegahan hanya-lah bagai adat
seperti pakaian raja-raja dan orang besar-besar anak baik tiada boleh
di-pakai oleh orang kebanyakkan zaman dahulu kala. Maka apa-bila
To' Bentara perempuan memakai, ia pun berjalan ka-tengah istana
puncha selendang-nya itu di-lepaskan ka-bawah tiada pula di-simpan
puneha-nya karna ia orang dalam : maka jikalau orang perempuan
yang bukan orang dalam tiada boleh di-lepaskan puncha kain
selendang itu ka-bawah tegahan yang besar kapada istiadat melainkan kain selendang itu apa-bila masok ka-dalam istana tiada boleh
di-taroh di-atas bau kanan lagi, di-jatohkan di-punpun puncha-nya
yang kedua-nya taroh ka-hadapan baharu-lah mengadap.
Bab peri menyatakan barang-barang emas pula. Maka lepas
bunga baju itu berchinchin bunga nyiur dan chinchin tapak gajah dan
berbunga sena emas dan berbunga ketar emas atau perak ; berchuchok
tongset sa-batang emas atau suasa bersunting delima atau intan permata satu atau banyak, atau kerabu berpahat bertelur ikan semua-nya,
keronchong emas atau perak di-buboh genta pula di-dalam-nya,
tanglong beradu nama-nya. Maka jikalau anak dara pula pakaian-nya
seperti itu juga tetapi bergelang emas bersudu atau suasa bersudu
kepala emas, bersubang yang besar berpermata satu delima atau pirus
dan merjan bergelugur. Maka ada-pun pakaian anak-anak laki-laki
bergendit emas atau perak di-pinggang-nya bergelang tangan emas
belah rotan bergelang kaki bulat emas atau suasa, beragok emas berpahat bertelur ikan di-karang berpermata satu batu delima bangun
bulat seperti bunga kiambang, berantai perak berkachang sepat digantong kapada leher-nya. Maka bermerjan gelugur juga. Maka
jikalau kanak-kanak perempuan pula memakai gelang bersudu emas
atau suasa beragok emas bangun-nya pipeh bertakoh berawan-awanpula
berpahat berbunga ikan juga serta pula derham emas nipeh enam-belas
biji berbunga-bunga juga di-gantongkan kapada leher-nya atau rantai
emas dan merjan gelugur dan di-buboh chaping emas atau perak
menutupi kemaluan-nya itu. Maka telinga bersubang kechil-kechil
permata satu. Maka pakaian kain baju seluar-nya sa-rupa seperti yang
tersebut di-atas itu juga tetapi pakaian anak-anak raja-raja dan orang
besar-besar dan anak baik-baik mana-mana sudah di-perbuat-nya itu
tiada boleh di-pakai orang kebanyakkan sa-rupa dengan itu di-kurangkan sedikit bangun-nya jangan sa-rupa kapada pakaian pangkatpangkat yang sudah di-lebehkan Allah subhana wataala itu, jangan
sa-kali-kali melalui adat resam zaman dahulu kala.
APPENDICES.
PAKAIAN
PENGANTIN
83
DI-DALA.M
PERAK.
( I ) . Dari hal peraturan istiadat pakaian Pengantin putera Raja

yang besar-besar itu :
Mula-mula di-putuskan kerajat oleh To' Pawang yaani membuang pilak jembalang-nya; di-buboh benang Pertokal kapada lehernya kemudian di-buboh-nya pula dua batang dian kapada chermin
muka serta di-perchekkan ayer tepong tawar di-taburkan berteh beras
kunyit di-kerat dengan gunting sedikit rambut-nya; lepas itu babarulah di-andam dahi dan kening di-kerat ekur pipit di-tengkok-nya
berandam berekur pipit juga dan sa-genap jari-nya pun sudah dibuboh-nya hinai kapada kuku-nya. Maka pada ketika sudah kahwin
hendak di-sandingkan itu, maka pengantin yang laki-laki itu-pun diberi oleh sida-sida bentara memakai sa-lengkap pakaian yang indahi n d a h : seluar berchanggal sa-hasta batang emas di-kaki-nya, bertulang belut bertapak itek; baju sedermelkah bertelepok dengan
emas berpahat berbunga-bunga di-selang dengan perak berpahat;
di-tengah bunga itu di-buboh telepok perada t e r b a n g : kain panjang;
kain jong sarat berbenang emas semua-nya; tengkolok bersering
(destar) yang bersalut dengan emas bertatah dengan permata intan
serta pula berambukan mutiara dan manikam pancha r a g a m ; tajok
malai emas intan di-karang ; pending emas berpahat atau pending berpermata intan berselang dengan delima ; agok, dan dokoh sembilan
t i n g k a t ; rantai kengkalong sa-lapis yang datang dari l a u t ; pontuh
bernaga di-lengan kanan dan kiri; gelang kana emas bertunjal berkerawang berpahat terus bersiku keluang dua t i n g k a t ; keronchong
emas berkerawang; chinehin emas pachat kenyang kapada telunjok
kanan ; dan chinchin tapak gajah kapada kelingking kanan; chinehin
intan di-kelingking kiri dan chinehin permata tiga kunang sa-kabun
di-jari manis-nya; keris terapang berulu gading berpenongkokkan emas
berpahat terus sampir bersalut dengan emas bertatahkan intan pudi
manikam bersalut dengan suasa bertatahkan permata berbagai warna.
Maka di-simpai pula bungkus sutera berbenang emas di-ulu keris terapang itu berkain chelari bertabur benang emas di-buatkan kindangkindang (sayap sandang) di-kenakan ka-pada bau-nya itu. Sa-telah
sudah lalu-lah di-dudokkan di-atas peterana yang keemasan di-atas chiu
sembilan langkat yang berulas dengan kain sutera yang kekuningan
berpenjuru bertekat awan sakat di-hadapi oleh sida-sida bentara inang
pengasoh kanda dan manda budak kundang sakalian-nya berjawatan
perkakasan Kerajaan sa-kadar menantikan titah ayahanda baginda
sahaja hendak berangkat berarak langsong bersanding itu serta pula
84
di-dindingkan suatu kipas emas berpancha logam ka-pada muka

pengantin itu. Arakian, maka tersebut-lah pula kesah istiadat
peraturan alat pakaian pengantin putera raja besar yang peremjman
pula. Maka mula-mula di-putuskan kerajat oleh To' Bidan yaani
membuang pilak jembalang-nya lalu-lah di-buboh-nya benang panchawarna ya'itu benang Pertokal kapada leher-nya. Kemudian di-buboh
pula dua batang dian kapada chermin m u k a : sudah di-perchek ayer
tepong tawar maka di-tabur berteh beras kunyit; rambut-nya di-ambil
oleh To' Bidan itu tujoh helai di-sapu dengan minyak lilin lalu-lah dikerat-nya. Maka jikalau rambut itu jatoh ujong-nya kapada
pengantin itu atau pangkal rambut yang tinggal itu mengakar yaani
bergerak lepas di-kerat itu-lah alamat tiada isi rumah-nya yaani laksana
kuntum bunga angsana sudah terdahulu di-sering oleh kumbang
mengambil madu-nya; dan jikalau tiada yang demikian itu tatkala dikerat To' Bidan itu betul ia jatohmelintangdi-hadapan-nya dan rambutnya-pun tiada bergerak; maka insha'llah taala berkat putera orang
tua-tua, maka itu-lah alamat tiada rujid isi rumah-nya chukup
lengkap sakalian-nya. Sa-telah sudah itu lalu-lah di-andam dan diturunkan rambut-nya tikam kundai serta pula di-raminkan gandek dan
di-andamkan pula kening-nya itu dan di-turunkan anak-anak rambut
di-tengkok-nya melentek walis berkerat ekur pipit dan berandam
tengkok-nya. Baharu-lah di-sanggul lipat pandan. Maka di-beri
pengantin itu memakai seluar pasang Acheh sutera berbenang emas
di-kaki-nya bertapak itek; kain sutera berbenang emas kain bernama
kain duri nibong; baju kesumba murup gunting seroja bertelepok
dengan perada terbang berbunga buah emas berpermata intan dari
leher baju hingga ka-ujong tangan-nya kanan dan kiri, kain selendang
jong sarat atau kain limau bertabur dengan benang emas berpuchok
bersongkit dengan benang emas juga, agok dan dokoh dua-belas
tingkat merjan bergelugur; rantai berchemok sembilan lapis rantain y a ; rantai kengkalong sa-lapis; rantai Manila lima lapis; derham
emas tiga lapis; seni-seni kanching alkali sa-lapis (di-ikat di-pinggang
di-atas pending) gelang bersudu emas permata intan empat tingkat sabelah menyebelah; puntuh ular lidi kapada lengan kanan dan k i r i ;
keronchong emas ka-pada kaki-nya; subang emas permata i n t a n ;
chinchin pachat kenyang di-telunjok k a n a n ; chinchin permata delima
berselang manikam di-kelingking k a n a n ; changgal merak emas bertatah intan di-kelingking kiri-nya dan chinchin permata delima ikat
kunang-kunang sa-kabun sa-genap hari-nya; kilat dahi emas yang
bertatahkan pudi manikam ka-pada dahi-nya; t u t u p sanggul yang ke-
APPENDICES.
85
emasan berbunga si-sit yang bertatahkan intan berselang pudi di-kena

ka-atas kepala-nya pengantin perempuan. H a t a sa-telah mustaed
sakalian-nya, maka pengantin itu-pun lalu-lah di-dudokkan oleh isteri
raja-raja yang tua-tua di-atas peterana yang keemasan sambil di-kirap
oleh sekelian dayang-dayang biti-biti perwira dengan kipas berpuloh-puloh supaya jangan hangat sudah terkena pakaian yang teramat banyak itu.
( I I ) . Dari hal Pengantin tuan-tuan Saiyid atau Sheikh dan orang
yang sudah menjadi Haji. Maka ada-lah seperti aturan yang sudah
di-sebutkan; ini pula pakaian-nya:
Pertama-tama di-putuskan kerajat juga dan andam seperti keadaan
pengantin Iain-lain. Kemudian lalu-lah di-beri memakai pakaian h a j i ;
seluar puteh kechil kaki gunting Arab, baju geramjun puteh jarang
rupa benang-nya serta pula berbunga di-dada dan di-ujong lengan;
anteri geramsut terbelah dada dan tangan-nya laboh berbuah tiga
biji; ikat pinggang kain Kashmiri puncha permatian berbuku bemban
ka-hadapan-nya; sadariah baju singkat tiada tangan hingga ka-ketiak
sahaja keramsut H i n d i ; serban puncha panjang dua hasta di-belakang
lilit Madinah; di-atas serban besar, kain puteh atau kain Kashmiri
itu di-buboh pula berenda dengan manek di-karang atau mutiara dik a r a n g ; sa-keliling serban itu di-labohkan tajok perada yang berawanawan pula. Di-sisipkan pula sa-bilah jamsa berulukan emas dan berkarangkan perak kapada pinggang-nya. Di-kenakan pula jubah kain
angguri yang mahal harga-nya. Maka pengantin itu-pun lalu-lah didudokkan di-atas chiu yang tujoh langkat berpenjuru tekat bersulam
di-hadapi oleh sekelian haji dan lebai serta pula waris-nya itu sa-kadar
menanti saad ketika lepas sembahyang asar hendak berarak dengan
rebana zikir berdah sa-keliling tempat itu ; kemudian baharu-lah disandingkan oleh ayahanda bonda-nya itu. Hata, maka tersebut-lah
pula istiadat pakaian yang perempuan ya'itu tuan saripah itu. Maka
pertama-tama di-putuskan kerajat-nya juga seperti peraturan pengantin
putera raja yang besar-besar. Maka di-andam serta pula di-turunkan
tikam kundai rambut-nya itu ; di-sikat dan di-minyak di-buboh bauan
ambar kasturi. Baharu-lah di-beri memakai seluar gunting A r a b ;
baju Meshru laboh geramsut; mergok; m e n u a r a h ; meliyah laboh
berambu-rambukan akan batang emas berchahaya rupa-nya; gelang
emas bertunjal perbuatan maghrib dua-dua sa-belah kanan dan
k i r i ; arlit permata zamrut berselang dengan pudi manikam ka-pada
telinga; rantai emas mayang mengurai ka-pada leher-nya dua lapis;
chinchin pertama-tama delima dan permata nilam, pualam, pesparagam,
86
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
kapada jari telunjok kanan dan kiri, dan jari kelingking kanan dan
kiri, dan jari manis kanan dan kiri; keronchong emas atau perak berpahat dua tingkat ka-pada kaki-nya bergenta pula. Maka di-kenakan
pula bersifat alif berchelak kapada bibir mata-nya di-sa-belah bawah
kedua-nya. Sa-telah mustaed sekelian-nya, maka pengantin itu-pun
lalu-lah di-dudokkan oleh isteri orang yang alim di-atas chiu tujoh
tingkat yang bertekat berpenjuru suji timbul seperti emas baharu dipahat rupa-nya serta pula di-hadapi oleh anak dara-dara dan jandajanda sekelian sambil mengipas pengantin itu karna terlalu hangat sakadar menantikan saad ketika masa bersanding sahaja lagi.
( I I I ) . Dari hal pakaian Pengantin anak orang Besar-besar dan
pakaian Pengantin anak-anak Baik dan jpakaian Pengantin Sarif dan
Miur dan Megat:
Maka ada-pun sa-rupa belaka sahaja semua-nya sekelian mengikut
pakaian pengantin putera raja-raja yang kechil tiada-lah berlebeh clan
berkurang sa-kadar mana-mana kesukaan hati-nya; tiada sukakan
tengkolok alang itu boleh ia memakai destar (tengkolok bersering)
yang seperti pakaian pengantin bab yang pertama itu tetapi di-perbuatnya kain merah di-isi di-dalam-nya dengan kabu-kabu di-jahit-nya,
kemudian di-telepok-nya dengan perada yang sudah bertebok berawan
pula serta berpuchok rebong kapada sa-belah menyebelah puncha
tengkolok itu. Maka di-muka tengkolok itu di-buboh-nya bersubang
emas sa-belah dan menyebelah. Kemudian di-kena pula tajok perak
gerak gempa atau bunga melur di-gubah atau berteh di-chuchokkan
kapada rotan karangan seperti bunga juga rupa-nya. Maka demikianlah di-dalam istiadat kapada zaman dahulu kala; sampai ka-pada
zaman ini-pun demikian-lah juga tetapi ada perbuatan-nya juga seperti
adat ini dan sa-tengah terkadang-kadang tidak karna istiadat sudah
menjadi resam; kebanyakkan pula suka mengikut bab yang kedua
pakaian haji kahwin anak dara atau berkahwin janda, ada-nya.
NOTES.
The wedding dress of lesser rajas, male and female, as also t h a t of
commoners, differs only in quality and not in kind from that of great
rajas; and the difference is due rather to purse than royal prerogative,
because bride and groom are raja sa-hari, royal for the day. As a
matter of fact, only scions of the Perak house, for example, are in
a position to obtain the use of, and wear, the pontoh and kengkalong and
APPENDICES
87
the gold-bound destar: in place of the baju sedermelkah (a pedang

sedermelkah is also mentioned) and the baju seroja, other rajas wear,
men the baju alang and women the baju kurong: for the gelang kana are
substituted gelang belah rotan berpahat berkerat telur ikan or any gold
bracelets available: a keris pendok {see p. 44) or a keris merely with
wooden scabbard, or nowadays no keris at all is worn. For the Persian
destar, lesser rajas wear the head-kerchief (e.g., tengkolok alang sutera
hitam bertelepok perada terbang sermua-nya) and one may wonder if we
have not here an instance of what Mr. E. J. Wilkinson notices in his
General Introduction to the " Ninety-nine Laws " in this series: namely,
how Sultans and the common folk welcomed Saiyids and their interference, but the old aristocracy looked askance at them. The costume
of divorcees, widowers and widows, on re-marriage, was somewhat
subdued. Men would wear the baju berkepok as worn by old datos ;
a sapphire r i n g ; a plain keris: women perhaps a waist-buckle of jadam,
silver inlaid with a composite black metal; bracelets of black shining
wood with fretted gold or silver ends ; plainer rings and plainer silks.
This account of wedding costume applies in all intrinsic particulars to
P a h a n g and Johore also, but not probably to the Negri Sembilan, and
there are a few differences in the northern States.
Below are appended lists of such patterns and clothes as are not
noted in the text. I n each case: ( I ) refers to Wilkinson's Dictionary;
( I I ) to Clifford and Swettenham's; ( I I I ) to Logan, J. I. A.; (IV) to the
writer.
THE BAJU.
( I ) . Baju anggerka, a long overcoat or surtout. H t . Abdullah;
(The breasts overlap; it is of an Arabic pattern, Pij.) B. bajang, a
kind of swallow-tailed coat, Sej. Mal. B. meskat or beskat, a coat with
an ornamental collar worn at wedding (which crosses over the chest
and is bound by a girdle, C. & S.) ?From Muscat (R. O. W.) also =
(Eng.) "Waistcoat.'' B. pesak sa-belah, a double-breasted baju (or B.
tutup imam, L.). B. seroja (Skt.) a coat with a quilted collar.
Sej.
Mal. (? with embroidered flowered pattern, cf. tikar tekat seroja
Maxwell's Sri Rama . E . O. W.) B. sika, a Bugis coat with tight
sleeves slit at the ends. B. tanggong, a buttonless baju. B. tekwa, a
long, tight, sleeveless coat, said to be of Bugis origin (worn next the
skin by men and women, C. & S.). B. teratai, a coat similar to the
B. seroja. B. top, a loose baju with very loose sleeves, worn by women
only. B. ubor, a coat with hanging collar.
88
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
( I I ) . Baju katak or katong, a tight blouse with short sleeves

fitting close to the arm above the elbow: the only openings are two
slits on the shoulders, which enable the wearer to take it on and off;
the slits fastened by a single button near the junction of the neck with
the shoulder . . . . worn at work. B. ayat, a short-sleeved vest,
printed with texts and worn in war. B. kajari, a long robe of silken
stuff, which hangs below the knee. B. stinting, a coat, with the opening
on one side: sometimes regarded as a wedding garment to be worn by
the bridegroom.
( I I I ) . B. sikat (? sikap), reaches to the waist, is loose, open
and buttonless, has sleeves terminating a hand's breadth above the
wrist and a nia or collar two or three inches high. B. chara Linga,
sleeves fit close to the arm, reach to the wrist, and have a loose slit
cuff down to the knuckles (? Arabic and worn by hajis). B. tangan
kanching, a long gown reaching to the ankles, open in front and with
buttons at the cuff; only worn by the old men when they attend the
mosque or on occasions of ceremony. 'B. bastrob, a vest worn beneath
the proper baju, fastened in front by the row of buttons of gold or
jewels, without collar or sleeves; worn by people of station and
wealth. B. kurong chikah mungsang (? cheka musang), has a stiff
collar with buttons, much worn in Kedah (? with tight sleeves and
waist and a full skirt). B. baskat (? beskat), has a wide additional piece
of cloth on each side: one of these lappets is fastened by a row of
strings within the other below the armpit on the right side, and the
other fastened in a similar manner over the preceding on the left side
below the armpit. I t has a collar about two fingers' breadth board.
Much worn by Malacca Malays, who appear to have adopted it from the
Klings, as in other Malay countries it is not generally used. B.
pendipun or bersinjab, (?) the name given to any coat, when the
borders are lined with silk.
( I V ) . B. Teluk Belanga, collarless, kurong, has one button at the
throat. B. gunting Johor, ditto but buttonless. B. Penang, open all
down, with buttons in place of frogs.
TROUSERS.
( I V ) . Seluar gadok, the Chinese pattern, but narrower in the leg.
8. bambu, a kind of Malay bell-bottom; may be seen in all the
illustrations to Hurgronje's "Achinese." S. Johor, founded on English
style. S. lokchuan, of Chinese silk.
APPENDICES.
89
HEAD-DRESS.
( I I I ) . A Methods
of tying the handkerchief.
(1) Belah
mumbang juntai kera, the panglima's mode, the two corners are freed
from the folds, one is brought forward and concealed between the fillet
and the brow and the other made to project like a horn or tuft. (2)
Kelongsong bunga, has both horns concealed. (3) Gulong Gua, has a
single corner introduced between the fold and the forehead and pulled
down an inch or two over the brow. (4) Gitong pideh, (?) has the
loose end neatly arranged so as to cover the head like a rumpled cloth
cap. (5) Bayang pulang panggil, ditto b u t reversed so t h a t the fillet
is behind, (6) Lang menyongsong angin has two projecting tufts and
one of the ends hanging down towards one shoulder.
B Logan gives the following caps and description: Kopiah
Surati, of cotton; k. Betawi, of gold t h r e a d ; Jc. sudu-sudu, with a
raised border behind; Jc. belanga, of thin cloth, k. Jcapi-Jcapi, which
covers the whole head and leaves only the face exposed; k.. Bugis, of
thick, soft material, made of the pith of the resam plant or of Chinese
tangsi, dyed black and bordered with silver foil.
JEWELLERY.
( I V ) . Gelang pintal, in the form of twisted cords; gl. puting
dayong, with ends like a paddle-handle; gl. patah semat, a bracelet
of ridged p a t t e r n ; gl. tali-temali, a bracelet of four or five twisted
cord-like strands; gl. puchok rebong, a bracelet of chevron p a t t e r n ;
gl. buah sireh, a bracelet with triangular ornamentation; gl. puuggong
siput, a bracelet ornamented with cross triangular grooves.
( I ) . Kings. Chinchin berapit, a ring with two stones; ch. bindu,
with one stone; ch. chap, a seal r i n g ; ch. ikat balai, a ring set with a
square flat stone; ch. ikat Belanda, or ch. ikal Eropah, a ring with a
stone set in open filigree so as to permit of the sides being seen ;
ch. kereta, a plain gold ring with a round surface; ch. limasan, a ring
set with one stone the surface of which is cut like a pyramidal roof;
ch. Mahar, the seal of the State ; ch. patah biram, or ch. susah hati,
a puzzle r i n g ; ch. peler itek, ch. pintal tiga, a ring of three strands ;
ch. seken, (shake-hands) a ring with clasped hands in gold; ch. wafaJc,
a talismanic ring with horoscope engraved on it.
( I V ) . Chinchin ikat Betawi, a ring set with three jewels at a
distance from one another; ch. garam sa-buku, a ring plain set with
one stone; ch. patah semat, a plain ring with ridged outer surface ;
90
ch. perut lintar, a round r i n g ; ch. tanam, with stones deep inset;
ch. potong tebu, a ring with outer surface in sections; ch. ketering, a
ring with removable stone.
COURT DRESS.
Kain tetampan, a shoulder-cloth of yellow silk, embroidered, and
with gold or silver fringe, worn by court attendants when waiting on
rajas. (See " Malay Annals," passim).
Kain wali, a stole reaching to the waist (in Perak of yellow silk
decorated with white and black and gold) worn by pages carrying
regalia and state weapons.
FOOD.
(1). Rambutan Betawi, salak Jambi, binjai Malacca, limau
Banjar, langsat Palembang, is a saying that shows species of fruits
especially esteemed by Malays.
(2). Nasi-nya beras Sungkai, ikan-nya lawang di-gulai dengan
daun paku, pekasam ikan lokma, tempoyak-nya tempoyak maja, ayer-nya
ayer Batang Padang, sireh-nya sireh Chikus, kapur-nya kapur Sungai
Terap; siapa makan-nya tiada teringat ia pulang ka-negeri-nya lagi.
So runs a Perak saying.
P R I N T E D AT THE
F.M.S. GOVERNMENT
PRESS,
KUALA LUMPUR.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States.']
R.
J. W I L K I N S O N ,
F.M.S. Civil Service,
General Editor.
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS.
PART I I I .
MALAY AMUSEMENTS.
BY
R. J. W I L K I N S O N , F.M.S. Civil Service.
KUALA LUMPUR:
PRINTED
BY J .
RUSSELL
AT T H E F.M.S.
GOVERNMENT
TRESS.
1910.
500-8/10.
PREFACE.
FOR assistance in the compilation of these notes on Malay
amusements I am indebted greatly to Abdul Hamid,
Malay Assistant, Perak Museum; to Raja Haji Yahya,
Penghulu of Kota Setia; to Raja Abdul Aziz, Settlement
Officer, Krian; to Megat Osman, Malay Writer to the
High Commissioner; and to Messrs. H. Berkeley,
R. 0. Winstedt, H. 0. Robinson and J. O'May.
R. J. W.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS.
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
" IN the games of children," says Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, "there survive dead and dying customs
and superstitions of their ancestors, so that they form a
little museum of the ethnography of the past."
Perak is rich in museum-exhibits of this class. Even
the game known in Europe as hide-and-seek is
turned, under Malay influence, into " the game of the
spirit of the stag" and is invested with a little halo
of elfin romance. It becomes the story of a certain
hunter who set out with a troop of followers to trap and
slay a deer, but, when successful in his quest, omitted to
propitiate with due ceremony the spirit of the slaughtered
beast. The hunter himself, as a magician, seems to have
escaped the consequences of his rash omission; his companions were less fortunate. Possessed by the ghost of
a hunted animal, each man hid from his companions, or
else, in lucid intervals, began to search vainly for the
others. The one survivor of this strange calamity
escaped to his village and described the pranks that his
friends were playing; the imitative instinct of children
did the rest. And if a captious critic puts forward a
suggestion that the name of the game may have given
rise to the legend, our Malay folklorists point out that
hide-and-seek is always played in low scrubby jungle
such as deer love to haunt. Be the explanation what it
may, parents object to hide-and-seek; they see in it a
trace of irreverence to Unseen Powers whom the children
are foolish to provoke.
In these quaint tags of old folklore we find one

reason that endears the play of children to the anthropologist; in the wide range of some toys and games
we get a second reason. When the members of the
" Haddon" expedition visited Borneo they found that
the local Dyaks could beat them easily at the game of
cat's-cradle. Personally we fail to see what precise
ethnological inference is to be deduced from the dire
result of this international match; failure in such a
contest must be admitted to cast a serious reflection on
European prowess in infantile arts, but this may be due
to the European habit of putting away childish things
on the attainment of manhood. At all events, we may
take it for granted that the game of cat's-cradle is widespread. So, too, is the use of the bull-roarer, a weird
instrument, the noise of which is used by Papuan magicians to warn women away from their initiation
ceremonies. The bull-roarer has been found in the
Malay Peninsula in the form of a toy. But here again
inference is dangerous. The wide range of tops and
kites and the diffusion of a relatively modern game like
chess should put us on our guard against rash ethnological conclusions. Then there is the pellet-bow. The
pellet-bow is used as a weapon in Further India and only
as a toy in Malaya. Is it in this country a discarded
local weapon or an imported foreign toy ? We cannot
say. Conversely, the blowpipe, which is a weapon in
Malaya, is only a toy in Nias. Must we conclude that
the blowpipe ousted the bow in Sumatra while the bow
ousted the blowpipe in Nias? It may be so; still, we
cannot speak positively. The most unfortunate feature
about this branch of anthropological research is that it
supplies us with no solutions to the riddles in which it
is so rich. Though a happy hunting-ground for the
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S
GAMES.
theorist, it is a bewildering labyrinth for a student of

cautious temperament.
Another source of puzzling interest is to be found in
the strange old sayings and quaint formulas used by the
players of most Malay games. These formulae, even
when they are meaningless jingles, persist over large
areas and seem to be associated definitely with certain
actions. A good example of this persistence is to be
found in the game known as main hantu musang, in
which a boy is supposed to be turned into a polecat by
the repetition of a charm. The words in Perak are:
Chok gelichok
Gali-gali ubi ;
Di-mana kayu bongkok
Di-situ, musang menjadi.
In Selangor the words are the same. In Acheen (where

the boy is turned into a monkey) the formula runs as
follows:
Chho' kalichho
Kalichho kanji rumi,
Meuteumeung kayee cheuko'
Jigo'-jigo' le si-banggi.
Much of this formula is meaningless or inapposite, but

the coincidence in sound must be more than accidental.
"What was the original text ? And what did it mean ?
So too in counting-out to select the principal figure
in a game 1 a curious old set of numbers is used
sometimes. In Perak the first ten numerals are:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
sandai
mandai
petulu
petanda
lat lat
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
nabi
malik i
pakpong
serunai
dani
1
The game known as chehup-chekup puyoh. In most games a stick is
broken up into as many small pieces as there are players; the pieces are drawn
at random, the child drawing the shortest piece opens the game.
I n Kelantan, the following were given to Mr. S k e a t :

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
sencle
duande
patali
patande
nalan
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
nabi
maliki
pa' poll
sungai
dawe
I n Kedah a somewhat similar list was repeated to the

writer as being the ancient numerals of the State.
Moreover, some unintelligible words keep recurring in
different games and seem to suggest the existence of a
lost language.
Children's games are also interesting for a fourth
reason: they reflect to some extent ideals of education
and culture. Even the Malays themselves see this. I n
a political pamphlet against the Dutch, an Achehnese
leader referred to the toy weapons of his boys and to
their love of playing at soldiers as evidence of the
warrior-spirit innate in his fellow-countrymen. Public
opinion in Perak encourages some pastimes and condemns others. I t condemns certain infantile diversions
because they involve pinching and slapping and dull a
child's delicacy of touch. I t sets its face against the
strange " suggestion " games in which a boy is hypnotised into unconsciousness of his surroundings. Yet the
hostility of parents to these amusements may represent
modern ideas; the ancient world must have tolerated or
encouraged a different spirit to have allowed these
pastimes to become so widespread and popular. Finally,
childreneven grown-up childrenare mimetic and
show by their mimicry the features that strike them as
remarkable in whatever they imitate. When the officers
of a European regiment are depicted as a pompous
colonel, an obsequious major, and a fat " padre reading
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
a book," we may infer that the existence of army

chaplains rather startled the Malay mind. When we
find that the " padre reading a book" is turned into
ridicule we know what verdict the Malays pass on a
profession that suggests to them a fish out of water.
Similar deductions may be drawn from many other local
diversions.
The early months of a child's life do not afford
much scope for games in the ordinary sense of the
word, but they allow of some slight possibilities in the
matter of toys. The Malay believes in automatic appliances, even for amusing the baby, so he provides
the child with a rattle and puts up over the cradle
some brightly-tinted paper streamers and whirligigs to
be set in motion by every breath of air. Movement,
colour and noisethose are the three things that amuse
the infant and prevent his worrying his parents. When
the child grows a little older and can move about the
house he is given fresh toys : rag-dolls, toy guns,
images of animals, and instruments for producing new
varieties of sound. In the Perak Museum there are
some elaborate tin models of crocodiles and other beasts
that are believed to have been intended for the amusement of children, but as a rule Malay toys are as simple
and cheap as they are ingenious. A bit of the midrib
of the coconut-frond makes an excellent buffalo if a
crescentic piece of stick is pinned on to represent the
backward curve of the horns and if a nose-ring and a
piece of rattan is passed through one end of i t : a
buffalo of this sort can be drawn round and round the
house at the heels of his. little master. A hobby-horse
is represented in Perak by a coconut-frond of which the
outer end is left bushy to typify the horse's tail while
the other extremity is bare save for two upturned pieces

of leaf that represent the ears. But even a toy like this
is a riddle to us, for riding is not indigenous to this
country. The Malays of ancient Perak had neither
horses nor roads. Did they bring over the hobby-horse
from Sumatra ? Did they copy it from Indo-China ?
Or is it a new invention, the outcome of the last few
years ?
As with toys, so with nursery rhymes.1 Hymns
like " the lullaby of Our Lady Fatimah " 2 may be safely
addressed to a newly-born baby that cannot understand
anything whatever, but the dawning intelligence of the
child of thirty months demands something that he can
follow. Rhymes for very young children have to be
simple, both in wording and melody ; the lines are short,
the song is shortlength can be given by singing the
same words over and over again. Meaningless words
are put in occasionally for the sake of melody. A good
example of a very simple rhyme is the following:
Ikan kekek ma'-nilui-lu'i,
Gelawa torak ma-nilai-la'i,
Nanti patekma- nilai-lai,
Pulang sama ma-nilai-la'i.
One versicle may be humorous, like the picture of the old

man whose beard could be used as a well-rope:
Buai-buai kadok,
Kadok jalan ka-rimba,
Panjang janggut dato' ,
Buat tali timba.
1
A number are given in Appendix I.

2 See " Life and Customs, I.Incidents of Malay Life."
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
Another may be affectionate to the child, " precious as

life to the mother" :
Ayun tajak, buaikan
Tanah Pelembang,
Ayun budak, buaikan
Budak di-timbang
tajak,
tanah Jawa,
budak,
dcngan nyawa.
Another, again, may be a pretty and poetic appeal to the

child not to dawdle:
Buaya puteh, buaya keramal ,
Naik berkubang di-atas batu,
Che' Puteh jangan-lah lambat,
Bunga di-karang sudah-lah layu.
But all alike are marked by an extreme simplicity of

language and ideas.
The first games played by children are also of a very
primitive type. One infant tickles another: the child
that stands the tickling longest is the winner. There
are two such tickling-games. Pinching adds two more
to the list. Knocking the fists together supplies still
another game, while a form of slapping provides one last
form of diversion to children of a very youthful age.
The following account of one of these amusements l gives
a fair idea of the type.
This game is played by any number of boys. They
sit down in a circle. One of them holds out his hand,
palm downwards, when the skin on the back of it is
pinched by another boy, who in turn is also pinched on
the back of his hand by the next player. In this way
each player, except the one whose hand comes to the
top, is pinched by another. At last the boy whose
1
Known as jinjing-jinjing tikus. Other games of the same sort are given;
in Appendix 11,
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
hand is at the bottom enquires, " Oi nenek, ada-kah gajah

di-bawah rumah" (Granny, is there an elephant under
the house). One of the rest replies, "Ada"
(Yes).
" Besar mana mata-nya" (how big are its eyes), he asks
again. " Sa-besar gantang " (as big as a gallon-measure),
says one of his comrades. " Hai" exclaims the player
whose hand is still at the bottom, " takut sahaja" (oh!
I am afraid). Having said this, he withdraws his hand
and pinches the back of the one at the top. Then the
next boy whose hand comes to the bottom repeats the
same questions in order to get to the top, and so on till
they are all tired and inclined to stop.
Mimetic games are also common. Two good examples
are those known as rangkai-rangkai periok and pong-pong
along after the formulae used by the players. In the
former a house is supposed to collapse. Two children
build up the house in the following way: each grasps
his friend's left elbow with his own outstretched right
hand and his own right elbow with his own left hand.
The arms of the two children make up a sort of
structure, the "house," that is to come crashing down.
They sing :
Rangkai-mngkai prriok
Periok dari Jawa ;
Sumbing sadikit terautok
Terantok di-tiang para.
Ayoh neneJc, ayoh neneh,
Rumah kita nak runtoh,
Entah ka-hulu entah ka-hilir,
Rak-rak-rum !
" The house is falling, the house is falling; crash, bang,

boom!" At these words the children let go their arms
and bring down the structure with a slap against their
sides. In the other mimetic game, pong-pong along, an
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
egg (represented by a child's fist) is " b r o k e n " at each

round, the breaking being suggested by the conversion
of a closed fist into an open hand. The little fists are
placed one above another at the beginning of the game,
while the players s i n g :
Pong-pong along,
Kerinting riang-riang ,
Krtapong ma baton g.
Minyak arab, minyak sapi',
Pechah telur sa-biji!
At these last words the lowest "egg" is " broken."

Play goes on till all the little hands are open. The
children then s i n g :
Perani-peram pisang,
Pisang masak sa-biji,
Datang bari-bari,
Di gunggong bawa lari.
Each player then jerks back his hands, and the game is
at an end.
Such amusements are soon outgrown. The child as
he gets older desires something rougher and rather more
elaborate in the details; he runs about more and seeks
an outlet for his pent-up energies. But the process is
gradual. The intermediate stage between diversions
such as those just described and true sports such as
hide-and-seek is represented by a large number of simple
games of which we need only describe two specimens.
The game called long-lang burong jawa is played by
about a dozen players. One is selected by lot to be the
neneli (grandmother) or central figure, another is the ibu
(mother) or leader, and the rest form up in queue behind
10
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
the ibu. The line of children then starts

round and round the neneh singing:
marching
Long-lang burong jawa,

Minta tabeh, anak raja lalu;
Ayam puteh mengandong telur
Ayam hitam membawa anak.
After this the leader (ibu) turns to the neneh and

asks for the loan of a key. A key (represented by
a twig or a piece of stick) is produced and is then
supposed to be lost by the children. The neneh wants it
back. A dispute follows. I n the end the ibu offers to
let the nenek have in exchange for the key any one of the
children who may be pulled out of the queue. This is a
challenge. I n the struggle that ensues the players do
their best to impede the neneh, but sooner or later the
chain of children is broken and some one link is carried
off to play the nenek in his turn.
The game called palpal siku rembat is of quite
another sort. The players stand in a row with their
backs to some volunteer, usually an adult, who has been
good enough to agree to help them. H e walks up and
down behind the row of children, holding in his hand a
small piece of paper or wood or leaf that is supposed to
represent a ticket. As he moves up and down he keeps
singing:
Pat pat siku rembat,
Buah lalu dari belakang;
Buta pechah mata melihat,
Siapa dapat ia melompat.
"While he is repeating this he slips the " t i c k e t "

surreptitiously into the hand of one of the players. A t
the last word of the formula the recipient of the ticket
is expected to dash away from the line and put himself
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
11
out of reach of the others. If ha is touched by his

neighbours before he can get away, he has to resume his
place in the ranks. If he escapes untouched he goes a
little way off and awaits the next item of the game, the
selection of his steed.
The remaining players now gather round the adult,
who asks each child in a low voice (so as not to be overheard by the " t i c k e t " holder) what he would like to
possess. Each mentions some article : the ticket-holder
is called up, is given a list of the selected articles, and is
asked to choose one of them. H e makes his choice, and
the original chooser of that article becomes his mount for
the next stage of the game.
Mounted on his steed the ticket-holder now rides up
and is asked for his " p a s s " . He presents the " t i c k e t "
to the adult, who hides it in one of his hands and asks
the " horse" to guess in which hand it is. If the guess
is wrong the poor horse has to trot his rider round again
and go through the same ceremony of producing the
pass until at last he guesses rightly and is released from
further service as a mount. The game then begins
afresh.
We now come to pastimes that give some opportunity
to a boy to show his strength and quickness. There are
many amusements of this class.
The game of hide-and-seek is found in three distinct
forms, one of which has already been mentioned because
of the folklore attaching to it. This is the main sembunyi
or main hantu rasa. I n this form of the game the
principal player (or ibu) shuts his eyes while the others
hide themselves in the surrounding scrub. At the cry of
" r e a d y " (sudah) the seeker opens his eyes and goes
in search of his companions who remain in concealment
12
till some one is found and is made ibu for the next
round. The differences between this game and the
two harmless forms of hide-and-seek will explain its unpopularity with parents. I n the two variants the
players are bound by the rules to conceal themselves
within a limited radius of the ibu ; in the main hantu
rusa they may wander as far as they please. Again
in the variants they are compelled to show themselves
very speedily; in the main hantu rusa they remain in
concealment, it may be for some considerable time.
The Malays say that when the inauspicious game is
played the spirits of the jungle show themselves to the
children and tempt them away sometimes to sure hiding
places, whence the player never emerges. Given an
over-zealous child and a prowling tiger, the superstition
is easy enough to understand. I n any case, it is only
this single form of hide-and-seek that bears an evil
reputation.
The other two varieties are known as chekup-chekup
puyoh and ibu anak. I n the former the players hide
themselves within a given radius of a tree or stump
that serves as a goal or place of safety. I t is the
seeker's business to catch some player before he can
reach this goal from his hiding place. I n the game of
ibu anak there is not even this amount of concealment.
The players station themselves only at different places
within a certain distance of the tree or stump, and at a
given signal they make a dash for the goal while the ibu or
goal-keeper tries to intercept them. I t is interesting
to note that there are no formulas associated with the
harmless varieties of hide-and-seek. With the inauspicious main hantu rusa it is different. Before the seeker
or hantu rusa starts to search for his companions he has
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
13
to leap about and utter the following meaningless

words : te-ta moler-moler, sang peningkul, la-ugor9 la-ugor,
ghau-ghau ; tunjang tindak, tunjang datang, ghau-ghau.
Doubtless the formula varies slightly from place to
place.
Blind-man's buff is known to the Malays of Perak as
main china buta. I t is played out of doors. A circle
is drawn on an open stretch of sandy ground to mark
the limits beyond which the players may not pass in
their efforts to escape the blind-man. The first child to
be caught or to be driven beyond the boundary becomes
the blind-man for the next round.
Main onyeh or main beronyeh is the name given to
another Malay pastime in which one boy, the pursuer or
ibu, chases the rest, splashing or swimming after them in
the water. The first boy caught becomes the pursuer
for the next round.
Leap-frog is met with in Perak under the name of
lompat katak, a curious coincidence, if it is a coincidence.
The name is taken from the fact t h a t the children have
to shout lompat katak' as they vault or leap over the
stooping player.
But the strangest Malay amusements are those in
which a boy is led by some sort of hypnotic suggestion
into believing himself an animal. They are the more
interesting because of the formulae with which the
metamorphosis is effected. A link between the true
suggestion-games and the ordinary games of blind-man's
buff and hide-and-seek may be traced in the pastime
known as main tikam seladang or main seladang . I n
this " w i l d - b u l l " game the player is only supposed to
act the wild bull; he is not supposed to feel like one.
He goes down on all fours in the centre of a marked
14
space while the other boys stand around and exchange

the following questions and answers :
Q. Tam-tam-kul
W h y this basket ?
A. To carry charcoal.
Q. W h y charcoal ?
A. To whet my spear.
Q. W h y a spear ?
A, To spear the wild bull.
On hearing this last proposal the wild bull begins kicking out in all directions; and the first player who is
kicked or driven out of the arena becomes " bull" for
the next round.
The suggestion-games are taken much more seriously.
In the game known as main hantu musang (to which
reference has already been made) the principal player
goes on hands and knees, is covered with a white sheet
and is said to be hypnotised into unconsciousness by the
others who march round and round him, stroking and
patting him and repeating the following words :
Sang gelisang,
Pasang bvnga lada,
Kalau da tang hantu musang
Ayam sa-ekor pum tiada.
When the boy shows signs of taking on the nature of a

polecat the formula changes to the one previously
quoted:
Chok gelichok,
Gali-gali ubi,
Di-mana kayu bonghok
Di-situ musang menjadi
After this the player is said to become possessed and to

be quite unconscious of his humanity; he chases the
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
15
others, climbs up trees, leaps from branch to branch,

and so far forgets himself as to run the risk of injury by
venturing on boughs too frail to bear his weight. I n the
end he is recalled to his senses by being addressed
repeatedly by name.
Another Perak suggestion-game goes by the name of
main kambing or " playing the goat." As in the case of
the polecat the " g o a t " is hypnotised, but the formula is
differentit runs as follows :
Chak chili chilau ong
Anak bandan obek-obek;
Menari chichak ong
Menari molek-molek.
Bangun kambing, bangun,
Nak main busut jantan;
Oh ampak langkah panjam g-panjang ,
Champak langhah pendek-pendek ,
Menari chichak ong,
Menari molek-molek.
This form of amusement, though popular among children,

is said to be dangerous to the " goat," owing to his habit
of butting against walls and posts when in a state of
trance. Some of the elder boys are generally told off to
see that accidents are prevented. Other suggestiongames (in which the player becomes a peacock or an
elephant) are recorded from Acheen. I n Perak all the
hypnotic diversions are disliked by parents.
Elder boys and young men like to take part in
such games of strength and skill as are played with
appliancestops, marbles, kites, balls or quoits. Of
these amusements the best known to Europeans is the
Malay football, sepal: raga, which is played with a rude
light ball of plaited rattan. I t demands a good deal of
skill. I t is a game for some ten or fifteen players who
i6
stand about in a circle and keep the ball in the air with
a sidelong blow from the foot. Mr. A. W. O'Sulliva n
once saw a party of ten Province Wellesley Malays
"keep the ball up 120 times without once allowing it to
drop. 1 They kick it upwards with the ball of the foot;
and skilful players in so doing often bring the foot up
level with the breast, a feat quite impossible to the
ordinary European who can make nothing of the game."
But sepak raga is losing its vogue. It is being replaced
by the European game of football, which possesses the
excitement of having the players divided into sides. So
much is sepak raga losing ground that in a list of Perak
games compiled by a Malay for the purposes of this
pamphlet it was not even mentioned.
Another game, known as main porok, is played with
a rude quoit made of a piece of coconut-shell with its
edge rounded off and with a hole knocked through its
centre. Standing with his back to the target and
with his quoit between his feet, a Malay boy with a
skilful jerk of his right foot may send the quoit rolling in
the required direction with a reasonable degree of
accuracy. In the game of porok the players divide into
two sides and draw on the ground two parallel lines at
an interval of between twenty and thirty feet. On one
line they lay the quoits of one side as targets; on the
other they station the players of the other side. The boys
are expected to hit their opponents' quoits with their own
in the manner already described. Each boy is allowed
three shots. If he fails he may be permitted to take his
1
At the sports on the occasion of the opening of the Federal Council in
1909 the winning sepak raga team kept the ball up 56 times consecutively, but in
practice when they were not nervous they are said to have done it over 400
times. A kick at the first rebound is permitted. Some Malays object to the game
as irreligious on the supposition that the slayers of Husain and his family played
sepak raga with the heads of their victims.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
17
quoit between his feet and jump backwards till he

succeeds or fails in making a clean hit at his adversary's
porok'. Should any members of the side fail to make
hits the other side gets its innings. Should they all
succeed a second test is applied. The players have to
walk backwards and with heads thrown back till they
think that they are in the vicinity of their adversaries'
line. Then they have to lift their quoits over their
heads and drop them on their opponents' quoits. The
first side to be successful in both tests is declared the
winner of the game. Porok is difficult to play, but
practice makes perfect.
Marbles1 are well known in the Peninsula, even in
places where European influence has been very slight.
Games played with them possess in some cases elaborate
rules and curious technical terms that may throw some
light on the history of the importation of these European
playthings. In some cases marbles are only a substitute
for a native plaything of the same type, such as the
candle-nut or some small hard fruit. Games like tuju
kepala and tuju lubang, for instance, may be played
equally well with candle-nuts, marbles, or coins. I n
the first the players draw a long straight line on the
ground and stake nuts on it. They then stand at the end
of the line and take shots at the stakes with their
playing nuts or tagan
A player who hits a nut wins it
and all the nuts between it and himself. I n this way
the game goes on till the stakes have all been won.
In tuju lubang the stakes may be placed in a hole, and
the player whose ball falls nearest the hole may be
allowed to take the pool. But further complications are
very common.
Games that are played with marbles
1
Sec Appendix III,
18
exclusively are known as main guli or main jaka. They

call for sharpness with the tongue as well as with the
eye and fingers, since the players have to repeat certain
words when certain things occure.g., when a marble is
hit by another. Unreadiness or inability to do this before
his opponent may deprive a player of the benefits of a
successful shot.
The Malay game called seremban1 is played with
cockle-shells. The player throws the shells into the air
and catches them on the back of his hand. But there
are many varieties of the game. In some cases it is only
the playing-shell or tagan that is jerked up and caught;
the stakes are snatched up from the ground while the
tagan is still in the air. Of course a certain expertness
is necessary if the player is to pick up shells quickly
and yet be ready to intercept the tagan on the back of
the hand, and further difficulties are added by rules as
to which shells may be picked up and which must be left
alone. There are at least six regular variants of this
main seremban apart from local differences of play.
Malay tops are of various sizes and shapes; they
are spun by a string wound round the top instead of
round the lower end. Usually they are made of very
hard Avood. The following is an example of a simple
game played with them. A player tries to hit his
opponent's top while it is spinning: if ho misses, he
loses; if both tops revolve after a hit, the one that
revolves longest is the winner; if he stops the spinning
of his opponent's top but fails to make his own top
revolve, the game is drawn. But practice makes a
Malay player so skilful that further restrictions and
handicaps have to be devised to make a match interesting.
1
See Appendix IV.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
19
A primitive teetotum is sometimes met with in

Malaya; it is made of a piece of wood or bamboo thrust
through an areca-nut. Humming tops with hollow
bodies are also known.
One variety has a body
constructed out of a piece of bamboo (joint to joint), the
other out of the hard nut-like fruit of the kulim 1 A
small hole is made in every case through the shell of the
body so as to give a low reverberating hum like the
growl of a tiger. The humming-top is used to amuse
or alarm young children; it is not employed in games
of skill like an ordinary top. Imported varieties of the
European iron-shod type are also known and are used in
special games of their own : a circle is drawn on the
ground and the rival tops may push each other or
wander out of this limited area, the ousted one being
the loser.
Malay kites are of many shapes and go by many
names. The best known in Perak are the "hawk,"
the " peacock " and the " pomfret "so called from their
general outline. They are flown in the rice-fields
during the dry season between the harvest and the
sowing. They are made of a thin stiff paper 2 on a
bamboo frame and may be of very large size; they are
very well balanced, usually tail-less, and sometimes
provided with a little automatic wind-instrument that
gives out a humming sound. A good deal of pride is
taken by a Malay in the adornment and general coloration of his kite, many fancy patterns being known and
used in the larger settlements, especially where foreign
influences prevail. Is the kite itself foreign? The
paper of which it is made is certainly alien to the
country; but, as a primitive kite made of leaf is met
1
Sorodocarpus borneensis.
Kertas jeluang.
PAPERS ON MALAY
20
SUBJECTS.
with, the argument based on paper is not conclusive.

All over the East fighting between kites is common
pastime, the object being to cut an opponent's string
and so deprive him of his plaything. In Malaya kitestrings are sometimes dipped in glue and coated with
powdered glass to give them an unsportsmanlike
advantage in this kind of contest.
There are also many toys 1 that are not associated
with any particular game. Among them we may
reckon a whole armoury of miniature weapons : the
bow and arrow, the pellet-bow (to which reference
has already been made), the blowpipe, the sling, the
throwing-stick, and various types of guns. The little
blowpipe used by Malay children is made of a slender
bamboo 2 that has very long internodes; it may be used
for killing large insects, small reptiles such as lizards,
and even little birds such as the pretty sunbirds of
Malaya. The projectile is either a small pellet of
clay or a sharp unpoisoned dart ballasted with leaf or
pith. The Malay sling is an ordinary catapult of rami
fibre; it hurls stones ordurian-seedsto some considerable
distance. The throwing-stick has a cleft at one end
from which a durian-seed can be projected by a sudden
jerky swing. Toy guns are of all sorts. One, the
bedil chenrai (so called because its projectile is the
hard fruit of the chenerai), works by atmospheric
pressure. It is a sort of air-gun, a piston working in a
bamboo-tube. Another, the bedil batang payong (made
of rusty umbrella-tubing), is a true firearm, the ammunition being Chinese cracker-powder. It is dangerous,
especially to the child who fires it, and is unpopular with
parents. Other toy-guns of a very effective character
are made by utilising the springiness of a bent-stick
working along a slit in a bamboo barrel. Some of these
1
See Appendix V.
Ochlandra ridleyi.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
CHILDREN'S GAMES.
21
have a catch that is released by a trigger, by way of

making the resemblance to a real gun closer.
Of course Malay children, like all others, are fond
of imitating the pursuits of their parents. They use
toy weapons and simple traps to procure game and fish
for themselves, taking a far greater interest in hunting
and trapping than they are likely to do at a later date
when these occupations become part of the daily round
of their lives. But they do not limit their love of imitation
to cases where such imitation can be of real use; they
extend it to matters like house-building and cooking
and even to ceremonial. The following account, written
by a Malay, gives a picture of child-life that may be
paralleled anywhere:
In the game of hut-building, children imagine themselves men
building a house. During all the proceedings they talk as men
usually talk on such occasions. Some of them are left near the site
of the proposed building, clearing the place and cooking for the
party that is to return from the forest with wood, etc. Sometimes
actual eatables are cooked, but more often earth and leaves are put
in coconut-shells placed on the fire in imitation of real cooking.
Then they tackle whatever material they have and erect the house.
Being a small hut the work presents no difficulty, especially as little
neatness is required. The posts are of bamboo, the walls and the
roof of pinang or pisang leaves, the former being woven like atop
bertam while the latter retain their natural shape. Sometimes the hut
is so small that only two or three children can be accommodated at a
time, but this is easily remediable: they arrange that it shall be
occupied by each in turn so that every one will have the opportunity
of enjoying the sitting in it. Sometimes the model house is imagined
as a grand big building. They decorate it with flowers, and if it is too
small to hold a child they make use of it in another way. Its
completion is nearly always followed by a marriage between two dolls.
This celebration is entrusted to little girls, who manufacture the dolls
themselves from rags and cotton. They imitate the way in which
a real bridegroom is escorted, and go so far as to beat drums and
gongs and fire crackers. The house is then assigned to the married
dolls, which are represented as being the children of members of the
party.
22
DANCES.
A casual glance at the dances and dramas of the

Malays might lead us to infer that they all came from
abroad. The wayang is Chinese; the bangsawan is a
copy of our own comic opera; the ronggeng, gamboh and
joget come from Java; the boria was brought from
Hindustan; the hathrah and main dabus are traceable
to Arabia; the ma'yong and mendorah are relics of the
old kingdom of Ligor. Indeed, we might go further and
extend this theory to most local amusementschess,
draughts, cards, the Indian game of rimau kambingall
these things are foreign. Search as we will we seem to
find nothing but alien elements in the chief pastimes of
the Malays of to-day.
Yet this foreign origin of Malay entertainments is the
last thing that we should expect. Take dancing, for
instance. The aborigines of the Peninsula are keen
dancers;1 the Indonesians of Sumatra and Borneo show
the same trait; the classic civilisations of Java and
Cambodia raised dancing to the position of a fine art.
If national tastes are to count at all we have to remember that the Malays seem predisposed to amusements of
this typethey flock to see anything, be it a Chinese
wayang or a performing bearand no great function
(such as a royal wedding or a chief's installation) is
considered complete without its due accompaniment of
dramatic and terpsichorean sideshows. Are we then to
infer that all this is a matter of acquired taste and that the
1
Besisi dances are illustrated in Skeat and Blagden's " Pagan Races of the
Malay Peninsula." The dances of the Mai Darat are illustrated and described in
Cerruti's " My Friends the Savages." Of the northern tribes Mr. Berkeley writes,
" The Ronggeng closely resembles the dances of the Jehehr and Sambai Sakai.
In the latter, two, three or even four girls dance very gracefully and have
different step-namesthe 'yam,' the 'millet,' the 'maize,' and other foods.
The Jehehr beat a coconut-shell on tongh hide by way of music ; the Sambai
beat short lengths of thick bamboo on sheets of bark,"
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
23
Peninsular Malays have nothing that is really their own

in the long list of local entertainments ? Or may we conclude that foreign forms of amusement have supplanted
the original plays and dances of the Malays themselves ?
To some extent it is the old story of the professional
and the amateur, of the specialist and the jack-of-alltrades. Not in Malaya alone has the modern cosmopolitan artist with his band of trained performers driven
out the morris-dances and maypole-dances of the villagegreen. Now and again at some old-fashioned wedding in
a sleepy hamlet of Perak or Pahang the European guest
may be privileged to look upon the time-honoured entertainments of the people; but for the most part he sees
nothing of the sort. A Malay chief would consider himself
shamed if he regaled his guests with amateur performances of a bucolic type, when it is open to him to engage
a pair of fashionable nautch-girls or a strolling company
of ma'yong players. Our age is the age of the specialist,
a being for whom the old Malay world had no place.
Then we have to reckon with the puritanism of Islam.
Modern Malay opinion is averse to a respectable grownup girl or married woman treading a measure with a
member of the opposite sex, or indeed to her performing
in public at all. It allows children to dance, but it
would condemn severely any father who brought up his
child to the ill-famed trade of a nautch-girl. This
puritanism has driven into the background the old nonprofessional dancing of the Malays and has replaced it
by foreign entertainments, the invention of Javanese or
Cambodian courtiers for the amusement of their longforgotten kings. We are left to wonder what has become
of the old national dances, what they were like, and
where they may yet be seen.
24
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
The old order is changing before our very eyes.

The European game of football, for instance, is acquiring a popularity that the national sepak raga never
possessed ; but football has not put an end to sepak raga.
Football has become a fashionable game for the gilded
youth of the country; sepak raga is relegated to the
position of hide-and-seek, blind-man's buff, tops, kites,
marbles, and the other amusements that are tolerated in
children and are condemned as childish in people of
riper years. The pastimes of children constitute a sort
of lumber-room into which the diversions of their elders
generally end by finding their way. To the student of
ethnography this lumber-room offers a rich field of
research, and it may help us to learn a great deal about
the old-world dances that have been replaced by the
nautch-girls of Java and the trained singers of Arabia
and India.
Take, for example, the Malay dance known as tarek
papan, sorong papan. The performers are a girl and a
boy; the orchestra consists of child musicians who beat
time upon a tambourine. The boy-dancer rises first
and sings a verse of kindly invitation to his partner:
Tarek papan,sorong papan,
Hainan orang zaman dahulu;
Jangan-lah adek malu dan sopan,
Abang jangan di-beri malu.
The girl then rises and dances in her turn, replying in a

coy and shy manner that provokes her partner to further
expressions of tenderness. The performance is in excellent taste throughout, but it suggests by its language
a dance for adults rather than for children. It seems to
imply that there was a time when mixed dancing was
permitted by public opinion, and the sexes associated
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
25
more freely than they do under the present Muhammadan regime. It also tells us something of the period
of transition. When Islam put an end to mixed dancing
it had to tolerate the ceremonial imitation of mixed
dances on occasions such as weddings when Malay
custom insisted on the observance of the old formalities.
It is precisely on such occasions that the ancient dances
of the Malays are to be seen. This dancetarek- papan
sorong papanis a marriage-dance; but a still more
convincing example is the performance known as main
gubang that may not be given at all unless it is given
in the presence of two dolls dressed up as bride and
bridegroom.
There are several varieties of these marriage-dances.
Some, like those just mentioned, suggest that the
young men and maidens, guests at an ancient Malay
wedding, would rise up and dance with each other for
their own pleasure and for the entertainment of others.
But other performances were of a more ceremonial
character. There is the so-called "blossom-dance," a
curious blending of play, song and magic.1 A number of
palm-blossoms are laid on the earth and are " vivified " by
incense and incantations. An impressionable girl is then
stretched on the ground and covered with a cloth, while a,
second girl beats a tabor and sings the following appeal:
Ku anggit mayang, ku anggit,
Ku anggit pohoh mengkuang ;
Ku panggil dayang, hu panggil,
Ku panggil turun sa-orang,
Ku anggit dahan tua ;
Ku panggil dayang, ku panggil,
Ku panggil turun berdua.
1
See Appendix VI.
26

Ku anggit di-pohon buloh ;
Ku panggil dayang, ku panggil,
Ku panggil turun sa-puloh.
And so on to numbers higher than ten if the delay is

necessary. Meanwhile the girl lying shrouded in the
cloth is believed to be slowly losing consciousness and to
become possessed or revivified by the spirit of the dance.
Rising as if in a trance she picks up one of the palmblossoms, holds it at arm's length and treads a measure
with it, causing its stalk to sway in unison with her own
movements and repeating in her turn the verses that
she has just been hearing. After a time, when recalled
to consciousness by the cessation of the music, she retires
to her place, leaving the dance to be taken up by another
performer.
Another entertainment that is popular at weddings is
the bandan dance.1 In this case the players in the
orchestra sing an invitation to " bandan " to come and
dance for them. The appeal is answered by two
children, a girl and a boy, who play the part of bandan
and who dance before the rest. The words are rather
pretty and the performance is graceful.
Another curious old-world ceremony is the harvestdance that forms part of the procedure of gathering in
the rice. The performers are a band of some fifteen or
twenty young children, both boys and girls, who carry
winnowing-sieves and other tools of the harvester. The
troop is invited forward by an old woman taking up
her position on the threshing-screen and singing to the
children, who respond by dancing and putting questions
1
See Appendix VII.
LIFE AND
CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
27
for the old lady to answer in verse. When the spectators

are weary of the dancing and singing the performance is
brought to an end in the following very curious way.
The girl-leader of the children's chorus sings a verse
that purports to be a charm " making all things brittle." 1
Having done so (doubtless with the idea of making the
threshing easier) she leads her band of dancers to the
screen by way of testing the efficacy of the magic. The
children tramp and stamp on the screen; and when
a lath has shown its brittleness by breaking, the charm
is supposed to have done its work and the dance ends.
Again we have the war-dances 2 in which the fightingman of a village mimics the passes, steps and strokes
of a duel to the death. Even at the present day a performance of this type may be followed with breathless
interest by the seniors among the spectators; it recalls
to them the old wild days when the keris was more than
a curio. To the European and to the younger generation
of Malays the dance is unintelligible; it is based on
a system of fencing so highly specialised as to be unreal.
In any case, it is hardly likely to continue to exist when
the use of the keris has been abandoned; and even if it
does drag on a dishonoured existence as a game for
Malay boys, the main silat will never preserve in its new
form the curious wealth of technicalities associated with
the-national weapon of the country. The war-dance is
nearly dead; the country-dances are dying; it is doubtful
whether these ancient pastimes will survive another
generation- Let this be our excuse for recording them
before they pass away.
Not that Malay dancing appeals to everybody.
" A couple of women shuffling their feet and swaying
1
Per a poh.
Memenchak, main silat.
28
their hands in gestures that are devoid of grace or even

variety "such is Sir F r a n k Swettenham's contemptuous
description of the ronggeng, the best known dancers of all.
B u t we need not be quite so hasty with our verdicts.
The ronggeng, as Sir Frank admits, has an undoubted
fascination for Malays. She has more. She has attracted
the attention of great artists at home, the very last men
to be interested by the crude performance defined in
" Malay Sketches." A picture of a ronggeng girl has
been painted by S a r g e n t ; another figures on a panel in
the house of Alma Tadema. The merits of this form
of dancing must surely be greater than Sir Frank's
account would lead us to believe; but the explanation is
simple. Here in the Peninsula we never see the ronggeng
at her best.
Asiatic dancing is slow, stately, spectacular and
dramatic; it has very little in common with the ideals
of the ball-room. Moreover, it is less specialised than its
sister-art of the European stage. A ronggeng sings and
a c t s ; she may owe her renown less to her grace as a
dancer than to her ready wit or to the merit of her songs.
To ignorant audiences in every p a r t of the world a
clever buffoon is more interesting than the most brilliant
example of the graces of motion. If it is unfair to
judge English singing by the performances of the stars
of the music-hall stage, it would be equally unfair to
condemn the true ronggeng because her dance is parodied
in the Peninsula rather than performed.
The public dancing-girl of Java, known in the Sunda
districts as a ronggeng, is the historical successor of the
nautch-girl attached to the ancient Hindu temples of the
country. From her earliest youth she is trained for
her profession. So seriously was this training regarded
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
2g
that the Dutch East India Company established schools

and diplomas for these girls and turned their dances
into a source of revenue. The life of a ronggeug is not
the life of a vestal; but she is a dancer first and a
wanton afterwards. Such things are possible in Java
where Hindu ideas survive in sufficient strength to allow
of a girl being brought up to a profession of this kind.
In Malaya the position is different. The ronggeug is not
trained for the purpose; she only takes to dancing when
her reputation is beyond the risk of any further injury.
She begins her new life at an age when her Javanese
sister gives it up ; she possesses neither skill, nor training,
nor youth, nor freshness. Small wonder then if her
dancing often deserves the verdict that it is devoid of
grace and even of variety. Still, if the woman is to
earn her living she has to be attractive. She is
dramatic; she has an ear for melodious and effective
verse; she has memorised a rich assortment of epigrams ;
she trains her voice and her wit to meet the needs of the
moment. If interest flags, she challenges some member
of the audience to join in the dance and to bandy
epigrammatic verse with her. In this way she makes
her dance a very lively matter for the spectators; but as
an exponent of the poetry of motion she is a failure.
Of one dance Sir Frank Swettenham speaks in terms
of high praise. He is describing the budak joget or
nautch-girls attached to the court of the Sultan of
Pahang. These girls (four in number at the time of
this description) performed seldom and did so only in
private before the prince and his friends. I venture to
quote from Sir Frank's account:
" They danced five or six dances, each lasting quite half an hour,
with materially different figures and time in the music. Ail these
30
dances, I was told, were symbolical; one of agriculture with the tilling
of the soil, the sowing of the seed, the reaping and winnowing of the
grain, might easily have been guessed from the dancers' movements.
But those of the audience whom I was near enough to question were,
Malay-like, unable to give me such information. Attendants stood or
sat near the dancers and, from time to time, as the girls tossed one
thing on the floor, handed them another. Sometimes it was a fan or
a mirror they held, sometimes a flower or small vessel, but oftener
their hands were empty, as it is in the management of the fingers t h a t
the chief art of Malay dancers consists.
" The last dance, symbolical of war, was perhaps the best, the
music being much faster, almost inspiriting, and the movements of the
dancers more free and even abandoned. For the latter half of* the
dance they each held a wand, to represent a sword, bound with three
rings of burnished gold which glittered in the light like precious
stones."
Sir Frank inferred the Javanese origin of this dance

from the fact that the musical instruments that accompanied it were foreign to the Peninsula. This inference
is correct. The budak joget, or girl-dancers of the
Pahang court, are only a far-off imitation of the great
bands of ballet-girls that entertain the wealthy princes
of Java. The Sultan of Jogja possesses a ballet of some
thirty or forty dancers, all children of good families and
all between thirteen and eighteen years of age. These
girls1 dance only on state occasions, in splendid dresses
and to the accompaniment of a most elaborate band
of musical instruments. They have to undergo a
long preliminary course (from the age of six or
so) before graduating for this ballet; so that if
we allow for the girls in training and the musicians,
we can understand that the upkeep of an institution
of this sort would be too much for the finances of any
poor Peninsular prince. The minor princes of Java
1
Bedaya.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
31
keep ballets of seven dancing-girls,1 who are rather

less elaborately dressed, trained and accompanied. A
long way after these come the four budak joget of the
Sultan of Pahang. Still the budak joget do receive some
training in their youth; and the impression made by
their performance upon its European audience may help
us to be more charitable to the ideals of Indonesian
dancing.
To turn for a moment to the technique of the art,
the Malay distinguishes between the step-dancing,2 the
undulations of the fingers and arms, 3 and the swaying of
the body.4 While the European limits his attention
to the first the Malay attends to all three, but chiefly to
the second. The specific name for the arm-movement
has been chosen to be the generic name for the arta
choice that shows very clearly what the people think
of the relative value of the three items. To the expert
the rhythmic waving of a nautch-girl's arms and the
movements of her fingers are full of meaning; he has a
special term and a special explanation for each undulation. The dancing of the Javanese vonggeng is quite
classical in its simplicity; but the years of training that
it exacts from its exponents should put us on our guard
against confusing simplicity and ease.
Two ronggeng dance at a time, each being dressed in
the simple costume of everyday life and holding a scarf
or kerchief between her hands. The performers take it
in turn to sing humorous or sentimental verses, sometimes
addressing each other and sometimes turning their wit
upon the audience. It is permissible for male members
of the audience to join in the dance with one or other of
the ronggenga feature that accounts largely for the
1
Serimpi.
Tandak.
Tari,
Liok.
32
popularity of this form of entertainment in the Peninsula.

There is another dance of the same sort, the gamboh,
which is a pas seul, but it is very rare in British Malaya.
I t is only effective with a trained dancer; and the Malay
nautch-girl does not answer to that description. At the
end of a ronggrvg or gamboh dance it is usual for the performers to give an exhibition of their skill by bending
over backwards and picking up coins between their teeth.
This acrobatic detail is really a test of the fitness of the
dancer for her w o r k ; it is the hall-mark of her training,
so to speak. As art it is out of place, like the tuning-up
at an opera. We do not want explanations to show
us how the training is done.
Although Muhammadanism has done what it can to
mar the beauty of the old Malayan dances, it has not
hesitated to make use of the popular fondness for such
forms of amusement by introducing similar entertainments of its own, in which the sugar of dancing is
used to cover the pill of a religious lesson. I t trains up
children to dance and sing, but the movements of the
dance are symbolical of prayer and the words of the song
are Arabic hymns of devotion. I n this way Moslem
influence has introduced the hathrah, or catechismal
dance, 1 a form of dissipation that any pious haji can
safely patronise. As a religious influence the hathrah is
rather a failure. I n its most innocent form it is a
graceful performance that has been described as " a kind
of parody on certain forms of worship; 5 ' in its more
1
See Appendix VIII.
The following legend about the origin of the
hathrah was related to Mr. O'May :
" Once upon a time a ship was wrecked and the only survivor found refuge on
a large rock. In this rock there was a hole through which the waves beat, making a very lovely sound. The shipwrecked mariner knew some Arabic and set to
work to turn the music of the waves into a song, continuing the task after he was.
rescued and calling the result hathrah,"
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
33
harmful developments it is best known as the infamous

rateb sadati, the vilest thing in Acheen.
Usually the hathrah is danced by a long line of boys
who sing, sway, and prostrate themselves before the
venerable pundit who instructs them in religious chants.
The words are largely Arabic; the sentiment is religious;
the professed object is to glorify God; the cost of the
entertainment is met by a public subscription or by the
generosity of the patron who gives it. When it opens,
the boys are seen seated on a mat in front of their
catechist who burns incense and exhorts them to devotion.
They then rise and repeat a long chant, accompanying
the words with certain slow, graceful and rhythmical
movements, and ending the performance by falling
prostrate before their teacher in the humble attitude of
prayer. The general effect is pleasing. The uniformity
of the costumes, the rhythmical unity of the dancing, the
sweet boyish voices intoning the solemn Arabic words
in the still night air, the softness of the light, the
reverential gravity of everyone: these things combine to
make the European spectator realise the possibilities of
the religious dance.
We have been speaking of the hathrah in its most
severely simple form. It has other forms, unfortunately,
and may be spoilt by unnecessary accessories. The
Arabian tambourinebeaten by the dancers themselves
to furnish the only music that they needis supplemented
sometimes by discordant instruments. The performance
is prolonged till the dancers sink with weariness and the
spectators become sleepy with satiety. The solemnity
of the measure is spoilt by glare, by tawdry display, and
by the acrobatic meliokthe licking up of coins from the
ground. In some forms of the hathrah, the troupe is
34
PAPERS OX MALAY
SUBJECTS.
only a chorus to which one, two, or three pairs of dancers

sing and play. On these occasions the boy-dancers are
dressed as women, the dialogue is not confined to religion,
and the uniform is gaudy in the extremea crown of
tinsel, a coat of spangles, a sarong and trousers of cloth
shot heavily with gold. This dance is the Peninsular
form of the ill-famed sadati of Acheen.
More remarkable than the hathrah is the weird
religious dancing known as main dabus. Based upon the
belief that perfection in mysticism renders the mystic
exempt from physical pain, this dance attempts to prove
the theory by practice. In the words of one of its
verses,1
Sai'lillah, Tengku Saiyid Alam,
Bukit zaman, kubur aulia,
Di-tuntut besi yang tajam.
Hendak menawar besi yang bisa,
" for the cancer (of unbelief) there is no cure but the
knife." This "knife" or dolus is an awl or puncher
that can inflict a severe but not a fatal wound, a very
necessary limitation in a dance of this sort. In the
frenzy of their mystical excitement the devotees stab
themselves with their weapon and even put themselves
to severer tests of pain. Sometimes the dancers are
impostors, but they may also be fanatics who are prepared to do themselves serious injury if they can conduce
thereby to the greater glory of the Lord. And if the
testimony of eye-witnesses (European as well as Malay)
may be believed, these men are justified in their faith:
they stab themselves yet feel nothing; they cast red-hot
chains about their neck and come away scatheless.
1
See Appendix IX.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
DANCES.
35
A good account of the local branches of the great

Muhammadan mystic schools 1 has yet to be written. 2
The most important orders that are found in the
Peninsulathe Satariah, the Samaniah, the Kadiriah,
and the Nakshibandiahlook askance at the dabus
dances! The order that controls these performances is
t h a t founded by Ahmad Rifai, a Moslem saint and mystic
of the twelfth century A.D. I t has decreed that no
dahus dance may be held except in the present of a
khalifah or delegate of the founder; nor can any one be
a khalifah unless he can trace his spiritual descent from
teacher to teacher back to the great Ahmad Rifai himself.
These delegates of the founder claim to have his power
of working miracles and to be able to heal any wound
self-inflicted in the cause of religion. Here we must
leave the matter. A dabus performance is not a dance
in the usual acceptance of the w o r d ; it is a representation
of frenzy by men who may be either conjurors or fanatics.
When it is the former it is a fraud; when it is the latter
it is a pitiful sight that can only please a man with a
taste for the morbid.
One dance remainsif indeed it can be styled a dance.
Once a year, in the month Muharram, it is usual for
bands of strolling minstrels to visit the houses of wealthy
Penang Muhammadans and serenade them with songs
and evolutions that resemble military drill rather than
the dancing that Malays are accustomed to. The songs
are sometimes eulogistic and sometimes comic. These
performances, which are said to have been introduced
1
The head of one of these orders is important enough to be the magnate
who is ex-officio entrusted with the duty of investing the Sultan of Turkey with
the Sword of Osmana ceremony equivalent to coronation.
2
Since this was written a pamphlet has been published in Holland dealing
with mysticism in Java and Sumatra.
36
by the old Indian regiments formerly stationed in the

Straits and are known as boria, are based on a military
model. A full troupe or " company" consists of a
"colonel," a "major," a "chaplain" and twenty-four
" privates." The music is provided by drums, trumpets
and cymbals. The tunes are European or Indian. Each
verse (sung by the leader) is followed by a chorus of the
whole company, and it is from the key-word of the original
Hindustani chorus that this form of entertainment
derives its name. Nowadays there are many varieties
of the boria. Sometimes the singers blacken their faces
and dress themselves up as negroes; this is the boria
anak habshi. Sometimes they disguise themselves as
Chinese; this is the boria china Canton. Sometimes
they figure as Klings and call themselves mamak tongkang
and hindu kuli. They carry Chinese lanterns and perform at night only. One of their number takes the
part of a clown and is got up to look ridiculous with a
painted face and an exaggerated paunch. In the case of
the military boria it is the chaplain who plays this part.
In the early days of the boria the singers, bearing
about with them the effigy of a large scarlet hand, were
wont to begin their singing with a chant in honour of
the Prophet's grandsons, Hasan and Husain. All this
is a thing of the past: Malay public opinion, though
Sunnite, revolts against the idea of the massacre of
Kerbela being associated with ribald music and song.
The Malays know nothing of the fierce sectarian fights
in India where the image of the hand of the martyred
Husain drives the Shiites into a frenzy of hostility
against the Sunnitesa hostility that is repaid with
ridicule and insult. In the Straits the anniversary of
Kerbela is a day of mourning and all sectarian virus has
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: MUSICAL PLAYS.
37
been taken out of the horia. In place of the hymn to

Husain the leader sings a commonplace verse to introduce his party; for instance (in the horia china Canton) :
Kami sakalian china Canton,
Dari gunong gua turun,
Datang ka-sini mahu turun
Hendak pergi ka-perang Jipun ;
or in the beria anak habshi :

Habshi ini Habshi lama,
Habshi champur muda teruna,
Habshi bermain sa-lama-lama
Habshi berjalan ka-mana-mana;
and the singing ends with a collection and cries of hiphip-hurray ! There is very little in all this to suggest
the wild religious rancour that gave rise to the horia and
was traceable in it during the early days when it first
appeared in the Straits.
MUSICAL
PLAYS.
Malay drama has failed to reach any standard of

excellence. In the Peninsula it comprises three classes
of plays: the comic opera or hangsawan, which is quite
modern; the wayang kulit or shadow-show, which is very
ancient; and the ma'yong and other dance-dramas of the
old kingdom of Ligor. Each has its own good points.
The bangsawan is amusing; it gives us some capital
mimicry of types of men, well known in Malaya, such as
the Chinese rikisha-puller, the Malay police-constable,
the Sikh watchman, the Bombay pedlar and the JafnaTamil clerk. The very ancient shadow-play appeals to
antiquarians and has been celebrated in many papers read
before learned societies. The ma'yong has interest of
another sort. Too primitive for the average Englishman
38
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
yet not primitive enough for the anthropologist, it

merits attention as a picture of the childhood of dramatic
art. For the Malay theatre was never a novelty that
came full-grown into the world; it developed out of the
dance. The recreational dance, the dance that was a
pretty sight, the mimetic dance, the dance that represented a great historic eventthese were the four stages
that made ready the way for the drama. In the end,
when the drama did come, it came as a variant or
improvement of the dance; it could not copy nature and
break altogether with the past. Convention fettered it
on every side, fixing the number of players, the music,
the costumes, the parts to be played, and the heroic epos
from which the plots were to be taken. It left nothing
to the discretion of the actors, except the topical " gags "
with which a Malay clown raises a laugh among the
audience.
The Thespis of the ma'yong was a certain man
(named Jemakam in some versions of the legend) who
lived in the jungle and learnt the play from the aborigines.
He taught it to others of his own race, fellow-exiles in
the forest, until at last they became word-perfect and
descended to the villages as exponents of the new art.
There they created such a furore that "men left their
dinners half eaten and rushed, spoon in hand, to learn
the meaning of the strange music of the ma'yong." That
is one account. Another and more sophisticated story
ascribes the discovery to a certain Shaikh who wandered
about the forest in search of chances of piety. This
Shaikh met two Semang, husband and wife, who approached him wearily. " I am tired," said the woman to
her husband ; " talk to me, that I may keep awake." So
the husband talked, telling her the stories that are now
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
39
the plots of the ma'yong and showing her the dances

that figure in the performance. The Shaikh observed
everything and told the tale to his pupils. We need
not follow the story furtherhow the king's ears came
to be filled with the renown of the Shaikh, and how the
Shaikh was shocked to learn that his theatricals made
him more famous than his piety. Let us only note that
the ma'yong is regarded as tending to depopulate villages.
We cannot explain why this belief arose. One story
ascribes the danger to the Shaikh, who is said to have
cursed in his wrath his pupils and the foolish game that
he had taught them. Another versionby a curious
kind of sympathetic magicput it down to the charm of
the original ma'yong that caused the villagers to rush
out of doors even when the curry was just fresh upon
the rice. Be the cause what it may, the result is the
same : these musical plays are untoward and have to be
sterilised by prayer and incantation.
The home of the ma'yong is in the northin the
regions once covered by the old kingdom of Ligor.
This ancient State is the great mystery of the Peninsula.
As far back as 400 A.D., we have old Chinese records
that tell us of a powerful kingdom of " Langgasu " or
Langkasuka, which seems to have filled up the north of
Malaya, stretching from sea to sea. A thousand years
later we meet in the Javanese story of the great war of
1377 A.D. the last mention of Langkasuka as an independent contemporary State. We may infer that the
great Siamese conquest of the fifteenth century put an
end to the old kingdom. Langka, Langkasuka, Lakawn,
or Ligorcall it what we willlasted on as a Siamese
viceroyalty under a " R a j a " of its own up to recent
times. The capital of the viceroyalty was at Nakawn
40
Sri Tamarat, but the ruins of a more ancient capital are

shown on quite another site. Its greatness is more than
a tradition. Here and there, in the forests of the
Siamese western States, we may find fallen cities and
temples, the relics of a civilisation that built in imperishable stone. Now and again in the dialects, games,
songs, and magical formula} of the Malay kingdoms of
the north we meet with strange words and expressions,
the relics of an Indo-Chinese language that was not
Siamese. In the same region we may find strange customs and strange arts, notably the chutam or gilt and
enamelled silver-ware of Ligor. From this country also
there radiate companies of strolling players, the ma'yong,
mendora and mekmulong, to the Malay south and the
ivayany lean and lakawn to the Siamese north. High
standards of architecture, high perfection of craftsmanship, a rich stock of plays and dramas : surely these things
are evidence enough of the wealth and luxury of the
ancient Langkasuka. As for the State itself, its story is
forgotten; it has become a shadowy tradition as the
fairyland of alang-kah-suka, a mere variant of its real
name. Some day perhaps the ruins will yield up their
secret. But until that day comes the mystery of this old
civilisation will lend a special interest to any relic of the
fallen State, and the musical plays of northern Malaya
can claim this interest.
Let us then depict the ma'yong as best we may. The
company is made up of four chief players, a few super*
numeraries, and a band of some dozen musicians. I t
plays in the open air, under a shed, but without a raised
platform or stage other than the simple matting t h a t
convention allows to the dancer. The music is given by
a pair of big drums, a pair of gongs, a native flute, a
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
41
small kettle-drum, some castanets, and a staccato instrument with a wooden keyboard.
These instruments,
along with the masks and costumes of the actors, represent the whole equipment of the mayong.
Every company includes among its members a pawang
or wizard.1 He opens the proceedings with prayers and
incantations, prayers to the great god Siva to spare the
actors and musicians, and invocations of the spirits of the
country that they may not be angered by this intrusion upon
their domain. Tapers are lit; incense is burnt; charms
are uttered ; not only to Siva and the local spirits but also
to the masks and instruments that form part of the show.
This quasi-religious ceremony may be followed by some
little interval of time before the shed is erected and the
play begins. At last everything is ready. The leading
actor then comes forward and asks what is the proper
fee for the performance ? He gets his reply : " A skein
of thread, a quarter-dollar, a quid of betel; that was the
fee paid to "Wan Ni." Wan Ni was one of the first companions of Jemakam, who introduced the ,ma'yong into
Malaya. "And what is the proper prayer?" says the
actor. He is answered by some meaningless formula such
as the following: " Reni ma-reni, ti-ti-ti-ti, reni-ma-reni,
ti-ti-ti'ti, reni ma-reni.'5 After some conventional verses
he ends by inviting the spirits to return each to his own
home and not trouble the dancers and musicians with
faintness or dizziness:
Asal sireh pulang ka-gagang,
Asal pinang pulang ka-tampook,
Segala panjak pengantin-ku 3 jangan binasa,
Gia! puleh sedia-kala!
1
He also plays the part of the peran or clown.

This word does not mean ''bridegroom," but the player of a certain
instrument.
2
42
This ends the preliminaries and makes ready the way for
the play.
The plots of the ma yong do not differ in character
from the regular Malay romance, though they belong to
a cycle of twelve stories that is not represented in the
published literature of the country.
They differ in
details one from another and often contain episodes in
which wild animals and demons of the jungle have to
play a part. In such cases they call for a fine assortment of masks. However, for all practical purposes they
may be typified by the following simple example of a
ma'yony play.
The first scene opens with the pa'yong or " j e u n e
p r e m i e r " 1 coming forward and introducing himself to
the audience. H e is dressed as a young prince according to the ancient fashions of the northern Malay
S t a t e s : long wide trousers, a loose waistcloth of rich
material, a short tight coat, a headdress of stiff-cloth
with an aigrette, a belt, gold nail-protectors on both
hands, a rich assortment of bracelets, and a scarf flung
over his left shoulder. H e also wears a keris and carries
a curious wand. Dressed in the manner described, he
dances and sings before the audience, and when he has
been sufficiently admired he tells his hearers that he is
off to find a conpanion for a journey in quest of a lovely
princess-bride. Then follows the meeting with this
companion, his fidus Achates, the peran or jester of the
play. This meeting is invariably a comic interlude, a
scene of vulgar humour, in which the pair quarrel and
fight for the better amusement of a simple audience.
" Take care, you are blinding my ears, you are deafening
my eyes "such is a specimen of a joke at a ma yong.
1
In some companies this part is played by a girl dressed as a man.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
43
Ultimately, when the jesting begins to pall upon the

spectators, the two boon-companions go off on the best
of terms and leave the mat free for the next scene of
the play.
Incidentally we may mention that the clown or peran
invariably wears a mask to make himself still more
ridiculous. This detail is insisted on by convention. H e
goes bare to the waist and carries a wooden sword. In
the rest of his costume he is allowed an ample discretion
and aims at being as great a contrast as possible to the
dandy prince with whom he has to act.
When the pa'yong and peran have left the scene the
heroine-princess (ma'youg or puteri) makes her first
appearance. She is attired in a sarong spread out in the
" billowy " pattern, a tight blouse (of Avhich the hanging
folds are tucked away under the skirt), 1 a tight girdle
with or without a big jewelled buckle to emphasise the
slenderness of her waist, a long scarf trailing over her
shoulder, and a rich assortment of bracelets, brooches,
chains, rings, and jewelled nail-protectors. When she
has been on the stage long enough to allow the spectators
time to recover from the sensation that so gorgeous an
apparition would make in a Malay village she treats them
to a song and a dance, takes them into her confidence
and assures them that her one desire in life at the present
moment is to go on a picnic to a distant pleasure-garden
attached to one of her father's country-seats. After this
she departs in search of her old nurse who may be able
to help her to realise this wish. The old nurse or ma'inang is the feminine counterpart of a clown. 2 She chaffs
the princess unmercifully and is answered with great
1
In the north the breasts are often left uncovered.

2 This part is played by a man dressed as a woman.
44
PAPERS OX
MALAY SUBJECTS.
tartness, to the amusement of the audience, but she yields

in the end and carries off her protegee to interview the
king.
The next scene is quite different. It represents the
pathos of beauty in distress. The girl is refused permission to leave the palace. She weeps; the nurse
supports her with prayers and jokes ; and at last the pair
get what they want out of the indulgent father. Away
they go on their journey to the pleasaunce in the forest.
The scene is now supposed to change to the country
garden of the king. Prince and clown are the first to
arrive by mere chance at this auspicious spot. The
prince rhapsodises on the loveliness of it all; the clown
turns the rhapsodies into ridicule. After a certain
amount of this type of humour the prince and the jester
perceive that two ladies are coming in their direction.
They disappear at once into the nearest thicket leaving
the place clear for any newcomers. Watching their
opportunity they wait till the ladies are disporting
themselves in the river and then come forward and take
possession of the dry clothes on the bank. This
embarrasses the bathers. After a time the princess
sends the duenna to open negotiations. This scene
is the playwright's opportunity; it confronts the
clown with his feminine counterpart.
Greek meets
Greek; jest is parried by jest; the fun becomes fast and
furious. At last the two parties arrange a truce, the
clothes are returned, and the prince is introduced to the
princess. The play then becomes sentimental with
love-scenes, poetry and an undercurrent of parody and
jest from the ever-irreverent ma'-inang and peran. In
order to bring matters to a crisis the clown comes
forward with a miraculous love-charm with which he
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
45
guarantees to win for the prince the heart of any lady

in the world. The prince sanctions the experiment,
and in a twinkling the princess has fallen in love with
the clown, and the duenna with the prince. Complications follow; the prince is furious and thrashes the
clown unmercifully amid the frantic plaudits of the
audience. In the end, all is put right, so as to show
in the final tableau the happy young couple receiving
from the indulgent old king the Malay equivalent of
"Bless you, my children."
Such then is the ma'yong of northern Malaya.
Whether regarded as a drama, or as a concert, it is a
poor performance, but it has been admired as a dance
and possesses certain historical and linguistic interests
that will cause it to be studied seriously when the
northern States of the Peninsula come to be as well
known as their sister-sultanates of the south. When
that time comes we can only hope that it will not be
studied (as is so often the case with Malay research)
by single examples of the different plots. We will
explain why collation or comparison is necessary.
If an enquirer were to purchase from an actor of a
ma'yong the copy of a play such as the Gajah Dangdaru
he would get a story written mainly in the third person.
The Malay playwright works on very simple lines; he
borrows his plot from some cycle of local legend wellknown to his hearers and then brings into the story
a number of topical jokes and songs. He keeps to the outline of the tale, but fills up the details in the way that he
thinks best. In course of time certain definite songs,
dances, tunes, jokes and recitative passages come to be
connected as old favourites with the Gajah Dangdaru
and are given regularly at every performance of the play.
46
The rest of the libretto varies with each troupe and has
no special value. The interest of the ma'yong, such as it
is, is centered in the constants: the outline of the story
and the small details that are fixed in form. To study
the rest is to study the vagaries of individual actors.
Anyone who examines a list of names of the commonest ma'yong tales and who reads such summaries of
the plots as are procurable, is sure to be struck by a
sense of their novelty. He cannot find them among the
folk-tales of Perak and Pahang or in the shops of the
booksellers of Penang and Singapore. They emphasise
the difference in the past history of the north and of the
south of the Peninsula.
So, too, if he takes the old songs and recitative passages that time has embedded in these tales he is met
again by traces of alien speech and influence. He finds
that the very names of the chief partsma'yong, pa'yong,
mek-seni and peranare non-Malayan. He comes
across unfamiliar words and expressions in the verses
such as the following :
Hal tembakau sl-bulat bulat.
Mari ginti dalam chembul kaeha,
Chahaya gigi di-atas baja,
Gila hati brrbanding mata.
What is the student of ordinary Malay to make of passages like this ? He may set down every variant as due
to "Siamese" influence; but he would be wrong. The
Siamese conquests in the Peninsula only date back to
the fifteenth century; they are even more modern than
the Malay colonies and hardly older than the Portuguese. The purists of Bangkok ridicule the speech
and accent of the " Siamese " of Ligor just as the Malays
of Perak laugh at the " patois " of Patani and Perlis.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL
PLAYS.
47
Below this veneer of Siamese and Malay there lies a very

ancient civilisation of which the true nature is coming
slowly to the light.
Other plays of the Ligor type are the lakawn and
wayang kun of Siam and the mekmulong and mendora of
Malaya.
The lakawn is a most elaborate performance acted
indoors by a troupe that may include as many as a
hundred members. The dresses and scenery are very
gorgeous. The wayang kun is a similar play on a
smaller scale. Both these entertainments lie outside
the scope of this pamphlet as they are not played in the
Malay language.
The mendora resembles the ma'jong in many ways,
but the orchestra ought to be quieter owing to the
omission of certain drums and gongs, 1 and the players
are men, even for the female parts. I t is more acrobatic
and less graceful than the ma'yong.
The mendora is
played on a m a t under a shed and deals with the same
cycle of stories as the ma'yong. The words are Siamese;
the players are Muhammadans, and they have a bad
reputation. Of the mekmulong it is difficult to learn
much, but the performance is more of a dance than
a play. I t is rare and rather improper.
The shadow-show has also a Ligor variant that is often
seen in Malaya and that is finer than the wayang kulit
of Java. Indeed, other Ligor musical plays have their
Javanese counterparts, the ma'yong corresponding to the
to'peng, the wayang kun to the wayang wong; but in each
case the Ligor performance outclasses the Javanese.
The fame of the civilisation of J a v a is the greater
because the island has been in the effective occupation
1
Those things are relative.
The mendora makes an awful din.
48
of European powers for a long time past. The old

Mon-Khmer culture (which extended to Ligor) has not
been studied so thoroughly, as it is only in recent years
that the site of the great temples of Angkor has become
part of the empire of France. But it is significant that
wherever the two civilisations can be compared the
Cambodian appears to have been the higher.
In the towns of the Straits Settlements the wayang
kulit is of the Javanese type; but shadow-shows and
shadow-lanterns of one kind or another are to be found
over a very wide area, as every reader of Omar
Khayyam must know,
We are no other than a moving row
Of magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
At midnight by the Master of the Show.
The principle of the wayang kulit is simple; it consists

in passing certain leather figures before a bright
light so as to throw the silhouettes upon a large cloth
screen. The screen is between the player and the
audience. The following details may be added. The
figures are cut out of hide, parchment, or cardboard,
and are fastened to long thin slips of wood by which they
are manipulated. The lamp (which has its light concentrated on the screen for obvious reasons) is a hanging
light, so that its gentle quivering motion may be
imparted to the silhouettes on the screen and give them
a more life-like appearance. Vegetable oils are used in
preference to mineral oils as they are said to give less
smoke. When not in actual use the puppets are stuck
up on pieces of banana-pith so as to be ready to hand.
These puppets are of rough design in many cases; but
the Ligor figures are carefully painted and are very
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
49
artistic when compared with the Java forms. An

orchestra is employed to play tunes appropriate to the
incident depicted on the sheet; one tune for dances,
another for battles, etc. Two men work behind the
scenes : one recites the story while the other manipulates
the figures. A magician recites propitiatory charms
and burns incense before every performance both in
the Straits and in Java.
Of the stories, Mr. J. D. Vaughan, an eye-witness,
wrote as follows in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago
very many years ago:
" An old man appears weeping for a long-lost son, and moves
to and fro for some time bewailing his loss: the showman speaks each
figure's part and alters the tone of his voice to suit the age of the
speaker; a second figure comes on, representing a young man armed
with a keris, who endeavours to pick a quarrel with the first-comer,
and the conversation is witty and characteristic, eliciting roars
of laughter from the lookers-on; a fight ensues and the old man
is wounded; he falls and cries out that were he a young man or
if his lost son were present, his adversary should not thus triumph
over him. In his conversation he happens to mention his son's
name; the young man intimates that his name is the same; an
explanation ensues, and it ends by the old man discovering in his late
adversary his long-lost son. The old fellow weeps and laughs
alternately, caresses his son frequently and declares they shall never
part again; the scene ends by the youth shedding tears over his late
inhuman conduct, and he finally walks off with the old gentleman on
his back.
" Warlike scenes please most: a warrior comes on the stage and
challenges his invisible enemy to mortal combat; suddenly another
figure comes on at the opposite side and a desperate fight ensues
which lasts for a very long time and ends in one of the combatants
being killed. Occasionally a battle in which ten or twelve figures join
takes place, and for hours will the Malay look on at such scenes."
This account gives a very good description of the show

as it appears to the spectators; still, it has to be
supplemented on some points. In the Straits the stories

depicted in these shadow-shows are taken usually from
the Panji legends; in Java they are borrowed from the
Ramayana and Mahabharata. But there is no very
strict rule in the matter, and the form of some Malay
literary works (such as the Hikayat Sang Samba of the
Mahabharata epos) makes it quite clear that they were
written in the first instance for use with a ivayang kulit.
Great legendary epics like the story of Panji in Java, the
legends of Rama and of the Pandawas in India and the
Homeric tales in Greece are episodical; they are split
up into a thousand minor incidents of which each may
be made into a complete story in itself. A performance
of the ivayang kuit may go rambling on for weeks. The
spectators know this. They do not want to see the end
of the epos; they know the general outline already and
are only interested in the episodes, the interludes, the
digressions, and the humorous gags introduced by the
players. The same is true of musical plays like the
ma'yong. The spectators come late or leave before the
end of the piece without giving the actors any grievance.
What have they to stay for? They have sampled the
skill and wit of the actors, the beauty of the ladies, the
sweetness of the music, the grace of the dancing, the
gorgeousness of the dresseswhat more do they want ?
They know how the play is going to end; and they
consider that no one except a glutton would insist on
partaking of every item in a week-long bill-of-fare.
The Malay is not a glutton; he is only a gourmet with
a big appetite in matters theatrical.
However, to return to our ivayang kulit where, as
everything is stereotyped and made easy for us to understand, we can recognise all the characters at once by
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
51
their profiles. Seeing a face with the nose and forehead

in one long straight linethe forehead too receding and
the chin too weak for European tastewe know at
once that its possessor is one of the gods or heroes of
old Java. But if we see a snub-nose and an irregular
profile, then it is our business to hiss, for the face is
that of some villain or evil spirit, some child of damnation who has come to circumvent the happiness of the hero
and heroine. With clues like this it is impossible to go
wrong or to applaud the wrong people. Then again,
most people are interested in physiognomy. The narrow
fox-like face, the thin arching lips, and the long almondshaped eyes of the Javanese god represent the ideal of
self-mastery, of asceticism, and of indifference to all
mundane things. The big teeth, the beetling forehead
and the coarse sensual mouth of the demon suggest the
strong terrestrial appetites that are absent from the
unearthly features of the gods. Yet the divine ideal is
unsympathetic. In a far finer way the Greeks produced
the same effect by depicting a cold perfection that was
disdainful because of its very superiority to all human
weakness. There is nothing kindly about the face of
an old Greek or Javanese god.
A very human element in these shadow-shows is
represented by the two clowns, Semar and Turas (or
Ghemuras). These characters keep up a running fire
of disrespectful comment on the ways of the gods,
heroes and demons, and prevent the play becoming
monotonous. The quality of their humour is not overrefined, but the mere sound of the hoarse talk of Semar
and of the squeaky replies and cockney accent of
Chemuras is enough to set the whole audience in a roar.
Incidentally these two characters furnish a great religious
52
enigma. Coarse and contemptible as he is, Semar is

identified in many of these plays with Sangyang
Tunggal, " t h e one and only God." One explanation
is that the great divinity had a weakness for assuming
the kind of incognito in which he was least likely to be
recognised, but this theory will hardly serve to explain
his being subjected to the filthy practical jokes that
Chemuras plays upon him. Nor is there anything very
refined in the local tradition that Chemuras was incarnated
out of the dirt on the body of " the one and only
God." There is no doubt, however, that such traditions
are widespread.
Take the Hikayat Sang Samba. This Malay romance
is an adaptation for the use of shadow-shows,1 and its
original is the beautiful Kawi poem known as the
Bhauma-kavya. It deals with an episode in the Bharata
War. In the last scene the forces of the great earthdemon Bhauma (the Maharaja Boma of the Malays and
the Antaeus of the Greeks) have been crushed in battle
and their leader has been slain by the monkey-god
Hanuman. But the victory has been bought dearly;
Sang Samba, the hero of the play, and the great Arjuna
lie dead on the field of battle. In some old legends
they are brought to life again by the water of life
sent down for the purpose by the supreme god Siva
(Betara Guru). Not so in the wayang kulit. Siva
refuses to revivify Sang Samba. The heroes of the
Mahabharata are in despair; the disconsolate widow of
Sang Samba is preparing to immolate herself upon the
body of her dead husband, when with startling
suddenness the unexpected happens. Semar, who has
been the butt of the earlier part of the story, turns
1
The narrator of this tale speaks of himself as dalang.
LIFE. AND CUSTOMS:
MUSICAL PLAYS.
53
himself suddenly into Sangyang Tunggal, the one and

only God. He runs amuck in heaven, overthrowing
god after godIndra, Yama, and even the great
Betara Guru himselfand forces Siva to surrender the
water of life that he has withheld hitherto. What is
the explanation of such an endingthe buffoon overcoming the most holy divinity in Java ?
The wayang kulit of Ligor is associated with the
legends of northern Malaya 1 and has no connection
with the Panji cycle or with the Mahabharata. The
orchestra, too, is made up of Indo-Chinese instruments.
But the modus operandi is much the same in Ligor as it
is in Java, and the character of the amusement offered
is also the same; the cycle consists of twelve tales
beginning with the story of Rama.
At the present time the bangsawan (or modern
musical comedy) is the most popular form of theatrical
entertainment in the country, unless perhaps we except
the European circus. The bangsawan came from India,
and is European in character. In its own way it is
a very interesting production. It proves clearly enough
that the Malay actor can be an excellent mimic with a
keen sense of humour and a good eye for the ridiculous.
The comic scenes at a bangsawan are well worth the
applause that they arouse. On the other hand, the
singing is poor, the dresses are gaudy, the scenery is
inappropriate, the dialogue is devoid of literary value,
and the elocution is bad. A captious critic might take
exception to the plots also, and complain that " Hamlet" is
made ridiculous as a comedy in which the part of the
ghost is played by a clown. The impresario of a
bangsawan cares nothing for such criticism; he is
1
Including the Rama stories.
54
determined to give his audience their money's-worth of

fun, whether the play be "Romeo and Juliet" or "Ali
Baba" or " Genevieve of Brabant.55 Yet, with all its
novelty, the bangsawan is convention-ridden. It is at its
best when it introduces a strong realistic elementcoolies,
rikisha-pullers and other characters whom the actors
mimic to perfection. But it is afraid to cut itself adrift
from romantic legend altogether, or to give us an original
play with a local setting. The violation of precedent
would be too serious to contemplate. So the incongruity
of local scenes in classical surroundings is bound to
continue. Needless to say the bangsawan does not open
with any incantations or invocations of the tutelary
deities of the country, unless the complimentary
presentation of addresses and garlands to a ResidentGeneral or other guest of the evening can be considered
to partake of that character.
The vogue of the bangsawan is due largely to the
success of one particular company, the " Wayang Kassim,'5
or " I n d r a Zanibar." Established about twenty-five
years ago it met with relatively little success at first.
But it persevered. The manager was a man of ability
who developed certain features of his show till they
placed it far ahead of all others in popularity. Not
that there was anything novel in his methods. He
attracted excellent comedians, encouraged them to jest
on the topics of the day, improved the scenery and
accessories, and chose his actresses with a keen eye for
beauty. Certainly he gave a good entertainment to his
patrons, and turned his theatre from a wandering troupe
of actors into a town-company with a permanent
building of its own. But it is doubtful whether the
success of the bangsawan has been of any real service
LIFE AND CUSTOMS: INDOOR GAMES.
55
to Malay drama. It is in most cases a tawdry show;

and the host of imitators of the Wayang Kassim possess
very few of the merits of the company that they copy.
It should be added that the word " Zanibar" in the
official name of the Wayang Kassim is a version of
certain Dutch words meaning "sun and moon," and
that the show owes a great deal to experience gained
in Java and to actresses recruited in that island-empire
of the Dutch.
INDOOR GAMES.
Although the Malays are great gamblers they owe

their indoor games to foreign influence. Their ancestors
lived an outdoor life, discouraged callers, and did their
gambling in the form of bets at cock-fightsat which
indeed they staked everything. What Malay has not
heard of the fate of Pa' Kadok who lost all his property through betting excitedly against his own cock ?
Nowadays, however, as the cock-fights have gone, they
are being replaced by foreign indoor games. Of course
gambling among Malays is prohibited by law, but Enactments cannot eradicate a historic trait. In the days of
native rule in Perak the right to license gaming-houses
was a perquisite that went with the office of Raja Muda.
Such a right brought the Raja Muda a considerable
income, if we are to judge it by the fact that the gaming
rights in a single village were let in 1875 for $100 per
mensem. On a great occasion, such as a royal marriage
or an installation, the money that changed hands may be
estimated at from $20,000 to $50,000. The games at
which money is lost or won by the modern Malay are
usually games of the crude Chinese type, amusements
56
that call for no skill if played fairly and can be understood without difficulty by any beginner. Foremost
among these pastimes is the Chinese poh in which a die
is hidden under a metal box and the gamblers stake on
the face that they believe to be uppermost. This game
has no antiquity and no interest, so far as Malaya is
concerned.
Local chess is more venerable and more interesting,
A full description of its intricacies cannot be given
here,1 but the following general remarks will be
sufficient to indicate some differences that strike the
European observer at once. The chess-board and chessmen are very crude, the squares not being coloured and
the pieces being much alike; indeed, a foreign player
finds it hard to understand the state of the game
when a few chips or lines indicate distinctions that are
marked by horses' heads, episcopal mitres and battlemented turrets in the case of European chess-men. A
further element of trouble lies in the fact that the
Queen is placed on the King's right at the opening of
the game and that the moves of the pieces differ slightly
from those allowed in Europe.
The " openings"
recommended in treatises on chess cannot be applied to
the Malay game owing to these variations. The result
is that the European expert is handicapped when
playing against Malays for the first time, and is apt
to come away with the impression that they are more
skilful than they really are. Extreme specialization in
such a trivial matter as chess-playing does not, however,
appeal to the native mind; it would be regarded as a
mild form of lunacy. It is not difficultgiven this
form of lunacyto defeat Malays at their own game.
1
See Appendix X.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
INDOOR GAMES.
57
The origin of local chess has never been worked

out with any exactness. Doubtless it came from India,
but " I n d i a " is a vast country and "Indian origin"
is a very vague term. Moreover, there are important
differences in the game even within the Malay Archipelago itself. Students of comparative ethnography, if
they are interested in chess, may be able perhaps to
identify the part of India from which it came by the
details of the Malayan game and by the technical terms
used. The following list gives the names of the pieces
in Java and in the Peninsula respectively:
King
Queen
Bishop
Knight
Castle
Pawn
Java.
ratu
patih
mantri
jaran
prahu
pidak, bidak
Malaya.
raja
mantri
gajah
kuda
tir
bidah
The Western game of draughts has been introduced

by the Dutch and bears the Dutch name of main dam.
This main dam does not differ in any important detail
from its European prototype; l but it is played on a
native uncoloured chess-board.
The game of backgammon is known to the Malays
under the name of main tabal. It is played by women.
The game known as the "tiger-game" or as " t h e
tiger and goats" is of South Indian origin as appears
from the fact that an identical game is described in
Herklots' book on the manners and customs of the
Muhammadans of the Deccan; it is also met with in
Acheen and in Java. It is played with nuts or fruitpips or small stones used as counters. The figure for
1
The only difference is that the crowned man (dam) can jump any distance
along a line whether the intermediate spaces are occupied or not. It is thus
very difficult to " c o r n e r " an opponent.
58
the game (which resembles our "fox and geese" in

general character) is drawn in the dust on the ground
and is rather elaborate in pattern. A full description
is given in Snouck Hurgronje's " Achehnese." l
Another elaborate game of the same sort is known as
main chuki. It is played with sixty white pips and sixty
black pips on a board of 120 pointsthe points where the
lines drawn on the board intersect. Main chuki appears
to be well known in Java and is mentioned occasionally
in old Malay literature.
Apit is played on a draught-board. If a player can
place one of his pieces on each side of a hostile piece he
takes it, or if he can move one of his own between two
of the enemy's he takes both.
An indoor game that may possibly be of Indonesian
origin is that called main chongkak. The board is boatshaped and its central portion is indented by two parallel
rows of six holes each which are used as receptacles for
the counters. A description of this game (which,
curiously enough, goes sometimes by the name of chato
or " chess " in Acheen) is given in Snouck Hurgronje's
"Achehnese," and in the Journal of the Straits Asiatic
Society. In Java it seems to be known as dakon. The
counters in common use are the hard nut-like fruits
known as buah gorek or buah kelichi.
All the above are indoor games of skill that do not
lend themselves readily to gambling. Some of them are
very popular with peons, tambies and punkah-pullers
who find that time hangs heavily on their hands.
Card-games are common in Malaya and are played
either with European cards or with Chinese cards. They
are pure games of chance as a rule and call for no skill
1
Vol. II,
D.
203.
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS:
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
59
whatever. Bridge and whist are not popular; " patience"

is unknown.
The following are illustrations of Malay card-games: l
(1) In the game called main sekopong (Dutch:
schoppen, " spades ") hands of five cards each are dealt
out. A player leads off; the others follow suit or
discard; the highest card of the suit wins the trick.
The player with most tricks at the end of the game is
the winner.
(2) In the game known as main chabut every card
has a definite numerical value; and the object is to get
a hand that adds up to either twenty-one or thirty-one.
Five cards may be drawn for the first; seven for the
second. The player who gets nearest to the required
total without exceeding it is the winner of the game.
The technical terms used in the games played with
European cards are largely Dutch, thereby indicating
their origin. But there are many local differences in
the terms used in the various parts of the Peninsula.
The games played with Chinese "chicky" cards
are Chinese in their rules and in the terms used. They
possess no true Malayan interest.
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
In the old Malay world cock-fighting was regarded

as the king of sports. Like our horse-racing it furnished
the gambler with a game that was a happy combination
of good fortune and good judgment, and like our cricket
and football it introduced into sport an element of local
1
Notes on Malay card-games are to be found in Skeat's " Malay Magic,"
pp. 487-493; and in the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society, No. 14, 45.
66
and even international rivalry through the practice of

pitting the best cocks of different districts in matches
one against the other. Moreover, it appealed to man's
wilder instincts, to the joy of battle and the lust of blood.
Cock-fighting is not to be dismissed as a mere unwholesome spectacle, a brutal contest between two lean and
lanky fowls : the cocks stood for more than that. Even
in our own national games one critic gazes in rapture on
a national hero where another man only sees " a flannelled
fool at the wicket or a muddied oaf at the goal." The
golfer with his lost ball and the cock-owner with his
dead cock represent achievement rather than futility and
failure; they have gained their end even if it is at the
price of their instruments. Their reward has been in
the thrill of the game itself, a thrill that cock-fighting
gives in a very marked degree. The old Malay boasted
of the prowess of his cock, discussed its merits with the
appreciation of a connoisseur, backed it with every
dollar that he was worth, trained it with all the joy of
anticipated triumph and watched its successes with an
excitement that was almost delirious in its intensity.
Left in the end with a mortgaged holding and a slaughtered bird he could still look back to many happy days of
glorious life when he and his cock had been heroes of
the hour. To such an enthusiast, cock-fighting was a
many-sided delight, a compound of varied pleasures, like
the multiple taste of the durian. And if the modern
critic sneers at such enthusiasm as worthy only of a
better cause, he should allow for the weakness of human
nature and remember the words of the cynic who said
that there is no happiness for any man of brains in our
modern Singapore unless he consents to bury those
brains in a golf-hole.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
61
Not that cocks were the only creatures which could be

induced to fight and die in the interest of old Malay sports.
Combativeness is common. Buffaloes, bulls, rams, quails,
mole-crickets, the little fish called puyu-puyuall these
animals have enough of the gladiator instinct to allow
of their being butchered for a show. Still, when everything else had been tried, the cock remained the king
of fighters. At long intervals some ostentatious prince
might honour a distinguished guest by arranging a
fight between a tiger and a buffalo or bull, a royal
spectacle that ended generally in a fiasco. At his best,
in his own forests, the Malayan king of beasts is an
overrated champion when compared with the buffalo or
with the gaur; indeed, it is not long since the horns of
so prosaic a combatant as the government stud-bull at
Kuala Kenering were found to be adorned by pieces
of the fur of a tiger. Away from his proper haunts the
tiger slinks into the background and declines to fight
boldly for his life. The last local exhibition of a
contest between a buffalo and a tiger (which occurred
some forty years ago at Johore in the presence of the
Duke of Edinburgh) ended in an easy triumph for the
buffalo. In the north of the Peninsula, when buffalo is
pitted against buffalo, a better combat may be seen.
Interesting owing to the surprising strength and energy
of the animals, it gives a moment of breathless
suspense while the two duellists charge one another
with a rapidity that we would never have associated
with their ungainly form, but unfortunately the interest
is not kept up after the first onset. The weaker
animal realises its inferiority almost at once and seeks
to withdraw from the unequal struggle so that the issue
is no longer in doubt. A contest between bulls is even
62
less exciting. They charge with less violence, interlock

their horns, and turn the combat into a mere game of
push, till one or other animal makes up its mind to run
away. Moreover, the high value of buffaloes and bulls
makes it undesirable that they should be injured by any
eagerness to fight to a finish. Mole-crickets and
fighting-fish are certainly cheap, and possess all the
pertinacious valour of the cock, but they lack individuality. They resemble each other too closely;
they cannot be petted and made much of; they are
not suitable subjects for the skill of a trainer and are
wanting in all the human traits that endear the cock to
his master. After all there is something singularly
human about the crow of a wounded fighting-cock in
the hour of its victory, and ihe Malays love and understand it. Even the defeated bird that crows lustily as
though it has won is not without its Malay imitators.
In fact, the cock has become a symbol of honour, the
indefatigable fighter who rejoices in war for its own
sake, and refuses to accept defeat.
The Malays recognise many breeds of fighting-cocks.
They differ mainly in the matter of colour and are
accounted lucky or otherwise according to the markings
on their plumage. It is difficult to say why a fiery red
cock, wasp-like with its long yellow legs, should be
looked upon as invincible in war; but the experts tell
us that it is so and their advice must be taken for what
it is worth. Let us therefore suppose that a Malay
chief has found a cock that is entirely to his liking and
has justified selection by beating such roosters as the
village can offer to the assault of its maiden spurs.
The proud proprietor keeps it fastened up within the
house-verandah at night so that it may be out of the
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
63
way of the predatory civet-cat, and he submits gladly to

having his slumbers disturbed by the lusty crowing that
shows his pet to be a cock of cheery disposition and
high fettle. In the morning he bathes it, shampooes it
so as to make its limbs supple, and while he excites its
passions by letting it have glimpses of other village
cocks he does not let it waste its strength and energy
on the petty rivalries of the farmyard. He holds it in
reserve for higher things. Sooner or later he is sure
to meet some boastful cock-fancier with a bird of his
own and a foolish readiness to back up an opinion with a
wager. Now comes the expert's chance. The challenge
is taken up and a contest is arranged in true Malay
style by witnesses being called in to testify to all the
details. The stakes are all deposited with a stake-holder
(who receives a percentage for his good services); and
the cocks are plighted or "betrothed" to one another
by the simple ceremony of allowing each bird one single
peck at its rival. This clinches the matter; withdrawal
after this point means forfeiture of the money staked.
The training of the cock for a contest is a very
simple matter of washing and massage; and the selection
of a champion, though it calls for expert knowledge,
may be regarded as settled from the moment that the
cocks have been definitely " betrothed." But the trainer
is still very far from the end of his troubles. He has to
select a lucky time for the duel. Every day of the
calendar is divided into five parts, and every one of
these five portions of the day is regarded as being under
the control of its own presiding genius, a Hindu divinity
who rules the destinies of the hour. Each of these five
divinitiesMaheswara (or Siva), Kala, Sri, Brahma and
Yishnufavours a special colour, Siva favours pale
64
yellow, Kala a brownish black, Sri white, Brahma red,

and Vishnu green or blue. It stands to reason that a
black cock has very little chance of success if it attacks
a white cock at an hour when Sri is in the ascendant.
The trainer has therefore to select a time when he
cannot be handicapped by a malignant Groddess of
Fortune. Nor can he easily find out what divinity is in
the ascendant, for the old Hindu calendar is based on a
week of five days and has no exact parallel in the
Moslem month. Even when he has arranged this matter
to his own satisfaction he has other mystic forces to
reckon with. He has to allow for the Seven Ominous
Times presided over by the Seven Heavenly Bodies,
each with a favourite tint of its own. The beneficent
assistance given by Sri to a white cock may be quite
undone by the malignant hostility of the planet Mercury
favouring a black opponent. Then again there are the
Signs of the Zodiac, the luckiness or unluckiness of the
Moslem days and months, the quaint old Indonesian
calendar of the Rejang, and the exact position in the
heavens of the Rijalu'l-ghaib or invisible spirits who bear
the coffin of Ali suspended between Heaven and Earth.
All these influences have to be allowed for. The auspicious time for a cock-fight may be made a matter for
the most abstruse astrological calculations. Last of all
there is the very real danger of an unsportsmanlike
opponent burying a charm or talisman within the sacred
soil of the cock-pit. The discovery of a trick of this sort
generally ends in a free fight between the partisans of
the cocks; it is as bad as cheating at cards, according to
Malay notions of morality.
Sooner or later, however, the preliminaries are over,
and the great day of battle arrives. The fighting-ground
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
65
or cock-pit is marked out and the spectators (many of

whom have bets on the issue of the fight) gather round
it, waiting with true Malay patience for the coming of
the birds. At last one of the trainers appears, holding
his bird under his arm as he squats down in the cock-pit
to prepare for the coming of his opponent. There he
gives his bird a final rub, smoothes its wings, and (when
his opponent is in sight) fastens the sharp steel weapons
to the cock's spurs or to the poor mutilated stumps
into which the bird's natural weapons have been converted. The process of fastening on these spurs is a
long and weary business carried out with scrupulous
exactitude as any loose winding would be the ruin of a
bird's chances of success. At last everything is ready.
The birds are excited by being allowed to peck at each
other while still held back in their trainers' hands.
These sham attacks are the prelude to the real one. At
the word of command the birds are let loose and the
tight begins amid the wildest cheers of encouragement
from the partisans of each cock. A fight with artificial
spurs does not last long; the wounds inflicted are too
terrible for that. A fight with natural spurs may go
on for long time and is divided up into mains, the time of
which is regulated by a rude sort of water-clock. As
soon as a bird refuses to continue the fight it is pronounced
the loser. The following rules, given by Newbold, are
interesting:
1. The winner takes the dead bird.
2. If a drawn battle, each takes his own.
3. No person but the holder shall interfere with the cocks
after they have been once set to, even if one of them run
away, except by the permission of the juara. Should
any person do so and the cock eventually win the battle,
the owner shall be entitled to half the stakes only.
66
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
4. Should one of the cocks run away and the wounded one
pursue it, both birds shall be caught and held by their
trainers. Should the runaway cock refuse to peck at its
adversary three times, the wings shall be twined over the
back and it shall be p u t on the ground for the adversary
to peck a t ; should he too refuse after it has been three
times presented, it is a drawn battle. The cock that
pecks wins.
5. The stakes on both sides must be forthcoming and deposited
on the spot.
6. A cock shall not be taken up unless the spur is broken,
even by the trainers.
" The beauty of the sport," says Sir H. Clifford, " is that
either bird can stop fighting at any moment. They are
never forced to continue the conflict if once they have
declared themselves defeated, and the only real element
of cruelty is thus removed." Opinions may differ on
this point. It is obvious that the cruelty is greatest in
the case of a plucky old fighting-cock that will not own
to defeat. It is the coward that suffers least. The
victorious bird described by Sir Hugh" draggled
and woe-begone, with great patches of red flesh showing through its wet plumage, with the membrane of its
face and its short gills and comb swollen and bloody,
with one eye put out and the other only kept open by
the thread attached to its eyelid "surely possesses a
grievance against the owners for whom it fought. It
pays a high price for the pleasure of repentance and
may have revised its first opinions about the beauty
of the sport. The author of " In Court and Kampong "
is much fairer to cock-fighting when he admits its
cruelty but compares it favourably with the fox-hunting
of our English shires. The name of sport can indeed
be used to cover a multitude of hideous cruelties.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
COMBATS OF ANIMALS.
67
Sir H . Clifford's book " I n Court and K a m p o n g "

contains some vivid descriptions both of cock-fighting
and of bull- and buffalo-fighting. The author of that
book, who sees with keener eyes than the average
spectator and understands more, is able to describe an
interesting sight where the casual looker-on would be
only bored. These contests make no appeal to the
average European, whatever they may make to the
Malay. Moreover, they are becoming things of the past.
When Raja Lumu of Selangor came to Perak to be
installed under the name of Sultan Selaheddin Shah he
brought with him an array of fighting-cocks that kept
the local cocks employed for months. In those days
every cock had its history and its roll of victories to
lend interest to further struggles. Nowadays all is
different. At the installation of the Raja Muda of
Perak in 1908 a well-known officer from the wilder
parts of the country brought down a train of bulls and
cocks to try conclusions with the cocks and bulls of
Kuala Kangsar.
The result was not an unmixed
success ; the larger animals lacked training and practice;
while the cocks of Kuala Kangsar were a miscellaneous
assembly of roosters that could neither crow nor fight.
The glory of these combats has departed.
Elaborate as is the lore of cock-fighting in the
Peninsula it is probably only a fragment of a still more
complicated art that had its origin in Java,
Its
principal developments are the classification of fightingcocks and in the extraordinary system of fortune-telling
to which it has given rise. The same elaboration is
not to be traced in the fights of any creatures other
than cocks; but even there Java has the honour of
giving us a wider range of combats. Wild pigs were
68
even used for fighting, as well as goats, rams, bulls,

buffaloes, ground-doves, quails, and mole-crickets.
Probably the use of artificial spurs is to be traced to
Java, while the cock-fights without spurs and the
combats of fighting-fish may have been due to the
influence of the old Indo-Chinese kingdoms of the north,
for the fighting-fish, at all events, are indigenous to
Indo-China; they represent a species that is not found
in the south.
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.
The foregoing chapters do not cover the whole field

of Malay recreation. The question of enjoyment enters
into almost all the affairs of life.
Excursions are a common form of Malay amusement.
Sometimes a hunting-trip, sometimes an expedition to
gather shell-fish or turtles' eggs, sometimes a fish-drive,
supplies the ostensible excuse for the picnic, but its real
object is sport for sport's own sake. The well-known
menggelunchur, made known to fame by Sir Frank Swettenham, is a picnic to a natural water-chute on the River
Dal near Kuala Kangsar. It is said to have been
invented by a former District Officer of Kuala Kangsar
who was the first to see the possibilities of the chute
as a combination of aquatic sport with curry-tiffins.
Pastimes of that type are about as Malayan as the
curried dishes themselves; still the menggelunchur appeals
to Sultans and Chiefs in these happy days when a man
may enjoy himself without putting forward any utilitarian
excuses for his pleasure. Travel also is popular among
Malays. No doubt, it enlarges the mind; but developments of that sort are not what the native traveller has
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
69
in view. He treats the journey as a prolonged excursion

and laughs away the petty hardships that it involves.
And, after all, this love of outdoor amusements and of a
fresh-air life is one of the healthiest features in the
Malay national character.
In the province of intellectual recreation the position
is less promising. The modern Malay reads books where
his ancestors listened to rhapsodists; but present-day
education rarely carries a native boy to the point at
which reading becomes a pleasure, and it is very doubtful
whether the ancient minstrels ever earned enough money
to pay their way. A hearty welcome and a good dinner
represented the most that they could expect for their
services. The fact that vernacular newspapers are longerlived than they once were, points to the growth of a
taste for reading even though the growth may be slow
Meanwhile native scholars are few. Most of those
whom we meet are eccentrics who write pedantic poetry
lamenting the dismal doom of persons condemned to live
like orphaned strangers in the midst of an uncongenial
world. A few Malay dilettanti exist, who are devoted
to hobbies like local customary law or ceremonial or
genealogy or history or folk-lore. Happy is the European
student who discovers one of these mines of information !
Men with religious hobbies are common enough, but they
take their pleasures sadly; and although they enjoy long
prayers and the salutations of pious persons in the
market-place, they would be horrified to have their
occupations included under the profane heading of
amusements. Still more common are lovers of witty
conversation, of unwritten literature (if we may be
pardoned the expression), of epigram, proverb, fable,
riddle, and the smart sayings of famous raconteurs,
70
Every Malay is something of a gossip; he has no affection for stern and silent men.
Careless and light-hearted the Malay certainly is ;
a lover of gaiety, women and song; but even his worst
enemy would hardly accuse him of being self-indulgent .
H e is temperate, whether consciously or not. H e does
not eat to excess and is rarely corpulent. H e has been
known to drink, but never nowadays to be a drunken
sot. He gambles ; but only on special occasions. H e
may smoke opium ; but it is usually in moderation. I t
is quite a mistake to suppose that the modern Malay is
being corrupted by civilisation, by European spirits, by
Chinese opium, by prostitution and by the vices that
mining camps and sea-port towns have set up in his
midst. Let any doubter read the Sejerah Melayu with
its stories of the drunkenness and profligacy of the old
Malacca Kings, or the East India Company's record of
the potations of the Sultans of Acheen and Johor, or
Goudinho de Eredia's condemnation of the ways of
Malay women, or Admiral Matelief's description of Sultan
Alaedin and his court of inebriates, or Captain Hamilton's account of the iniquitous Sultan Mahmud I I . Or,
again, to come to more modern times, let him read
Abdullah's story of his voyage to Kelantau and of the
women who came down to the ships, or the unpublished
diary of the murdered Resident of Perak with its constant references to the opium-smoking and profligacy
that disgraced Malay court-life in the seventies; or indeed
let him question any of the eye-witnesses of the conduct
of the Perak Chiefs in the days of Sir H u g h Low. Time
has thrown a glamour over the p a s t ; but in face of this
host of eye-witnesses it is impossible to urge that modern
civilisation has corrupted the Malay. The very converse
LIFE AND CUSTOMS:
71
is the truth : it has purged him of much of his old grossness. Present-day critics will find much to mock at in
the modern Malay youth with his dandyism, his shiny
shoes and the rose-tinted spectacles that are intended to
play havoc with the hearts of maidens : he typifies a
time of transition, a hobbledehoy period that has lost the
careless charm of childhood without attaining the fullgrown dignity of man. Popular criticism is always
indulgent to the wicked and merciless to the ridiculous;
it will not spare the modern Malay even though he may
have shed his grosser vices without losing a love of
freedom and of healthy exercise that may lead him on to
a wholesome manhood in the end. A study of old Malay
records leads to a fairer and a truer judgment; it
encourages us to forget the trivial absurdities of the
present when we remember the immense advance that
has been made upon the past.
APPENDICES.
I.NURSERY
RHYMES.
(1)
Kayoh laju-lajulaju-laju,
Sampan To' Penglimasampan To' Penglima,
Apa dalam bajudalam baju,
Kutum bunga senakutum bunga sena.
Bunga sena Dato'sena Dato',
Karang tajok malaikarang tajok malai,
Pimpin teruna masokteruna masok,
Selawat hujong balaiselawat hujong balai.
Balai Che' Wan KechilChe' Wan Kechil,
Balai panjang limabalai panjang lima,
Tunang dari kechildari kechil,
Sampai bulan limasampai bulan lima.
(2)
Kayoh, ma' hijau, kayoh.
Kay oh laju-laj u,
Jumpa china tuha,
Beri makan sagu,
(3)
Ikan lumat lumilumat lumi,
Makan lumut batangmakan lumut batang,
Nyonya kampong sunyikampong sunyi
Baba suka datangbaba suka datang.
(4)
Pinang kotai lambong,
Sireh gagang layu,
Nyonya punya kampong,
Baba tumpang lalu.
74
(5)
Rumah che' Baiduri,
Tiang limau purut,
Chinchin penoh jari,
H u t a n g bersengkarut.
(6)
Anak musang jantanmusang jantan,

Panjat sentul tinggipanjat sentul tinggi,
Bukan hutang makauhutang makan,
H u t a n g sabong judihutang sabong judi.
(7)
Ketam berdayong,
Rama-rama berkemudi;
Kembangkan payong,
Anak raja turuh mandi.
(8)
Oi indok moh,
Kita ka-Melaka,
Membuka peti gewang,
Mcngambil jarum mas,
Menandingkan Si-Lunchat,
Chut-chat, chut-chat!
(9)
Oi indok, si-timbong gayong,
Nak ku-panjat, duri nya banyak,
Nak ku-tebang, beliong sumbing,
Nak di-tunu, takut sangat
Harimau jantan beranak kechil.
(10)
Ikan parang-parangparang-parang,
Gulai sama chukagulai sama chuka,
Nyonya gigi jaranggigi jarang,
Baba tidak sukababa tidak suka.
(11)
Henchang-henchut tali kechapi,
Kenyang perut suka hati.
APPENDICES.
75
(12)
Mengirek mengangin padi,
Sunting bunga si-balong ayam,
Kechil molek main ta' jadi,
Dunia di-pinjam sa-hari sa-malam.
(13)
Timang tinggi-tinggi
Sampai chuchur atap ;
Belum tumboh gigi
Pandai bacha kitab.
(14)
Geling-geling sapi,
Berbulu telinga-nya;
Di-mana Keling mati ?
Di-hulu benua-nya,
(15)
Tung-tong todak,
Sembahyang jambu-jambu ;
Ka-mana pergi budak ?
Ambil ayer sa-labu.
(16)
Raja Ratu di-Melaka,
Puteri Dang dari J a m b i ;
Bukit batu chermin mata,
Nyiur pinang habis mati.
(17)
Anak gajah jantan
Pandai tikam chelong;
Sudah sama padan
Bagai ayam sabong.
(18)
Anak rusa dandi
Pandai lompat tinggi;
Sudah untong kami
Tunang ta'-menjadi.
76
(19)
Rumah apa lentek bumbong-nya ?
Rumah Che' Kaya berisi padi;
Anak siapa lingkup tudong-nya ?
Tunang sahaya nikah ta'-jadi.
(20)
Anak pachat didalam buloh,
Nak di-lemang tidak bcrapi ;
Apa chachat didalam tuboh,
Sudah bertunang nikah ta'-jadi.
(21)
Anak badak tampong,
Chuchu badak raya ;
Anak orang kampong
Pandai tipu daya.
(22)
Buah jambu masak
Masak hujong julai;
Apa jamu kakak ?
Nasi dengan gulai.
(23)
Tung belitong
Belalai gajah mina;
Di-mana bunyi gong ?
Di-balek tokong China.
n.CHILDREN'S GAMES.
I am indebted for most of my information in this Appendix to
Daeng Abdul Hamid, Malay Assistant, Perak Museum, and to Raja
Abdul Aziz, Settlement Officer, Krianboth formerly of the Perak
Secretariat. The curious little rhymes and other formulae sung by
children when playing these games are given in the form taken down
by these two authorities, but I have to add that they vary greatly from
State to State and that a satisfactory version can only be obtained by
collating a long series of variants. Many of them arc quite meaningless and may date back to older languages.
APPENDICES.
77
I. ' Gap-gap hudang. This game is played by two children or by

children in pairs. I t is a test of ticklishness. One child lies on his
(or her) back, while the other player with swaying arms repeats the
following words :
Gap-gap hudang;
Di-mana serampang ?
Jatoh di-lubok ,
Ikan banyak.
As soon as the formula has been repeated the tickling begins and
the child that can stand it longest gets the credit of success.
I I . Genggam-genggam meluJcut. This is another tickling game.
I n this the children sit facing each other and tickle each other about
the armpit.
The formula that precedes the tickling runs as follows:
Genggam-genggam meluJcut,
MeluJcut dalam gantang,
Datang tikus mondok
Menyusup di-bawah batang.
The child t h a t holds out longest is the winner.
III.
Ketip-ketip semut or geteJc semut. The players lay their
hands palm downwards one on another. The lowest hand but one
pinches the back of the lowest hand saying, ketip-ketip semut
(an ant is nipping you). The bitten hand is then withdrawn and
is laid on the others, thus becoming the highest. The hand that
is now lowest is nipped in its turnand so on till the novelty
wears off.
IV. Jinjing-jinjing tikus. See text, pp. 7, 8.
V. Berbidas.In this game the open hand of one child is drawn
back by the finger; and then the finger is let go and the palm is
jerked forward with a whack on the arm of the opposing player. The
cry to desistlike our "pax"is chup.
V I . Berapi.In this game the closed fist is drawn back and is
then jerked forward on the arm of the opposing player. This goes on
till one or other gives in and cries chup" pax."
V I I . Bangkai-rangkai periok:.See text, p. 8.
V I I I . Pong-pong along. See text, pp. 8, 9.
I X . Sapu-sapu ringin. For boys. The children begin this
game by taking their seats in a long line with sarongs tucked u p
78
PAPERS ON MALAY
to the knee and legs stretched out.

forward in unison and sing :
SUBJECTS.
They then swing their arms
Sapu-sapu ringin,
Ketimbong gayong-gayong,
Datang si-Jcatong
Membawa buaya kudong:
Kudong hahi Jcudong tangan
Sentak pelok tangan sa-belah.
At the last word every boy draws in his left leg and seizes his
right shoulder with his left hand.
I n this new attitude they sing the same formula once more
and then each boy draws in his right leg and seizes his left shoulder
with his right hand. This leaves all the children huddled up with
squatting haunches and folded arms. They then sing:
Dong-dong pak,
Pekasam labi-labi;
Apa hena hidong simpak ?
Di-terekam babi tadi.
They then try to jump forward like frogs and owing to the
constrained attitude the result is something like a sackrace, boys
falling over forward or sideways to the amusement of the spectators
and of themselves.
X. Longlang barong jawa. See text, pp. 9, 10.
X I . Tebang senebu. This is an indoor game. All the players
except one sit down in a row on the floor with their arms outstretched
and their hands resting on the ground. The one exception or
challenger comes forward and takes up a position fronting them
H e then says
Tebang-tebang senebu kuala sewa;
Ikat junjong; awal~awal hudang ganti;
Sa-kopak, dua kopak; awak dewa denah.
While saying this he is allowed to test the strength of the boys by
trying to knock their arms away from under them.
At the end of the formula each player in the line draws u p
his left arm and seizes his right shoulder with it, leaving his right arm
alone resting on the ground. The same formula is repeated and the
same test of strength may be applied. After that, the right arms are
withdrawn and the players face the challenger with folded arms.
APPENDICES.
79
The challenger then addresses them individually :

Tebang-tebang Pa-Punggur,
Pa-Punggur mati ahar;
Che' Ali ka-padang bertudonghan daun,
Sa-hari ta-hu-pandang, sa-rasa sa-tahun,
Akar apa ini ?
" W h a t creeping plant is this," says the challenger pointing to the
crossed arms of each child in succession. If the child is weak and
timid he names a creeper that is weak and brittle ; if he is prepared to
take up the challenge he names a tough liana t h a t does not give way
easily. When all the replies have been received the challenger may
take up one or more of the defiances and try to force the boys' arms
away from their bodies. Resistance is offered and the struggle
provides the excitement of the game.
X I I . Lompat katak.This is our leap-frog. B u t in the Malay
game the boys begin by jumping over the " frog's " outstretched legs.
The " f r o g " then stands as in our leap-frog and gradually raises his
back till some player fails to clear it. That player becomes the next
" f r o g " . As each boy vaults he shouts lompat hatah (leap-frog),
whence the name.
XIII.
Pat-pat sihu rembat. See text, pp. 10, 11.
X I V . Cham pah bunga. A number of boys divide up into two
equal sides and draw lots for the start. The winners become the
riders, the losers become the horses. A "flower" is constructed out
of a piece of cloth twisted up into the shape of a rope and is thrown
by one rider to another till somebody fails to catch it. The riders then
dismount and become the horses of their adversaries.
The " f l o w e r " is thrown from side to side, the horses and riders
standing in opposite rows. When everyone has caught it in t u r n the
whole line of horses trots over to the other side and exchanges places
with the opposite line. If the flower is caught three times in succession
by every member of the party the horses cross and recross three times
to mark the event. This is called the mandi kuda or " bathing of the
horses."
XV. Tikam seladang. See text, pp. 13, 14.
X V I . Main hantu rusa. See text, pp. 11, 12, 13.
X V I I . Chekup-chekup puyoh. This is one of the " i n n o c e n t "
forms of hide-and-seek. A certain spotusually a tree-trunk or
postis made the goal or ibu, and one of the players is told off
8o
to guard it. He shuts his eyes while the others conceal themselves
within a given area round him. At the cry of sudah he starts off in
search of the concealed " quails" and they have to get to the goal
before he catches them. The first boy caught is the pursuer or goalkeeper for the next round.
XVIII. Ibu anak.This is another " innocent" form of the
same game but there is no real concealment. The goal-keeper stands
by his goal; the others stand some way off. After the cry of anak
they have to seize an opportunity to dodge past him and touch
the goal before he can intercept them.
XIX. China buta.This is " blindman's-buff."
A circle is
drawn on a piece of soft sandy ground and a boy is chosen to be
blindfolded. The first boy whom the "blindman" or "blind
Chinaman" catches or drives outside the prescribed limits becomes
the " blind Chinaman " in his turn.
XX. Main beronyeh.This is a game in which one pursuer
chases the other players in the water. The first boy caught becomes
pursuer in his turn.
XXI. Main totoi.A long line is drawn on a piece of ground
and players are stationed along it at intervals as its keepers or
guardians. Or a series of parallel lines may be drawn with a guardian
for each. The other players have to run through the line of guardians
passing in and out between them without being touched. This game
is played by moonlight.
XXII. Main kambing.See text, p. 15.
XXIII. Main hantu musang.See text, pp. 14, 15.
XXIV. Main kuching.See Skeat's " Malay Magic," p. 499.
XXV. Main tul.See Skeat's " Malay Magic," p. 495.
XXVI. Main tunggul.See Skeat's " Malay Magic," p. 499.
XXVII. Main galah panjang.See Skeat's " Malay Magic,"
p. 500.
XXVIII. Sepak raga. Mr. O'May gives the following notes on
sepak raga as played at Kuala Kangsar:
" I am told that the player to whose right the raga falls should
kick it and that a player should not run more than three steps from
his place unless the ball is kicked out behind him. The latter rule is
not often observed.
" In one form of the game any player who misses the ball has
to place a forfeit in the middle of the playing-ground (gelanggang),
usually a handkerchief or cap which he happens to have with him.
APPENDICES.
8i
This may be won back by scoring for a certain moderate number of

times without a miss, but a man who is playing badly is sometimes
left with nothing but his sarong.
" An element of competition is introduced into the play of a
team by marking misses and by excluding players who miss twice
until only two players are left.
"The raga should be made of rotan sign. The season for the
game is the period of three months following the padi-harvest,
" There is a Chinese variant of sepak raga in which a shuttle-cock
(ekor ayam) is used (J. R. A. S., XXXI, 63). It is not commonly
played by Malays though popular among the smaller boys at this
(the Kuala Kangsar) school."
XXIX. Main awai.Mr. O'May writes :
" Awai is a form of rounders. Two sides are picked (which need
not be equal in numbers) and the captains toss for first innings.
A brick, stone or piece of wood is set on end and a lime serves as
a ball if an India-rubber ball is not available. The side that has lost
the toss fields. One boy of the other side stands by the brick, throws
up the ball and hits it away. If it is caught he is out (mati). If not,
the fielder who stops it throws it at the brick and the striker stands
behind the brick. If the ball touches the brick the striker is out, but
if it rolls past he may stop it with his foot and if it bounces up and he
catches it he scores a point and is entitled to omit the next stroke.
" There is a series of strokes that each side tries to get through
before all the half-dozen (or more) boys in it are dead. These are in
threes, each three being alike.
"Awai (awal) satu, awai dua, awaitiga. The first group. For
these the striker faces the brick and hits the ball backwards after
throwing it up. For the rest he has his back to the brick and faces
the fielders.
" Sa-belah satu, sa-belak dua, sa-belah tiga.Toss the ball up with
the right hand and strike it also with the same hand.
" Dua-belah satu, etc.Toss up the ball with the left hand and
hit it with the right.
" Ikat satu, etc.Use the right hand, holding the left behind
the back.
" Tepoh dada satu, etc.Strike the chest between throwing the
ball up and hitting it.
" Kangkang satu, etc.Raise one leg, pass the hand under it,
throw up the ball, withdraw the hand and strike,
82
" Sepak satu, etc.Let the ball fall, and kickas when making
a drop-kick at football.
" As each player goes out his successor begins at the satu stroke of
the stage in which he came to grief. If the series is completed the
boys of the successful side who have not yet been in take their turn
all the same."
X X X . Main gayau.Mr. O'May writes :
" Gayau is a wild fruit, round and flat. The game is played by
sides, equal in numbers. W h e n a coin has been tossed, the losers
place their gayau one behind the other at intervals of (say) ten feet,
upright on their edges. The other side try one after the other to
knock these down with their gayau, kicking them from a point (say)
twenty feet off in the same line, striking them with the side of the
foot as in porok so that they skim the surface of the ground. If a
player knocks down one of the enemy's gayau he gets another kick,
delivered this time with the other foot. Sometimes the missile flies
over the nearest gayau and strikes the second or even (very rarely)
the third. Sometimes the same missile knocks down two gayau in
succession. This is allowed; b u t if the second gayau is knocked down
by the first it counts as a fault and closes the innings. So does a
wrong statement of the score. This is a feature of the g a m e : the
captain of one side frequently asking the captain of the other what
the score is, in the hope of catching him out through a mistake.
" The scoring is as follows :
" If a player knocks down with his first kick
(1) The nearest gayau
(2) The second gayau
(3) The third gayau
or with his second kick
(1) The nearest gayau
(2) The second gayau
(3) The third gayau
I t the first kick is a miss there is no second kick.
" The score is calculated negatively, the other side ' owing' these
numbers of points. If all of a side miss, they are given another
opportunity of scoring. Each takes his missile and aims at one of the
standing gayau of his opponents. If each now succeeds in hitting the
target in three shots his side gets no credit in points but is allowed to
start over again. At this stage they can help each other. Thus
a player who hits his target with his first shot is allowed three shots
APPENDICES.
83
at the targets which his colleagues have missed. If he succeeds with

his second shot he is allowed two ; and with his third, one.
" If the hostile yayau are thus disposed of the team begins
again with a clean sheet. If not, their score is 0 and the other side
begins.
The side that scores the highest figure in its innings is the
winner.
" The game is very popular."
III. MARBLES
(DESCRIPTION
(MAIN GULI
OR
MAIN
BY RAJA ABDUL AZIZ AND

ABDUL HAMID.)
JAKA).
DAENG
This is a game for any number of players. They begin by

digging three holes on some open space, the holes being about 1 inch
in diameter and at intervals of about 2 yards. Each player in turn
then stands by one of these holes and shoots his marble at the hole
furthest from it, the player whose marble comes to rest closest to the
hole is selected to open the game. B u t if in this competition one
marble hits another (tingkis) every one has to begin again.
The opener of the game now squats on his heels over the hole at
one end and shoots his marble at the hole at the other end (lubang
satu).
His object is to send the marble into that hole. Probably he
tails. Then all the other boys in succession make the attempt, perhaps
with the same result. They then try again in the same order from the
place where the marble of each has come to a standstill. The first to
get his marble into the lubang satu leads off when it comes to shooting
at the lubang dua or middle hole. The players go on in this way from
hole to hole and back again, till they come to the lubang sa-puloh or
middle hole (for the fourth time). The player who first gets into this
hole becomes the raja or winner, b u t before doing so he has to knock
away his opponents' marbles with his own so t h a t none of them may
be lying within a radius of 1 yards of his goal. H e then stops
playing and stands out. The others go on until by a process of
elimination only one playerthe loseris left in. The loser has then
to pay forfeit, putting his fist in one of the holes for the other players
to shoot at.
A feature of this game is that certain phrases must be repeated
when a successful stroke is made. These phrases a r e ;
(i) Semua chukup) (the rules are complied with).
84
(ii) Sa-jengkal raja, masok lubang ta-korek, sok ta-ulang, tiga

kali raja, to'-otek, tiga kail otek raja, to'-idar, ta-jaka, ta'-idar
pinang, ta'-idar punggong, tampan kills, mantilri kedua raja,
(iii) Semua to'-raja, jaka idar, jaka sapu, idar punggong, idar
buah idar pinang, sa-jengkal ta'-raja, tiga kali otek to'-raja, sole ulang,
masok lubang ta'-raja, manteri ta-raja.
If the player is not alert enough to repeat one formula before his
opponent repeats the opposition formula he loses the benefit of his
successful shot.
These curious expressions are not meaningless; they are brief
and idiomatic summaries of rules in the game. Their meaning is as
follows:
Sa-jengkal raja: " i f after being hit my marble is left within a
span's length of yours I win the stroke.''
Masok lubang ta'-korek: " i f my marble after being hit rolls into
a hole ( I win the stroke)."
Sok ta'-ulang : " y o u may not shoot from a hole near my marble."
Tiga kali raja: " i f you hit my marble three times successively I
win the stroke."
Ta'-otek: " y o u must not be too deliberate (you must play fast)."
Tiga kali otek raja: " i f you play slowly three successive times I
win the stroke."
Ta-idar: " y o u must not move out of position"i.e., " y o u must
shoot at my marble from where your marble lies."
Ta'-jaka: " m y marble must not be moved (by the stroke t h a t
hits i t ) . "
Ta-idar pinang : " the pinang (marble) must not be moved.
To'-idar punggong: " y o u must not squat in an unauthorised
attitude."
Tampan kuis: " i f my marble is stopped by another in its course
after being hit I may jerk it away to a distance."
Manteri kedua raja : " i f my marble is hit and then another is hit
I win the stroke."
Semua ta'-raja : " I stop your winning the stroke."
Jaka idar: " I may move your marble."
Jaka sapu: " I may move your marble and sweep the ground to
improve my stroke."
Idar punggong: " I may squat in any attitude I like."
Idar buah idar pinang : " I may move any marble I please."
APPENDICES.
85
Sa-jengkal ta-raja : " though after being hit your marble remains
within a span's length of mine you don't win the stroke."
Tiga kali otek to'-raja: " though I may have hit you three times
successively and slowly, yet you don't win the stroke."
Sok ulang: " though I shoot from a hole near your marble (you
don't win the stroke)."
Masok lubang to'-raja : " though after being hit your marble rolls
into a hole you do not win the stroke."
Manteri ta'-raja : " a cannon does not win the stroke for you."
There are, of course, many local variants of these rules.
The Malay boy holds his marble in the curve formed by bending
round his left forefinger against his thumb. H e shoots it by inserting
his right forefinger behind it and pressing forward.
IV.MAIN
(BY
RAJA
" SEREMBAN."
ABDUL AZIZ AND DAENG ABDUL
HAMID.)
There are six kinds of seremban: s. raga, s. jala, s. chupak,

s. keling, s. angkut, and s. kuis, which are all played with the shells of
a kind of shell-fish called in Malay kerang and sometimes with little
nuts, but two of the above forms of seremban (s. raga and s. jala) are
played with shells only.
S. raga and s. jala. The boys, five or six in number, who desire
to play, sit down in a circle and at the commencement of the game
every one of them takes out his shells, puts them on his palmsay
each boy puts 20 shellsand flings them up to a height of about
one span from his hand. While the shells are thus in the air he
turns his hand palm-downwards and some of the shells then drop on
the back of his hand, and after the second fling he catches them with
his hand. This part of the game is called berselam. As a rule the
boy who has caught the most shells becomes the first boy. Now he
takes all the shells which have been used by the players in berselam
and puts them in his hand. Then he flings them up and finally
catches them with his hand, as is done in berselam. After this he
takes one of the shells for his tagan, which he flings u p to a convenient
height, and while it is thus flying in the air picks up the scattered
shells one at a time and then catches the tagan before it touches
the ground. If the shells lie two or more in a group he has to take
them up altogether, and if one of them is left or while picking up the
shells one at a time he touches any one of those lying near the one he
86
wants to take, in both these cases he is said to be bachehain which

case he has to stop with what he has got and let the player at hie
right-hand side play the remaining shells, and if he only leaves one
shell the next player has to tinting, which is like what is done in
berselam, but in the former there is only one shell while in the latter
there are more shells to deal with. The player is required to tinting
three times successively as quickly as he can, then if he succeeds, he
may take the shell and become the first boy in the next round. There
is a little difference between these two kinds of seremban. I n playing
s. raga the shells t h a t can be picked u p are those t h a t lie bottomupwards while in the other it is only the shell that lie with the hollow
parts upwards that a player is allowed to take.
8. chupak. The difference between this seremban and the above
two is only this : in playing this form of the game a player does not p u t
the shells in one hand but in both hands and catches them with both
hands too. As for the rest it resembles the above two in every respect.
8. keling.In playing this seremban a player must on no
account leave three shells unpicked, nor is he allowed to pick up three
at a time, otherwise he is said to be bacheha, similarly if only three
shells drop on the back of his hand.
8eremban angkut and s. kuis. In both these games no tagan
is used. I n the former a player with the shells on the back of his hand
picks u p the scattered shells one by one, but while so doing care must
be taken not to let the shells on the back of his hand drop, and not to
touch any of those lying near the one he wants to pick, otherwise he
will be bacheha. I n the latter a player with the shells on the back of
his hand does not pick up the scattered shells b u t draws them one by
one towards him with his forefinger.
The shell he is thus drawing
along must hit one of the others or he will be bacheha. W h e n he has
taken all the shells he flings u p those on the back of his hand and
then catches them with his hand.
V.MALAY TOYS.
I. K I T E S (layang-layang or wau).
See text, pp. 19, 20.
I I . TOPS (gasing).
See text, pp. 18, 19.
III.
TOY GUNS (bedil or senapang buloh). See text, pp. 20, 21.
I V . TRAPS. Malay children are very fond of simple traps for
catching birds, fish and small animals. The best known are the
serekap puyoh for catching quails, the lapun punai for snaring gre en
APPENDICES.
87
pigeon, the tangkul ketam for crabs, and a variety of cage-traps known
as jebah. Trapping is the subject of a separate pamphlet of this series.
V. SLINGS (ali-ali).
The ali-ali is the common catapult. The
missile is a durian-seed.
VI.
TOY BEETLE (kumbang). This toy is made of kabong-palm
seed or perah-seed. The seed is perforated by two converging holes so
that two apertures are visible on one side and only one on the other.
By passing a string through this and then twisting it and allowing it
to unravel, the " beetle " revolves very rapidly and emits a humming
sound. A game can also be played by making two beetles " fight"
i.e., knock one another till one or other breaks up.
VII.
TOY BUFFALO (kerbau pelepah nyiur).
This is a rough suggestion of a buffalo (see text). I t is drawn along the ground by a
string through its nose. Other toys of the same sort are the her eta
tempurong and the itek ayer.
V I I I . W H I R L I G I G S . These are known as bulang-baling.
I X . TOY BOWS. These are known as panah.
X. P E L L E T BOWS. These are known as terbil.
XI.
R I C E - P I P E (bangsi).
The simplest form of this rice-pipe is
made by splitting the extremity of a rice-stalk (at the point where it is
closed), then inserting another piece of rice-stalk and blowing into it.
The vibration of the split strands makes a loud noise.
XII.
COCK-FIGHTING (sabong, main taji).
There are a few childish
imitations of cock-fighting.
In one game a calladium-leaf is fastened
to a bamboo " s p u r " and serves as the armed cock. An opponent
comes along with a similar " cock," and the two are thrown at each
other till one leaf is cut to pieces by the spur of its opponent.
In
another game, a bamboo " s p u r " (taji) really a square-pointed dart
is stuck through a durian-seed and serves as a " cock." Strings are
attached to the durian-seeds and the " cocks " are whirled at each
other. The seed that first has a piece sliced off is pronounced the
loser.
VI.WORDS
SUNG I N T H E
"BLOSSOM"
DANCE.
(See also Skeat's " M a l a y Magic," p. 647.)

K u anggit, mayang, ku anggit,
Ku anggit pokok mengkuang;
K u panggil, dayang, ku panggil,
K u panggil turun sa-orang.
88
PAPERS ON MALAY
SUBJECTS.
Ku anggit, mayang, ku anggit,

Ku anggit dahan tua;
Ku panggil, dayang, ku panggil,
Ku panggil turun berdua.
Ku anggit di-pohon saga;
Ku panggil turun bertiga.
Ku anggit pokok mersapat;
Ku panggil turun berempat.
Ku anggit pokok delima;
Ku panggil turun berlima.
Ku anggit, dayang, ku anggit,
Ku anggit pokok kerenam ;
Ku panggil turun berenam.
Ku anggit di-pohon chuchoh;
Ku panggil turun bertujoh.
Ku anggit diatas lampan ;
Ku panggil turun berlapan.
Ku anggit tiap-tiap bulan ;
Ku panggil turun sembilan.
Ku anggit di-pohon buloh;
Ku panggil turun sa-puloh.
APPENDICES.
89

Ku anggit di-pokok empelas ;
Ku panggil turun bersabelas.
Etc., etc.
VII.THE BANDAN DANCE.

The following are examples of verses sung in the "Bandan'
dance:
Duri di-hadap daun jelatang,
Turun luroh changkat di-daki;
Mari mengadap Bandan datang,
Ini-lah ayer pembasoh kaki.
Ayuhai Bandan Suri!
Bersuniting bunga batang menjelai,
Bunga jatoh, batang di-lempar;
Silakan Che' Bandan naik ka-balai,
Makan-lah dahulu sireh sa-kapur.
Ayuhai Bandan Suri!
Di-ambil budak chepat berlari,
Permainan orang zaman dahulu ;
Lepas itu bangkit menari,
Jangan-lah pula segan dan malu.
Ayuhai Bandan Suri!
Lebat bunga gandasuri,
Mari di-sunting tajok malai;
Boleh-lah Bandan pandu menari,
Tetapi jangan malu dan lalai.
Ayuhai Bandan Suri!
Bunga di-karang tiada bertali,
Tali terap tali yang layang ;
Bandan hendak mohon kembali,
Tengah kaseh berchampur sayang.
Ayuhai Bandan Suri!
go
PAPERS ON MALAY
VIILA
DESCRIPTION
SUBJECTS.
OF
HATHRAH.
(BY MR. R, 0. WINSTEDT.)

The boys costumed as women wear long velvet gowns, crimson
pink pale blue, ablaze with tinsel; on wrists and feet bangles and
anklets ; on their heads turbans said to be of Persian pattern a foot
high, very gardens of gilt-leaved pink-blossomed paper roses and
crowned with black ostrich feathers. . . . Prostrate, their flowery
turbans touching the floor, their hands clasped before them, the boys
kneel in a row. Drums clash, the chorus of musicians roar out Arabic
words; the boys rise slowly, the play of drooping hands lifted
one above another, one above another, giving the idea of climbing and
ascent. Then follows a dance by the two chief actors; gliding
backwards in a narrow circle, close by one another, heads and feet
moving in unison ; arms held out now at full length with fingers
always drooping and now resting on the hip. Others join them.
First, they bend low so t h a t all the quivering flowery turbans touch in
their m i d s t ; then with one hand on hip and the other stretched out at
full length towards the centre of the circle they fall outwards and
backwards from the waist up, till they look like opening petals of
a single exotic flower. The dance over, they kneel slowly down, and
their hands rapidly dropping one over the other, one over the other,
are like nothing so much as a falling chain of blossoms.
A comic interlude was introduced in the shape of a small chubby
boy dresses in white European tropical clothes and a broad-brimmed
foolish straw hat. And to show the versatility of Malay talent, I may
add t h a t among the many movements of the actors was a dance after
the fashion of an English polka.
IX.THE DABUS DANCERS.

The verses sung by these frenzied dancers are punctuated by
cries of " Allah," " Ya Shaikh Abdul Kadir Jailani," etc. A tabor is
beaten to accompany the cries and the singing.
Sailillah Tengku Saiyid Alain,
Bukit zaman, kubur aulia ;
Di-tuntut besi yang tajam
Hendak menawar. . .
Allah!
APPENDICES.
91
besi yang bisa.

Sailillah Tengku Saiyid Alam,
Meriam patah. . .
Allah!
. . . rayat lari;
Perang tidak beberapa hari,
Musoh belut didalam negeri.
X.MALAY
CHESS.
(BY M R . H . O. R O B I N S O N . )
The game, known as main chatur (Skr. chaturangga) and main

gajah in the Malay Peninsula, was undoubtedly introduced from
Arabia. I t is difficult to say whether the game as played by the
Malays more resembles the ancient or the modern form of European
chess; it is extremely interesting nevertheless, as the following notes,
illustrating its peculiar modifications, will show:
The board, loh chatur or papan chatur (Arabic luh which means a
slate, a writing board, a t a b l e t ; and Malay papan, a plank, a board)
is of sixty-four squares, b u t with the squares all of one colour, usually
the natural colour of the wood used. The squares are marked by cuts
in the board, and for some reason which the native himself is unable
to explain, two diagonal cuts joining the opposite corners are always
present on every Malay chess-board.
The pieces, buwah chatur, thirty-two in number are as a rule very
clumsily made with a parang (chopper) from soft wood. One occasionally comes across a turned set; the writer is the fortunate possessor
of an ivory set, over half a century old, which originally belonged to
Raja Abdullah of the State of Selangor, an old warrior of well nigh
fourscore years. The men are not always of different colours, a daub
of lime generally serves to distinguish the white from the coloured.
How the Malay can be satisfied with such a slight distinction in a
game of intricacy is the first thought that comes to mind when one
sees two men squatting on a verandah with a board between them and
a crowd of interested admirers who are not at all particular as to the
rules of the game which concern them. The writer is not aware of any
standard for Malay chess-men; Mr. J. B. Elcum, in his article on
Malay chess published in the Singapore Free Press a few years ago,
92
stated that the pieces are, or should be, praetically similar to ours,
with the exception of the rooks which are generally flat like
draughtsmen. This has not been the writer's experience; the sets in
general use are very confusing and it is difficult to describe the
shapes of the pieces without illustrations. The king and queen
are identical in shape, the queen being about half an inch shorter; the
bishop (elephant) and knight are not unlike the above-mentioned
pieces in design but with longer necks and diminished in size in
proportion to their value. The rook (chariot) is always flat like a
draughtsman with a little knob on top. The pawn is a tiny cylindrical
piece with a top knot. When not in use the pieces are placed in
a net, very much like a lady's shopping net but made of finer string
with half inch meshes, and hung on a nail in the hut.
From the above it will be seen that the pieces in European chess
can easily be used for the Malay game; in fact the writer has always
found that the Malay is only too pleased to play a game with his
boxwood set, as the marked distinction in the pieces is welcomed
by him. And now we come to some interesting points where Malay
chess differs from the European form of the game.
At the commencement of a game the queen, instead of being
placed on her own colour, is stationed at the right hand of the king;
this probably explains the reason why the board is uncoloured, or that
there is no necessity for a coloured board. All book knowledge of the
European openings is therefore useless in the Malay game, but
one gets accustomed to this great difference after a little practice, and
a man who plays a fair European game will generally find that
the strongest Malay he meets comes off second best.
The king (raja) moves one square at a time in any direction.
Castling is effected in various ways in different parts of the Malay
Peninsula and Straits Settlements ; the recognised method in Selangor
is to move two squares whether a piece intervenes or not, but not
in conjunction with one of the rooks. This is permitted even if
the king is in check. The king may also, before he is checked
or moved from his own square, once move or take like a knight. In
Clifford and Swettenham's Malay Dictionary it is stated that the king
may also, if he has not moved or been checked, move once over
two vacant squares ; this privilege-move is unknown to the Selangor
Malays. Towards the end of a game care must be exercised in
not capturing all the opponent's pieces, for if the king be left
solus the game is practically drawn as he may move just as he
APPENDICES.
93
pleases, like a king, queen, bishop, knight, rook or pawn. H e is

then termed Raja Lela with powers to bermaharaja lela-i.e., to play the
Maharaja Lela ; to take liberties; to act as though the whole place
belonged to onea proverbial expression based upon the fact t h a t the
Maharaja Lela though possessed of little real power was quite at home
in the palace and had (in State ceremonial) authority to order about
men of far greater importance than himself (Wilkinson's " M a l a y
Dictionary").
The queen (mantri, Minister of State) stands on the right of the
king, as previously stated, and moves as in the European g a m e ; so do
the bishops (gajah, elephant), the knights (kuda, horse), and the
rooks (tir or ter, a chariot). W m . Marsden, author of the " History of
S u m a t r a " and compiler of the first Malay Dictionary about a century
ago, says that in the language of the coast of Coromandel the
word ter is equivalent to the Sanskrit rat'ha, a chariot. The word
is also used by the Tamils of the present day to signify the Juggernaut
car used at festivals.
The pawn (budak, from the Arabic) moves one square forward,
takes diagonally, and at his first move may move either one or
two squares, as in the European game; but there are some very
curious rules with regard to queening a pawn, and taking en passant.
W h e n a pawn has reached the eighth square on the rook's file it
queens at once; the player has also the option of selecting any other
piece. If on reaching E 7 a piece on K t square is en prise and
captured on the next move, the pawn must move back one square
diagonally before queening. On reaching the eighth rank of the
knight's file it has to move back one square diagonally, either to the
right or left, before queening; on the bishop's file two squares, and on
the king's or queen's file three squares. W i t h regard to taking
en passant, the following position will illustrate the rule of the Malay
game. White pawns on K t 2 and R 3 , and black pawn on R5.
If white moves P to K t 4 P takes P en passant or captures the P on
R3 as he pleases, but must always move diagonally. If there be no P
on R3,then white can move P to K t 4 without being taken en passant; the
reason the Malays assign for this rule is that the black pawn not being
blocked has the advantage of moving. There are just one or two
curious points more about the pawn's moves. Take white pawn on
E 2 and black on K t 3 with white to play. P to R3 or 4 is not
permitted; P takes P is the only move. Add another white pawn on
B2 with white to play. I n this instance either of the white pawns is
94
allowed to take the black pawn, or move if he chooses but to the third
square only. These rules may not be applicable in other parts of the
Peninsula, but they are recognised in Selangor.
I n conclusion, some of the expressions used in this form of chess
will perhaps prove of interest. The Malay for check is sah mate mat
and stale-mate muttu . The equivalent to our " q u e e n " is daman, but
this is used only when the adversary's queen is threatened by a queen ;
if by any other piece warning must be given by the word ma. This
appears to be superfluous. Wilkinson, in his " Malay Dictionary," goes
a little further in giving aras which he defines thus : Arabic, an
expression in chess, " guard your queen," " the queen is en prise," only
used, however, when the queen is threatened by a knight. The word
aras is used in Selangor, but with a totally different meaningviz.,
discover check. Aras sah is double check, and aras ma is checking the
king and queen simultaneously.
The rules and expressions given above are in accordance with
those of the game as played in Selangor; that they are slightly
modified in other parts of the Peninsula and in the Straits Settlements
is most probable, but they give one a fair idea what Malay chess in
general is like and a correct one of the game as played in Selangor.
Inasmuch as in the preparation of these notes the writer has
received the kind assistance of Raja Musa of this State.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States,']
R.
J.
WILKINSON,
General Editor.
LIFE AND CUSTOMS.

PART I.
THE INCIDENTS OF MALAY LIFE.
BY
R . J . W I L K I N S O N , F.M.S. Civil Service.
PRICE:
ONE
KUALA
PRINTED
BY
J.
RUSSELL
DOLLAR.
LUMPUR:
AT T H E
F.M.S.
GOVERNMENT
PRESS.
1908.
500-12/08.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States.]
R.
J.
WILKINSON,
General Editor.
LIFE
AND
CUSTOMS.
PART II.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MALAY LIFE.

THE
KAMPONG.
THE
HOUSE.
DRESS.
FOOD.
FURNITURE.
BY
R. O. WINSTEDT, F.M.S. Civil Service.
PRICE:
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AT
LUMPUR:
THE
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1909.
500-3/09.

[Published by direction of the Government of the Federated Malay States.']
R.
J.
WILKINSON,
F.M.S. Civill Service,
General Editor.
LIFE
AND CUSTOMS.
PART I I I .
MALAY AMUSEMENTS.
BY
E . J. W I L K I N S O N , F.M.S. Civil Service
PRICE:
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All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

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PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS.

THE INCIDENTS OF MALAY LIFE.

E . J . W I L K I N S O N , F.M.S. Civil Service.

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IN dealing with matters relating to Malay Life and

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Ante-natal ceremonies are dealt with in Appendix A.

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vampire; 1 bitter herbs are unpalatable to everyone;

Penanggalan : it has long pendent bowels.

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on the faces of his benefactors. A cry of this sort,

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name may be changed afterwards if it seems to bring

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS:

an offering to the Spirit of the Watersthe egg, the quid

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PAPERS OX MALAY SUBJECTS.

the newly-made cradle, a cat is put in to absorb or

And so on.1 The peculiar drowsiness induced by this

See Appendix B, where the full text is given.

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS:

smell keep the spirits at a distance while the bidan

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but they do not imply that the Malays as a race are

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS:

is good for him. She introduces him to the great world

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PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS.

Jamaludin, Lah for Abdullah, and so on. Moreover, the

Between the ages of two and six a Malay child is

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS: CHILDHOOD.

At the age of six he usually begins to receive some sort

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PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS.

and learn something of art and metal-working by

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS:

favour to ask of your kindness. Here is my boy,

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PAPERS ON MALAY SUBJECTS.

Nafsu yang didalam diri kita

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LIFE AND CUSTOMS:

as rather wasted when taught to children. In practice

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Malay boy to pick up a good deal of knowledge about

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