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STRAITS BRANCH OP THE 



ROYAL ASTATIC SOClETYc^^ ft-rear 

NOTES AND QUERIES 



EDITED BY 



THE HONORARY SECRETARY. 



No. I, Issued with No. 14 of tlic Journal of the Society. 



SlNGAl'OilE: 

Pi'idtoil at lh(i (j«A'»Miiiiu»»t Printing OMlre. 



iSS- 



.•) 



s 



P R E F A C E . 



Possessing, as this Society does, subscribers resident in 
many eastern countries, the races and tribes whose manners, 
customs, beliefs, literature, &e., &c., may furnish subjects for 
short contributions under the above heading are by no means 
few in number : valuable scraps of information about them 
are, it may be hoped, to bo obtained from members who will not 
object to communicate short notes on matters of interest, 
though they may be disinclined to extend their memoranda to 
the dimensions of an essay. 

Siam, Sumatra, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and the Brit- 
ish Settlements in the Straits of Malacca include in their 
populations a great many races of mankind. Even those which 
are best known to us and which have been most often des- 
cribed, have hundreds of peculiarities of religion, custom and 
language which have not been recorded, and others are as yet 
almost a scaled book to the anthropologist. 

^^ Travellers and residents in uncivilised lands,'^ in which 
description most of the members of the Society will recog- 
nise themselves, are the class for whose use a manual (** Notes 
and Queries on Anthropology ^^ )* was drawn up by a Com- 
mittee appointed by the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science in 1874. The object of the publication was 
to indicate to travellers generally to what subjects to direct 
their enquiries, and there are no less than one hundred sec- 
tions devoted to anthropology alone. A glance at this little 

* Published by Ed. Staxforp, Charinff Cross, 1874. 



wurk will always suggest to the resident in the East a host of 
subjects as to which interesting information may be procura- 
ble from the native population surrounding him. And quite 
apart from anthropology, there are endless notes to be made 
in other departments of science, natural history, botany, con- 
chology, entomology, &c. 

Members of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
and all residents and travellers in the Eastern Archipelago, 
are, therefore, invited to communicate *' notes ^' and " queries'^ 
to the Honorary Secretary for insertion in this Journal. 
Should the supply exceed the space allowed for one paper in 
the half-yearly journal of the Society, it may be possible by 
and by to organise a separate peiiodical publication on the 
principle of the " Punjab Notes and Queries,'^ published 
monthly at Allahabad under the editorship of Captain R. C. 
Temple. 

Here are some of the headings under which notes will pro- 
bably suggest themselves : — 

Native History, Religion, Superstitions, Magic and Witch- 
craft, Mythology, Medicine, Social Customs, Mode of Cooking, 
Mode of Eating, Clothing, Slavery, Marriage Customs, Cere- 
monies at Births and Funerals, Games and Amusements, Laws, 
Language, Habitations, Industries, Traditions, Folk-lore, Pro- 
verbs, Extracts from Native Authors, Antiquities, Habits of 
Animals and Birds, &c., &c. 

W. E. M. 

SINGAPORE, January, 1885. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



BOTANY. 

1 . Daun Sengugu.— I sent to Kew some flowers, leaves and 
seed of the plant known here and in Java as "Daun Sengugu ^^ 
( supposed to be a specific for Beri-Beri ), and the Assistant 
Director was good enough to get a report on the specimens 
from the Herbarium Department. 

It is pronounced to be Clerodendron serratum, which is 
mentioned in the Pharmacopoeia of India, p. 164. The roots 
are said to be largely exported from Vizagapatam for medi- 
cinal purposes. 

L/. O. o. 

[ lu FiLET*s Catalogue of Plants in the Botanical Garden at Weltevreden, 
there is a description of this plant, of which the following is a transla- 
tion : — 

Chrodendron serratum, Sprg. Native name Singoegoe ( Sundanese ), 
Sirie Goengoc ( Malay and Javanese ).^ Habitat, East India, Nepaul, Assam, 
Java, Uses. The roots macerated in water are eaten in Java to promote 
clearness of the voice. The leaves, either alone or mixed with inanghoe- 
doe, serchy &c., are administered as a vegetable or as a decoction to women 
in labour to assist delivery : the decoction is also employed as a remedy 
gainst fever and against stomach-ache and worms in cnildren. — Ed.] 



2. Gutta Juices. — The following lamentable occurrence took 
place only a few months ago in Borneo. A gentleman well 
known for his fondness for exploration found himself close 
to certain trees which apparently exuded a clear and not un- 
pleasant tasting liquid. Being very thirsty, he drank some- 
what copiously of the supposed water. A few hours afterwards 
he died in considerable agony. The juice he had rashly 
swallowed was that of a gutta which coagulated in his stomach 
and entirely closed it to the exit of food. 

N. B. D. 



6 N'otEs and queried. 

HISTORY. 

3. Ancieut Settlement in Penang before British Occu- 
pation. — The most ancient kampoiig in Penang is Datoli Kra- 
mat^ which would appear from the following extract from an 
old Register of Surveys effected in 1795, preserved in the 
Penang Land Office, to have been occupied early in the 18th 
century ; — 

*^ No. 571. Datoh Kramat Burying Ground. 

Garden Ground. 

Measuring on the East and "West sides, three orlongs ; 

On the North and South sides, four orlongs and-a-half ; 

Containing in all thirteen orlongs and-a-half ; 

This ground was cleared by the Datoh Kramat about 
ninety years ago, and Maharajistia * possesses himself of this 
ground as beini^ a relation of the Datoh Kram it by descent. 
The ground is planted with cocoa-nut trees and fruit trees and 
many people are buried in it.'' 



4. Titles and Offices of tlie Officers of tlie State of Perak. 

Under native rule, there were four chiefs of the first rank, 
eight of the second rank, and sixteen of the third. 
The four principal had the title of Tunku : — 

1. Eajci. JBandahara^ Wazir al-Kabir, the '' Grand 

Vizier '^ of Perak. 

2. Orang Kaya Besar, one of the four, Penghulu Raja 

PerampuaUy or Penghulu Dalam, Custodian 
of the Royal Ladies, or Guardian of the 
Inner Apartments. 

8. Mantri, one of the four, Sakim, or Judge of the 

country. 



[ * Maharaja Setia. — Ed.] 



XOTES AND QUERIES. . 7 

k Tumonggonq^ one of the four, Kru Pandak Raja, the 

''' Short Kris " of the Raja. 

5. Maharaja Lela, Head of the eight, Orang Be$ar 

Balei, or chief officer of the Raja's aud- 
ience hall panchong ta' bertanya^==^'' who 
lops off (or executes) unquestioned .'' 

6. Laksamanay one of the eight. Raja di Laut, Juru-batu 

of the country of Perak. Juru-hatu — "Mate, 
whose station is forward.^' — (Marsden,) 

7. Shahbandar, one of the eight, Anak kunchi raj a, 

" The key of the Raja '* an allusion probably 
to the duties of the Shahbandar as Collector 
of Customs and Treasurer. 

8. $ri Adika Raja, one of the eight, Jurumudi or helms- 

man, whose station is at' the kamudi or helm. 
Raja vjong karanff=*^ Ruler of the point 
of rocks,'' an allusion probably to the rocky 
nature of the couiitry in Ulu Perak. 

9. rangima Bukit Gantang, one of the eight, Dayong pe- 

minggang kanan^'^ He who wields the 
chief starboard paddle, " i.e., sitting near- 
est to the part of the boat occupied by the 
Raja. 

10. Panglima Kinta, one of the eight, ^^ Dayong peming- 

gang kiri*^=^^ Thb same on the port side." 

11, Toh Kara, one of the eight, Bantaray or Chamberlain. 

1^. Dafoh Sagor, one of the eight, Pcrgalah, the poler 

of the boat. 

13, Sri Maharaja Lela, Head of the sixteen. In charge of 

the rvots. One of his duties was to build 
the Raja's halei or audience hall. 

14. Datoh Sadia Raja of Bandar, an officer whose duty 

it is to prepare everything required by the 
Raja, to provide wood, water, etc., to build 
huts on occasions of festivals, to fnrnisli 
hangings, ornaments, etc. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 

15. Toh Rcma Pah/awan, Timba-ruann of the countrv. 

"The person who bales the boat if she leaks/' 
i. e., who removes any danger threaten- 
ing the country. 

£d. 



5. Ophir. — ^The statement of ten quoted by writers and com- 
pilers, that the natives of Malacca call their gold mines 
" Ophirs '' has always astonished me, for I know of no Malay 
name for a mine in any way resembling tlie word given. 
The author of " Sarong and Kris '^ quotes Dr. Kitto's En- 
cyclopaBdia and Dr. P. Poivre, a French author, who wrote 
in 1797, in support if it. I think that I have found in a 
paper in the first volume of '^Asiatic Researches'' ( ITSl^ ) 
the foundation of the often- repeated argument "in favour 
of the mount in the Malay Peninsula being that of Scrip- 
ture" (to quote Major McNair). A Mr. Macdonald, 
writing about the gold of Limong in Sumatra, says : " It 
is more than probable that Stimnfra must have been the 
Ophir of Solomon's time. This conjecture derives no 
small force from the word ophir being really a Malay 
substantive of a compound seuKe, signifying a mountain 
containincj (/old," (!) Can' any one cxpluin how tliis deriva- 
tion is arrived at? 

Ed. 



LANGUAGE. 

6. Fantang Gahani. — The Mentra, i.e., the aborigines in 
Malacca and the surrounding States, when in search of 
gaharu ( lignum alots ) are obliged to use a special language, 
as was found to be the case in the south of the Peninsula 
among the aborigines seeking for camphor. * 

[ * See Journal, Straits Branch, R. A. S,, No. 7, p. 101.— Kn.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 9 

Gaharu can then only be spoken of as tdbak, the 
ordinary language is pantang or forbidden. 

The following is a list of similar words which shews, as in 
the ease of the pantang kdpur in Johor, that periphrasis is 
ofton made use of to avoid the ordinary word : — 

Malay. Pantang, 

snake Ular hindtang panjang (long animal) 

buffalo kerbau sia 

elephant gdjah hindtang gedang ( great animal ) 

to go home pillang mellpat hdlik ( turned backfold ) 

goat kamhing Mhck 

duck itek pSpet 

fowl df/am mSndong 

fish tkan sakilap pdstr, 

'1 he searcher for gaharu must neither sing nor pray when 
out on the search. Nor may he eat beldchan { dried prawns ) 
tlie triWok fish, nor any kind of umhut, i.e., ground shouts 
of any plant, nor can any other kind of produce be collected 
at the same time, for fear of injuring the quality of the 
fjdhaiu. 

If a man has found a promising gaharu tree, having cleared 
round it, he goes home, and dreams of the guardian spirit 
(hunt a gahanij, who appearing states as a condition of a favour- 
tible result, that he must have a man handed over to him. The 
next day, if the dreamer can catch xsome (»ne asleep, he smears 
liis forehead with lime as a sign to the hantUy who accord- 
ingly carries off his victim, the latter dying of a fever, or 
some other ailment, and the dreamer gets a good supply of 
gaharu. But should he fail to comply with the haniu's 
wishes, he either cannot find his tree, or it turns out a bad 
one. 

The same pantang applies to the search for gold. 

D. F. A. H. 



10 XOTE8 AND QUERIES. 

7. Modes of sitting in driring an elepliant* 

The fjambtila gajahj or mahouts^ in Perak, have the follow- 
iDg expresftioDs for three modes of sitting on the elephant's 
neck : — 

Belah iimiafuf, — ^To sit with one leg tucked under and the 
other hanging down on one side, (This phrase might be appli- 
ed to the mode of riding on a side-saddle. ) 

Tempok katak. — To sit with the right leg bent back on the 
right side and the left leg hanging down on the left. 

Chahang halban. — To sit with both legs hanging straight 
down. 

Ed. 



8. Johor.— I see that there has been some discussion in the 
newspapers as to whether the name of this State is properly 
spelt Johor or Johore, Kaffles, whose refirences to Johor are 
very numerous in his Essay on the ilalayu nation, published 
(in 1815) in the 12lh volume of Asintic Reaenrchen, spells 
the word without the final e. In Du Bois^ Vies des Gourer' 
neiirS'G'dndraux (The Hague 1763) also, •/©// or is the ortho- 
graphy employed. To go back further ^till, the early factors 
in the service of the East India Company (1607-1616) spelt 
the word Jor and Jhor. See Calendar of State Papers, Colo- 
nial Scries. 

Ed. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



9. Snmatran Mawas.— The orang-utan (simia saft/rusj * 
which is found in Sumatra as well as in Borneo, is known bv 
tradition to the Malays of the Peninsula by the name of 
mairas, 1 he Mdwas is said to inhabit the jungle, and to have 

♦ ('ailed Mi<tit in Btni'^o.— Wallace's Malay Archipelago, I, G2. 



a right arm of steely which, can be used like a knife."^ 

He lives in the trees, and his body is covered witt hair ; 
he does not use fire, for fear of accidents, but lives on 
fruit. 

Natives are sometimes found to tell of some one who. has 
met one of these beings. 

The following account is given of one said to have been 
met with within the memory of man at P^rlak in Sumatra ! 

A man went into the jungle one day, and was caught by a 
female Mdwaa, who took him in the place of her husband 
whom she had lost. In due course, she bore him a child. His 
thoughts were always directed to the means of escape, which 
he devised by getting the Mdwas to fetch him cocoa-nuts, 
from the husk of which he constructed a rope. When she 
asked him what the rope was for, he said it was to swing a 
cradle for their child. Her speech is described as resembling 
that of a tiong or mina bird. When the rope was long 
enough to enable him to descend the tree, he asked the J/rftra« 
to get some krang ( shell-fish ) and vmbut nihanQ ( the 
young shoot of the nibong palm). When she had gone in 
search of them, he let himself down from the tree, and has- 
tened home to his kampong. He had only just reached it 
when the Mdtcas came after him, bringing the krang, the 
iimbtit ntbong, and their child, and called on him to return 
to her, but his neighbours came out with lights and guns to 
his help, so that the JUdwas did not venture near; then finding 
she could not get him back, she threw down the krang 
and vmbut nibong, and tore the child in half, throwing 
one-half at her husband, and the other half away, and then 
disappeared.t 

D. F. A. H. 



* 



[ * The mnlipinaiit Mawa that mocks the laugh of a huxnan belne with its 
iron arm and body covered with shaggj hair." Newbold, Straits of Malacca. 
voL II, p. 416.-ED.] 

f One of the ** idle tales current among IkTalajB". about the existence of men- 
monkejs. See Nbwbold, Straits of Malacca, vol, II, p,4I6.--ED.] 



12 NOTSS AND QUERIES. 

10. .Turtles.— The following paragraph, translated from the 
Batavia Randehblad for the Straits Times, is worth perma- 
nent preservation. 8ome two years ago, the Colonial Govern- 
ment tras applied to for information on the subject of the 
turtle trade. Very meagre, however, was all that could be 
collected on the subject, and the details given below will be 
new to many : — 

^^ Any one journeying along the sea-shore from Padang to 
" Bencoolen, or visiting the desolate southern sea coast of the 
" Residency of the Preanger Regencies,may see towards the hills 
^^ where the coast rises up with a very gentle acclivity, and the 
" sand is dry and loose, many places bearing marks of rooting up, 
'* the sand being thrown up in heaps. On these places being 
" examined, there will be found at a slight depth under the 
sand many eggs, round as bullets, each of the size of an 
apple, pale-white in colour, and with a soft parchment like 
*^ shell. These are turtles' eggs, which are found on the 
south sea-coast of the Preanger, as many as one hundred 
being sometimes laid in one nest. As these eggs are tasty 
and nutritious, and as the animals themselves yield delicious 
^^ meat, the iJea of brinjring these articles into more general 
" use than heretofore as food supplies among the people, de- 
" serves encouragement. Great diflSculties, however, stand 
" in the way of caiTying it out. The places where these eggs 
^^ are found are in desolate, almost inaccessible, and very thin- 
ly inhabited districts. People may wander there for hours 
and even days without discovering any trace of human handi- 
^^ work. This ha< been experienced by those few persons wlio 
^^ have visited the south c ast of Java, and by the telegr;<ph 
" officials who laid the line frm Padang to Bencoolen. The 
^' working of the proposed farm will be hampered by the 
^^ numerous beasts of prey, tigers, crocodiles, and wild dogs 
^^ which hunt the turtles at night, when the latter leave the 
^^ sea to lay ei g^ on the beach. Notwithstanding the unusual 
" size ( 3 to 5 feet lonir ) and the stren^^th of their shells, they 
*^fall easy victims to these beasts of prey, because sea turtles 
•* are unable to witlidraw either h* ad or feet under their shells, 
"^ So fierce and bloody is the attack on these animals, that the 
'^boutnern sea-coast of Java sometimes resembles a battle 






« 






NOTES AND QUERIES. ,13 






field, the beach being strewn with bones and shells of turtles, 
surrounded by torn and foul-sraelling pieces of flesh, which 
"the beasts of prey have left lying ab»ut at the disposal of 
*' birds of prey, which may be seen on such occasions flying high 
"in the air above these places. The eggs themselves are the 
"favourite fare of small four-footed beasts of prey, and even 
" of monkeys, which dig them up out of the sand and carry them 
" away. Ihese eggs are not hatched in cloudy or rainy weather, 
" from turtles leaving it to the sun^s rays to hatch them." 



N. B. D. 



11. Breeding Pearls and Bacteria in Rice.— The first vol- 

time of these Transactions contained an article Irom my pen 
On the subject of breeding pearls, which excited, I am afraid, 
some derision, though if quotation be any sign of interest, the 
notice it received from the press was satisfactory. The late 
Frank Buckland inserted the article bodily in Land and 
Water y and Mr. Darwin did me the honour to write to me 
about it. I have just come across a paragraph translated from 
the Batavia Dagblad of 17th April last, which seems to point 
to a possible solution of the mystery. It states that a Dr. 
Lacerda, a Brazilian gentleman who has received 75,000 
francs from his Government for discoveries regarding snake 
bites, and is now engaged in researches upon beri-beri, 
deems that beri-beri arises from bad rice, and believes 
that in such rice he has found the same bacteria which he had 
detected in the Jblood of beri-beri patients. It all depends 
however, on this belief becoming a certainty. It strikes the 
JDagblat that one fact tallies with his hypothesis, namely 
that beri-beri so often appears on premises where large 
stocks of rice have been kept for a long time, and where 
little supervision has been sometimes exercised over boiling 
that grain. " The animalculeD die at a temparature of ()0° 
centigrade, according to Dr. Lacerda. Among the pu- 
pils ut the native veterinary school in Samarang, beri-beri 



i. 



14 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



\ 



several times broke out, until the house was rebuilt, upon 
which the disease disappeared. Unless we are misinformed, 
adds the writer, these young men took their meals together, but 
now thev board with natives. If this be the case. Dr. Laccrda 
would certainly find it remarkable.'^ 

Now, if animal life really exists in dry rice, the nibbled look 
of the end of each grain when kept with pearls would be 
accounted for. It still leaves the alleged formation of the 
pearls a mystery. There is sufficient evidence of their being 
actually formed, here, in Singapore, to hang a man, were the 
same evidence produced in a case of murder; and that, after 
all, is, conventionally, the neaa^est approach we can make to 
absolute proof. I hope that the subject will not be quite for- 
gotten by local scientists. 

N. B. D. 



1 2. Are Cockatoos Carnivorous ? — Though not a local bird, 

so large a number of cockatoos are imported from New Guinea 
and Australia that I may perhaps be pardoned for introducing 
thi^ querry. A sl\ort time ago I put a wood-dove into the same 
aviary as a favourite sulphur-crested cockatoo. A day or two 
afterwards, the latter was found holding the body of the dove 
in its claw ( having bitten off the head ) and sucking the 
blood of its victim. I knew that cockatoos would thrive on a 
little chopped meat, but did not ktiow that they ever acted as 
birds of prey. Have any of our readers observed a similar 
circumstance ? 

N.B.D. 



^ 



13. The Octopus.— The Malay residents in the vicitinity of 
Tanjong Pagar assei*t that a large octopus inhabits a deep 
cave close to the western end of the wharf in the direction 
of the Borneo Company^s premises. Divers declare that they 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 15 

have seen the animal. The following description of a similar 
creature appeared in the iStraits Times of 28th November 
last : — 

"On June 15/ when in S.lat. 21deg. Srsec. andE. long. 118 
deg. 40 sec.y about five miles off the Exmouth Gulf on the w^'st- 
em coast of Australia, Captain Hopkins of the schooner Mary 
Ogilviey saw an immense creature which he took to be a species 
of octopus. His attention was drawn to it by a perfect cloud 
of sea-birds, and at first he naturally thought it must be a dead 
carcase. On approaching it, however, he found it was alive 
and sluggishly disporting itself. In shape it was like a violin 
but of immense size, with sojne six feelers about the greater 
diameters of the violin. It lay almost flat upon the water, was 
of a dark-grey above, and was ctmtinually elevating one of it 
feelers, apparently twice the thickness of a man^s arm, to as 
height of from six to eight feet. It appeared to be vomiting, 
and as the birds wete evidently feeding, that accounted for 
their presence in such numbers. Its size was so great that, 
had it grasped the ve:?si4, it could easily have capsized it. The 
Captain, therefore, got out of the way as quickly as possible, 
and without making definite measurements; but a large 
whale in the vicinity looked quite diminutive. It is a pity 
that something more exact as to size is not available, but I 
think the description is sufficient to convey an idea of the 
nature of the monster.'' 

N. B. D. 

■X- ¥f 

14. Tiger Traps. — Mostresidents in Singapore are acquaint- 
ed with the ordinary form of tiger traps. A hole is dug in the 
ground, some 5 or 6 feet, and 12 feet square in depth, and at 
the bottom strong sharpened bamboo stakes are firmly planted. 
The hole is covered over with brushwood, grass, &c., and if the 
tiger sets foot on this he generally becomes lamed if not killed 
by the fall into the pit. G. F. M. describes another sort of 
trap as follows : — 

** I started my trap on the 4th instant, and was lucky enough 
to catch the brute the evening of the 12th. I made mine close 



16 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

to the stable and goat shed^ and took a trap made in Serdang 
some two years ago by a friend of mine as a model. 

Its dimensions are as follows : length 12 fect^ breadth 5 feet, 
and height 6 feet. It is made of wooden bars or fianffs, placed 
close together, and driven three feet into the ground. These 
bars have a diameter of from 3 to 4 inches. The top is made 
of 2-inch planks placed broadways and nailed to the top of the 
tian^s with & inch nhih. Lengthways, over the 2-inch plaoks, 
1-inch planks are again nailed down, so as to give additional 
strength to the roofing of the trap. The door is about 2 J feet 
wide and drops two feet into the ground, falling between 2- 
inch planks which are driven six feet deep into the ground. 
Inside the trap there is a partition by which means the bait is 
shut off from the tiger, and escapes unhurt. The interior ar- 
rangements as to the falling of the door is very primitive, and 
is simply a contrivance effected by the use of a nail, some string, 
a small piece of nibong and a plank two ftet long. The string 
is tied to the level by which the door is suspended, and running 
through a small aperture made in the roof is attached to the 
piece of nibong. This again is slipped under the nail (which 
is driven into one of the Hangs) and kept into position by the 
plank which projects into the middle of the trap. This is, of 
course, arranged so as to make everything exactly balance. The 
tiger treading on the plank, or even brushing against it, at once 
loosens everything, and the door comes down with a rush.^^ 

N. B. D. 

•if 
•if # 

15. Man-eaters.— The following will be new to many. After 
describing the capture of a tiger, G. F. M. writes : — 

'* The beast proved to be a female, and measured as it lay- 
stretched out, exactly 7 feet 3 in. from the muzzle to the end 
of the tail. According to the Malays and Siamese, it was a 
man-eater. They made this asj^ertion after having examined the 
ears, which were slightly slit in two or three places. They have 
it that a tiger after having devoured a human beings gets its 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 17 

blood so heated, that it lies in some river or swamp for three 
days in order t > cool itself, and that during that period its 
ears itching irritate the beast so, that it tears at them with its 
claws, permanent marks being the result pf its scratchings/' 

N. B. D. 



"X- ^ 



16. Tigers eating Frogs.— Few would have credited the 
following : — 

" I had often heard that tigers, when they could get nothing 
else better to eat, lived on froj^s, but I alw'ays thought this was 
hearsay, until I examined the contents of this one's stomach, 
which consisted almost entirely o£ them/' 

N. B. D. 



•jf 



17. Charms. — After describing the care exercised to keep off 
intruders by piling empty cases, &c. around the mat whereon 
the dead tiger lay, G. F. M. says : — 

** Tbis latter precaution proved very necessary as it was the 
means of keeping off' the hands of depredators, who were only 
too eager to pr-.cure some charm or amulet. 

C ireful as I was, howcv« r, wiihiu a quarter of au hour after 
the tiger was shot, it had not a single hair of its mustachios 
left, these being considered great charms. Subsequently, 
as the skin was hanging out in the sun to dry, I even had two 
of the claws stolen. 

The flesh of the tiger was eaten by the Chinese, Siamese 
and Klings with considerable relish. It was interesting to 
note what implicit faith all natives put in the charms or to- 
kongs that are to b(^ obtained from the vanquished foe. Chief 
among them are the gall stone, the claws, and a small bone 
found at the back of the neck. The bones were in great request. 



18 NOTE AND QUERIES. 

and medicine which has very valuable medicinal properties is 
prepared from them." 

The last sentence is not quite accurate. It should read medi« 
cine which, it is believed by the nativetf, has verj valuable, &c. 

N. B. D. 



MALAY FOLK-LORE. 

18. Signs and Omens.— When on the war-path, it is good 
to start on a Friday before the flies are astir (sa-belum tevbang 
IdlatJ, 

On a Saturday, it is good to start after the sun is up. 

When about to start on a journey, or to leave home on 
business, it is unlucky to hear the chirp of the squirrel ftftpei ), 
which portends robbery as the travellcM-^s probable misfortune ; 
likewise the cry of tlic '' vng/ca" ( gibbon ) portends loss. 

The sound of the tctdhau (kind of " whip-poor-wilP^ ; signifies 
death by accident or wound. 

So he who, setting out on a journey, hears the sound of the 
elaug or laufj ( kite ), expects that he, or those he 
leaves behind, will suflcr loss by fire, should it be disregarded. 

Hearing the enggang (horn bill) by night means injury to 
the country, such as burning of houses. 

The hUrortg chin tony heard at any time betokens that an act 
of adultery or seduction is being committed somewhere. 

If a person stumbles on leaving the steps of a house on par- 
ticular business^ it is unlucky, and the business is abandoned 
for the time. * 

To hear the call of the 5^*erM bird is a bad omen for the 
sportsman for the whole of the day on which it is hoard, but 
to hear that of the semtijnr bird is lucky for him. 

[* See Jouriial, Straits Branch, R. A. S., No, 7, p. 19. — En.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 19 

The water from akar ( monkey ropes or creepers ) which 
produqe it must only be drunk standing, not sitting or squat- 
ting ur sdkit pinygarig ( lumbago or kidney disease ? ) williesult. 

D. F. A. H. 



19. Legend of Changkat Rambian.— Many of the lej^ends 
of the Perak Malays refer to a remote period when what is now 
dry land was covered by water and when the lofty mountain 
peaks were islands divided one from another by the sea. 

Miles up country, at Changrkat Rambian in the Batang 
Padang district, a rock is pointed out which is declared to be 
the petrified hull of an Indian ship which came trading to 
those parts in the ancient days, and in explanation of her fate 
the following story is told. 

In the day when CJhangkat Rambian was a sea-port, Indian 
traders came across the Bay of Bengal to barter their gay 
chintzes and cottons for the tin of the Malays. The Datoh or 
Chief of Changkat Kambian would receive the dark stran<iers 
hospitably and send them away with full cargoes when the 
changing monsoon brought favourable winds for the return 
voyage. 

He was fair in his dealings, and enjoyed a good repu- 
tation among the sea-faring adventurers whom commerce 
brought to his island-port. 

Kow it happened once that when an Indian trader cas^ 
anchor off Changkat Rambian, the Datoh had nought in his 
stores but a crantang of tin-ore not yet smelted. Nevertheless, 
firmly believing that he would have a cargo by the time the 
ship was ready for sea, he boldly purchased the whole stock of 
the Malabar merchant and promised to deliver to him one hun- 
dred bharas of tin. Time went on and the Datoh^s expecta- 
tions were not fulfilled. Either the ryots working in his 
mines were idle, or the mines unproductive, and the Datoh 
still found himself with but one gantang of ore with which 
to furnish one hundred bharas of the pure metal to a rapa- 
cious creditor. 



20 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Day by day came the Indian merchant demanding his 
due with the pertinacity of au eastern creditor^ until the Datoh 
declared that the white cockle shells which formed a pave- 
ment in front of his house were being worn out by the trader's 
feet. In despair^ he appealed to heaven for supernatural aid, 
and in his pra3'ers he implored that his petition might be 
answered in a dream or vision. That nighty as he lay stretch- 
ed on his mat^ an old man appeared to him inadream^ and said: 
'' Seek for a young kompas tree growing on an ant-hill. When 
'^ found make a poker of it, * use it when smeltiug the ganr 
'^ tang of ore, and all will be well.'' Having said this^ the old 
man vanished, and the Datoh slept peacefully till morning. 

With dawn the Indian came as usual, pressing his claims 
with more than ordinary vehemence and declaring that the 
time for his return was near and he would be ready to sail in 
two days. The Datoh asked for time and said that he must 
first visit Pulau Tunggal, but on his return would perform hifl 
contract as agreed. The unwilling creditor had to agree and 
the Datoh stepping into his canoe paddlod away rapidly to the 
other inland, for in those days Bukit Tunggal, which now 
stands i'ar inland on the left bank of the Perak river, was an 
island and men called it Pulau not BukU Tunggal. A short 
search in the wooded heights of the island resulted in the dis- 
covery of the stick whicli was to have such magic propeities. 
Returnini^ to his house with the kompas sapling, he was 
visited by the merchant, who thought that, alter this journey, 
d'Ome gold or other valuable articles might be forthcoming in 
satisfaction of his demands. Loud were his complaints on 
finding absolutely nothing. *^ Fear not," said the Datoh, 
'' to-night I shall smelt, and to-morrow you may come fi>r the 
" tin, for I have vowed that this gantang of ore shall fill your 
'' craft." 

All that night the Datoh smelted. The Indian seamen lyiflg 
on board their ship at anchor off the shore could hear the 
regular clack of the valve of the bellows and wondered that so 

♦ For superstitious reasons, Malay tin-miners will not use iron, iustru* 
ments. For Stirling up the charcoal embers at the orifice of the furnace 
they use long thin saplings of some green tough wood. These are usuaUj 
called per\juluk oi jfenyuluk. See No, 9 uf this Joarnal, p.p. 10 a&d d7t 



I 

i 



22 * NOTES AND QUERIES. 

will ensure sucli a miraculous quantity of metal as has not been 
known since the days of Datoh Changkat Rambian.* 

Ed. 

30. Nakhoda Ragain. — A personage of this name fibres 
in many Malay legends, especially those connected with the 
sea. I have heard of him at Bandar in Lower Perak, and I 
believe he is also known to Bornean folk-lore. See also Journ. 
Ind. Arch., XI, 168. Notes on this subject are invited. 

Ed. 



SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

21. Oanjn. — ^This is the Malay word applied to a species of 
ordeal resorted to in order to find out the* perpetrator of a 
crime, when no one in particular is suspected. 

One kind oi ganju is the following : — Supposing that a theft 
has taken place in a house, all the inmates are assembled and 
their names are written on the edge of a white cup, on which 

* In thin legend, the words which I have translated ant-hill are bunut jantan 
"male ant-hill." The legendary Jiompas sapling is Bugj-estive of the divininj^-rod 
which is believed by some writers on comparative my tholgy to be scientifically 
identical with the phallus or Ivngvm. The " male ant-hill" rather supportB this 
view. The ronclnsion of the legend is not unlike a well-known northern stoiy of 
" how the sea became Belt." I am indebted t<> M. Paul Sebillot, who has so 
energetically devoted himself t'» the tjfudy of " folk-lore " in France, especially 
as regards legends connected with the sea, for a paper ( VEau de Met 
dans les siipe^'stiti OTIS et les cr^^fl7?cc«^o^w/</r7^« publiphed in the anthiopolo- 
gical journal VHomme^ No. 13, iy8-», frt m which I take the following version 
of the Norwegian legend : — 

Un conte norv^gien du recueil d'Abjornsen et Moe, intitule le Mavlin 
magiqvs^ attribue la salure de la mer ^ ce mcmlin, qui a le privilege, mc.yennant 
certaines paroles, de mondre tout cc qu'on lui dtmande. II finit par tomber 
entre les mains d'un marin qui IV mpoita bien vite a eon bord. sans demander 
Ls pardns n^ccBsaires p<.ur I'aridter. Quand le navire fut en plcine m» r, le 
marin lui dit: " Mouds du sel, vite vt bien." Et Ic moulin de lomir dn sel. 
Lorsqu'il y en eut la charge du vaisBcnu, le marin lui cria de s'an^ter; mais le 
moulin marchait t<»ujours pa«ce qu'il n'cbeissjit qu'a une foimule ma^jique. 
Le tas de sel devint de plus en plus haut, et le navire finit par <ouler bas. 
Le moulin est encore actuellement au foud de la mer a moudre du scl, ce qui 
fait que Teau est sal^e. — Ed. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 23 

some sentences of the Koran are also inscribed. ,A ring is then 
suspended by a maiden^s hair and held right over the middle 
of the cup. It is swung round gently and the name which it 
first strikes is the name of the thief. 

In another method, a sieve (nyiruj is used. Some mystic 
sentences are written on this utensil with turmeric (kunnyU), 
All the household being assembled, a man grasps the nyiru by 
the edge and holds it out flat. In a short time it is seen to 
wave up and down and presently pulls away from the man 
holding it, who follows its lead until it reaches and touches 
the thief. 

There are many others.* 

Ed. 



MEDICINE. 

22. A Malay in my employment thus described to me the mode 
by which he was cured of an illness. The native doctor (homo) 
placed a hnyong (jar ) of water on the floor. The otht-r appa- 
ratus were some hertih (parched rice ), bras kiinnyit (rice made 
yellow with turmeric), and a few blossoms of the hunga mrlor. 
He put a hard-boiled e^^ into the buyong. The hertih and 
rice he sprinkled round the buyoriff, letting s<tme of the grains 
fall into it. As he did so, he repeated some words in a low 
voice. He then put the flowers into the bvyong and they 
floated on the top of the water. He then lighted a candle 
and watched the flame to see if a cure was possible or not. 
The flame flickered in his direction, so he decided in the 
afiBrmative. If the flame had gone the other way, he could 
not have undertaken the cure. He then placed a gold ring 
belonging to the patit^nt into the jar. He then made the 
patient lie down, and placing his* hands firmly on the top of 
his head, he repeated a formula in a low voice, and at the 

f See the account of the ordeal by rice in India, As. Res., vol. I ; also Joum. 
As. Socy. Bengal, vol. xxzv. 



24 NOTES AND QUE&ISS. 

end of it blew in tbe rice as if he was blowing awajr something. 
This he did three times. 

Before his performances on the patient^s head, he went 
through an operation to ascertain the reason why the patient's 
semangat * had abandoned him. He took the ring and at- 
tempted with it to hook up tbe fl«>ating flowers and grains 
of hertih. They evaded the contact, and it was not until a 
further incantation and muttering of charms that one flower 
and one grain of hertih were hooked up. Tliis betokened that 
the patient's aflections had recently been estrang*'d from 
some oue. (This was true, he had recently quarrelled 
with his wife.) He made the patient bathe in the water in 
the buyonff and then eat the e^^. 

He then pronounced a charm over 20 leaves of sirih and 
directed that the patient should eat these and no others. 

Ke then tied the ring round the patient's right wrist with a 
string made of thread of seven different colours tvristed together 
and prescribed perfect rest for three d«ys. Xo one was to be 
angry with the patient, and the latt( r was not to lose his 
temper with nnyone, but was to remain at home and amuse 
himself with flowers or any other mild and innocent diversion. 

Ed. 



GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. 

23. Dann tiga ^ei.— A Mala j gameof cards. The following 

isa description of this game as 1 have seen it played in 
Perak : — 

Hearts, Lekoh, King, Eaja. 

Diamonds, Retin. Queen, Bandahara. 

Clubs, Kidalmcar. Knave, P^kah 

Spades, Salopong. Ace, Sat, 



* Sc'vufngat—Yital principle; it would fieem to corn spend in 8« me degree 
with the la of the Karens • f Burmah and to rtBemblc ihe leipya ( butterfly ) 
of the Burmese. See MAgoK's Burmah. ^ 



NOTBS AND QUEfllES. 



25 



To shuffle, Kiyat^ mengiyat. 
To deal, Membaica, 
To cut, Kerat. 

To sweep the board, make every one pay, 
Mengelong, 

Three cards are dealt out to each player. The highest 
hand counting by pips is that which contains the greatest 
number of pips after the tens are deducted. Thus a knavo, 
ten and nine is a good hand. 

The best hand is 3 aces, Bat tiga. 

The next best is 3 court-cards, Kucla ; naik kuda. 

The next is nine. 

The next is eight. 

All these four hands are known as terus. 

A hand of three threes is really a good hand, being nine, 
but it is considered a propitiation of good luck to throw it 
down ( without exposing it ) and announce that one is huta, 
in the hopes of getting good luck afterwards. 

Each player makes two stakes— Afl/?a/a and ekor. They may 
be of equal value, or the ekor may be of greater value than the 
kapala. 

The kapala must not be of greater value than the ekor ; 
that is called tual ka-ujona f tiial=bei'at J , 

Or there may be a single stake only which is called podiil. 

Betting between players is called sorong, or tmci, or sorong 
tmci. 

A pool, tuwi tengah. 

The ekor stake is only paid to the dealer if he holds one of 
the hands called terns and if a smaller hand is held by a 

A player who holds thirty exactly (except when he has three 
player. Then the dealer takes both krrpala 'dud ekor (7nenyelong). 
court-cards, kuda) is said to be out (buta). 

Any one except the player on the right of the dealer may cat. 
The player who cuts looks at the bottom card of those that he 
lifts and if he thinks- it is a lucky cut he accepts it and puts 
down the cards he has lifted (pengerat). 

The dealer then puts the rest of the pack on top of the cut 
and in his turn lifts a portion of the pack {pengangkat) and 
looks at the bottom card« 



26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



There are all sorts of namss for different cards and combi- 

natioa of cards of various d)gre3s of lii^k aal these are quoted 

by the cutter au I dealer, eacli declaria^ his confi ieuce ia the 

luck comiag to him by reason of the cutting or lifting of a 

particular card. 

Five of clubs, I ^I'V ^"^r^ penjhufu chelony. 

' { Uhiikup aanyin g imbtla-afa. 

Nine of diamonds, Buija kachaaj rtja budim^n, 

{Gagak sa-kaican rija di-hilir, 
Sinfj/gah makun pedindanr/ masak. 
Masak pun lain muda pun lalu. 

Aceofd'amonds ) t, * * i - r> • t^ ^ / 
•c VBuntut kns Raja Bandahara, 

Do. if in the ") ^ 7 x- - 1 > 

hands of the l^>^f yat^'l^lf'^r^ sr,oran<j. 
11 j ^ata pun tidak marahahafja. 

1 " |- Semut ghiting Che Amat pelak. 
Two of hearts. Batang jamhan. 

Six is an unlucky card, — Daun anam jnhnnain. 
Nine of hearts, — Hari panas kubang ber-ager, 

A player does not hastily look at his three cards and learn 
his fate at Once, but he prolongs the excitement by hdlding 
his cards tight together and looking alternately at the outside 
ones and last of all at the middle one, sliding out the latter 
between the two others little, by little. Thus it is left uncer- 
tain for some time whether a card is an eight or a seven, a 
nine or a ten . 

A man to whom a court-card, an eight and an ace is 
dealt (if the eight is in the middle), on finding that he has 
eleven by the two outside ones, says, for instance, Handak 
kaki tig a, and then commences to slide out out the middle 
card hoping that it is going to be an eight or at all events 
a seven (three pips on each side). This particular hand is 
called lang siput, because it is certain to carry off something. 

A man who has just held a winning hand will say, in 
expressing a hope of continued good lufk, " Teman handak 
piaang sarabu, sudah sa-batang sa-batang pula,^^ (The 



NOTfiS AND QUERIES. 27 

plantain called sarahu is one which puts out fruit from 
every stem of the perdu about the same time, or one imme- 
diately after another. ) 

I have seen this game or one like it played by Singapore 
Chinese under, I think^ the name of ^^ Manila/^ 

Ed. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

24. — Page 141 of Maxwell^s " Manual of the Malay Lan- 
guage " 

^^ The orlong is equal to 6,400 square feet. ^^ 
Ought it not to be — the orlong is equal to 6,400 square yards 
or 57,600 square feet ? — [ Yes.-En. ] 

A. B. S. 



Viy' 



"R^f-fsn ^^«^ 



.STRAITS BRANCH OF THE v 



.*•*- •«» .-..». 



■•V t 



1 ■ 

4: 



R O ^' A L A S 1 A TIC S O CI K T ^i. 'FrP- ? 



< 



NOTES AND QUERIES 



EDITED BY 



THE II()]S'ORARY sr:CHKTAUV 



No. 2, Issued with Xo. 13 ol the joiirnai ol the S()(i(.'ly 



STNCJAPOHE: 

rniitnl at I'll' (m).-.. rir.in. Ill J'liiil vu, <>Iii'-r\ 



STBAITS BKANCII OF THE 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



NOTES AND QUERIES 



EDITED Br 



THE HONORARY SECRETARY 



No. 2, Issued with No. 15 of the Journal of the Society. 



SINGAPORE : 

Printed at the Goverumcnt Printing Office. 

i88v 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



HISTORY. 

25. Perak and Penang in 1829. — The following letter, the 
original draft of which was given to me in 1879, shews what a 
good understanding existed between Perak and the Penang 
Government fifty-six years ago : — 

From Sultan Abdullah Macadam Shah. 

To the Hon^ble John Anderson, Resident Councillor, 
Penang. 

f After compliments, ) 

Be it known unto my friend, I declare that situated as I am 
here in Perak I acknowledge first of all the Lord God and 
next the Raja of Pulau Pinang and my friend ; certain it is 
that it is by the assistance of my fridnd on all points that I 
am able to live in Perak as I now do, and my trust in, and 
affection for, my friend are thus redoubled, without the smallest 
remains of distrust or suspicion, inasmuch as the source of my 
happiness is in my friend^s government and in the mercy, 
compassion and justice which have been bestowed on me, who 
am weak and poor, and by which my authority has been 
firmly established for ever. Kow I have heard that my friend is 
about to return to Europe and to quit Pulau Pinang, and when 
the news was made known to mo I was seized with grie^ and 
regret at this dispensation of God and the operation of His 
will upon His servants, for it had never entered my mind that 
my friend would leave Pulau Pinang. I had thought that as 
long as I and my friend should live in this world there would 
be no one else on whom I should depend in this land of Perak. 
But now my friend is about to depart and the hope that I should 
continue to hold fast to my friend and surrender myself to 
his guidance is gone. What adds to my uneasiness is that now 
I shall have no one to cling to; true there are numbers of 



30 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

people in Palau Pinang, but tliey can never be like my friend 
on account of my want of acquaintance with them. For my 
friend, on the other hand, I have a pure and sincere friendship 
to my lasting contentment, and since my friend has protected 
me, I have had no trouble or diflaculties whatever. But now, 
by the will of God, the affection between us is to be severed. 
When my friend returns to Europe, I shall be like a man who 
wakes in the middle of a dark night and finds that his light 
has gone out ; or again, like plants in a garden which, however 
hot the weather may be, are watered by the dew which falls at 
early dawn and which are thus saved by the dew from wither- 
ing away ; or, once more, like the wind named zainvar-el-fnak' 
nun [ '' the unseen visitor ""j * which comes forth from heaven 
and descends upon this earth at dawn, whereupon all the 
flowers in the gardens of the world burst forth in blossom. 
When the wind zautcar-eUmahnun returns again to heaven, 
the scent of all the flowers follows it and it is sweetened with 
their odour. So is it witli myself and my friend : when my 
friend is no longer here, I shall have lost the power of walk- 
ing, and there will be no dew to fall upon the garden. But 
since it is the will of God, what more need I say, for my friend 
knows that I keep his injunctions, and that at no time, day or 
night, can I be called forgetful of his kindness. God knows 
my heart and knows the distress I am in, having no other 
place to carry my complaints to when I am in trouble. This 
is what I make known to my friend. I send no pre^scnt with 
this letter. 

Written on the 2nd Zul-hajah A.n. 1244, on Thursday after- 
noon (June, 1829), 

Ed. 



* ,,• Zaim'ar ( adj. from cl> ,b •. ) visitor. 

^^y\ju Maknvn ( part. pass, of X') cojicealed, secret, hidden. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 31 

26, Visit of Lord William Bentiuck to Penang ia 1828.- 

Among the drafts of correspondence of Sultan Abdullah 
Macadam Siiah ( father of the present Regent of Perak, 

Raja Muda Yusuf ) from which the foregoing letter has been 
translated, there is a curious one in which the writer excuses 
himself for not having been to Penang to see the ^^ Raja of 
Bengal/^ He states that he had intended to come, but only 
heard too late, from one Nakhoda Ahmad, that the Raja 
Benggala had come to Penaug ivlth a steamer and had gone 
away again after a stay of three or four days. This letter is 
dated th e 11 1 h S hawal, 1 242 . 



Ed. 



¥: 



27. The Dutch in Perak.— In a paper with this title, pub- 
lished in 1883,^ no mention was made of a treaty of 1747, the 
fact of such a treaty having been made having only come to 
my notice later.f 1 have not hitherto called attention to tlie 
testimony borne by the Malacca records to the fidelity of the 
Perak historian whose native chronicle was so often cited in 

the paper mentioned. In '^Arifin Alharak^' {oJ^^^:/j^) ^^® 

Dutch Commissary, who visited Sultan Iseandar twice (between 
1756 and 1765 ? ), it is easy to recognise Mr. Ary ViaBRUGGE, 
who appears from the Malacca records to have been sent to 
Perak in the years 1746 and 1747 (during the reign of Sultan 
MoDAFAR Shah). 

■ 

Ed. 



^ * 
* 



28. Ancient Chinese Colony in North Bornec—No. 

14 of the Journal of the JStraits Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society contains Mr. E. 1'. Guekitz/s sketch of British 



* No. 10 Jouin., Str. Br., R.A.S., p. 215. 
t See No. 11, p. 170. 



cc 

€C 



32 XOTES AXD grEBiEt. 

North Borneo. Describing the population, he states "thai 
** the natives use a plougli ani harrow and in this respect are 
'•' superior to the otLer n-i::v-.> of Bome •, altaougli the use of 
these implements i^ said to bare been introduceJ by the Chinese 
who, report tells us, at some reinore period tLicklr p:>pulated 
North Borneo." TiA> reminds lae of the rerj interesting 
work of Mr. W. P. Groexkyeldt, formerly a Chinese Inter- 
preter in the service of ihe 2Nc:l-riiin is In iian Guvemment, 
entitled *' Notes on tie Malay .Nrchipelago and Malacca com- 
piled from Chinese So'jrci>/' Tvhicli wa? published at Batavia 
n 1877, and appears in \A. C-.'. pirt 1, of the Transactions of 
ihe Society of Arts au.l Sciences at ijatavia. 

At pp. 101-103 arc to be fjund a description of •' Brunei" 
translated from the Chine-e, with the remarks of the able trans- 
lator. Perhaps residents in 13n:i>h N^rth Borneo may think 
it vorth while to a«»c- 1 tain il it is a faci that in former times 
( in the fifteenth century a Chinaman reigned there as King ; if 
near the King's palace the stout*, with a Chinese iuscriptioa, 
mentioned in the narrative, is stiii to be found; and also, which 
is the particular Dayak tribe in the interior tiiat claims to this 
day to be descended from the Chinese who emigrated in great 
numbers to that country so many hundred years ago. 

M. S. 



LANGUAGE. 

29. Management of Elephants.— The Malays of the Peninsula 
have probably acquired their knowledge of the art of elephant- 
taming from the Siamese. In the Sajurah Jlalayti, the use of 
a particular word of command is ascribed to a JSiamese deri- 
vation."^ The use of the elephant has, however, diminished in 
the Peninsula, and is likelv further to diminish as the countrv 
18 opened up, unless the Indian system of stabling the tamed 
animals and feeding them in captivity is adopted, instead of 
the Malay practice of turning them out, when not wanted for 
work, to shift for thems( Ives in the jungle, simply hobbled by 

* &ftc Lkyokn's jMuUiy Annuh, p. 138. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 33 

the forelegs like donkeys on an English common. This, of 
course, means destruction to crops of sugar-cane and Indian 
ovn if there be any within reach, and becomes an intolerable 
nuisance in cultivated districts. Under Malay rule, elephants 
were in use in Malacca and d^ Albuquerque describes the King 
of Malacca in 1511 as fighting on an elephant in defence of 
his town. In Province Wellesley, too, when it was part of 
Kedah, and even after the cession, before roads were made, 
these useful animals were formerly employed. But in both 
these provinces elephants have long ceased to be seen. 

In Kedah, Patani, and in parts of Perak elephants are still 
valuable and indeed indispensable means of transport, and the 
natives of these States possess a good deal of information, 
some of it reduced to writing in small treatises, on the sub- 
ject of the trapping and taming of elephants and their treat- 
ment in health and disease. Travelling at different times in 
the first and last of the three States above-named, I have noted 
down the words of command used by elephant-drivers, and now 
subjoin them. The majority of them are not Malay, but may 
be corrupted Siamese. The words used in Kedah and Perak 
are not the same. 



Ed. 



Words of Command used in driving Elephants in Perak 

AND Kedah. 

Perak, 

Tee-tee . . . Stand still ! Keep quiet ! 
Tuhuh'tuhuh ... Go back ! Move backwards ! 

Dee-dee . . . Come close ! ( Used in calling the elephant.) 

Hee-hee ... Go on ! 

Umbu ... Go to the right ! 

Klong ... Go to the left ! 

Kohoi'kohoi ... Go slowly ! (p. 32, n.) 



84 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Chen 



Rabah 
Kwet 



Onh 

Hoh'hoh 
Riap 



Ternm 
Terum puan 
Tail 

Palia^mhil 
Paha hlong 

Chelut 



TiU 



Cheng 

Gherot 
Chang 

Tee-tee 



. . Go carefully ! ( Used where the road is slip- 
pery^ or going down a steep bank, or 
through a deep swamp.) 

. . . Feel ! 

. . Pull down ! (Used in directinfj the elephant 
to remove any stick or branch obstruct- 
ing the path.) 

. .. Push ! ( Used in ordering the elephant to 
push down a perpendicular obstacle, as 
a post, or tree, or stump) . 

... Stop! 

.. . Approach ! (Used in ordering an elephant 
to go alongside of a Malay house or 
pelantar. He will bring his head close 
if riap is said. For the hind-quarters 
the order is Riap bunt iff,) 

. . Kneel down ! 

. . . Kneel down lower ! 

. . Get up ! 

. . Keep clear of timber on the right ! 

. . Keep clear of timber on the left ! 

. . . Let the howdah slip ofi ! ( The gamhala 
is on the ground.) At this word of 
command the animal lowers his hind 
quarters and lets the renglca slip over 
his tail. 

. . . ( Employed to miike the elephant stop 
switchinjr his tail and striking the occu 
pants of the renglca with it.) 

. . . Put the right foot into the hobbles fseng- 
kola J . 

. Same for the left foot. 

,. Lift the foot! (To have the sengldia taken- 
off.) 

. . Don't ! ^ ( Used when the elephant takes up 



NOTES. AND QUERIES. 35 

water or saliva in his trunk and sprin- 
kles his sides with it.) 

San . . . Let go ! (Used when the animal squeezes 

the gambala's legs with its ears behind 
which he sits.) 

Guling . . . KoU ! ( in the water ) . An elephant being 

bathed will roll when told to do so 
and will get up when hangket or tah is 
said. 

Koty hot, Icotf... (Used in driving an elephant home if, when 

the gambala has found him, he is too 
dirty and muddy to be ridden. He 
will go straight home in front of his 
gambala at this word of command.) 

Riang-riang, .., Let go! (Used when an elephant objecting 

to have the tali rvit (rattan rope passing 
under the belly ) fastened, puts up one 
of his forelegs and presses it against 
his body to prevent the rope from being 
pulled tight.) , 

Kedah, 

Go on ! ... Hee. 

Come I ... Chee, Cham, 

Stop ! ... Hoh. 

Turn ! ,.. Dao { same for right or left. ) 

Kneel down ! . . . Terum. 

Get up ! ... Puan, 

Move aside! (to avoid a tree), Pei, 

Come close !* . . . Chit. 

Pidl down ! (a branch), Ao-bUn, 

Push down ! ... KwH. 

Take care ! (e.^., in crossing a bridge.) Koy, 

Feel ! ( with the trunk ) Klam, 

Climb! ,,. Eot. 

Stoop down ! ( head only, to let a man get up.) Lut. 

Lift up one leg ! (to let a man get up.) Song, 

Don^t ! ... Dei, 

Don't whisk the tail ! TH-i, 



36 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Trumpet! , ... liiak. 

Salaam! (by lifting the trunk.) Wei. 

Pick up! ... Jdn. 

Swim! ... Chd. 



LAW. 

30. The Mcnangkahau Code.— A collection of regulations, 
said to be the undang-mtdoiigj or laws, of Menangkabau, which 
embody the hukiim 'adat, or local and customary law, as 
opposed to the moral and religious law of the Koran, came 
into my possession in Perak some years ago. Newbold,* speak- 
ing of the Menangkabau Code, says that he failed to procure 
a copy of it, and was inclined to believe that it has been orally 
handed down and preserved in the family of the Mantri or the 
Raja ^Adat, to whom the administration of the laws is usually 
confided. 

It is not likely that the version found in Perak is the com- 
plete Menangkabau Code. Malay copyists are so unscrupulous 
and dishonest in the matter of transcription, that it is seldom 
possible to vouch for the authenticity of a manuscript. If not 
complete, however, it is certainly a selection of regulations 
from the laws of Mennngkabau, for the peculiar constitution 
of that kingdom is often alluded to. The collection consists 
of ninety- three sections, and embraces a variety of matters. 
Its compiler must have been a zealous Muhammadan, for it 
abounds in quotations from the Koran and in instances of that 
dogmatic use of numbers in analysing subjects and proposi- 
tions, virtues, vices, qualities and offences, which conveys an 
idea of wisdom to the Oriental mind, and has done so since the 
davs of Solomon. t 

Thus, SiTi ^Ayesha, wife of the Prophet, is quoted as an 
authority for fixing the qualifications of a wise man at ten. 
In another place seven are enumerated, and a like number for 

* BritisJt Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, II, 219. 
f ProverbB, e, xxx v, 15 — 31. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 37 

those of a. fool. The virtues to be cultivated by warriors 
(hiilubalang) are five, and so are the tokens of rank and breed- 
ing in youths, and so on. 

The 13th section states that in the year of the Hegira 1180, 
on Monday, the 8th Shawal, at the time of afternoon prayer, 
the Yang di per Tuan of Gunong Hijau, Raja of Pagaruyong, 
was pleased to bestow these laws, both for land and sea, on 
the four Sukus, namely the Imam of Sungei Trap, the Kazi of 
Padang Genting, the Endomo of Surawasi, and the Makhdum 
of Nambak ( Chiefs and districts of Meuangkabau )J^ Thence 
they were distributed through all the districts' and villages of 
Menangkabau, and throughout the length and breadth of Pulau 
Percha, t as a safeguard against all evils in this World and the 
next. '^ Their origin is from the Datoh of the four 8uku8, 
Perpatih Sabatang by name, that is to say, the portion which 
comprises the customs which are followed and imitated as pre- 
cedents. The law of God, on the other hand, came down to 
the Tnmunggong, who is famous in Menangkabau for having 
established the law of God, just as Datoh Perpatih Sabatang 
established the customary law. 

These nndang-undang are full of wise saws which are quoted 
commonly in Perak, and, I have no doubt, in other Malay 
kingdoms also, as proverbs. In fact, the language used is often 
so excessively metaphorical that it becomes almost impossible 
to translate. Here is a favourable specimen : — 

^' In accordance with what has been said, if there be a 
Magistrate who upholds the laws in a country or village or 
seaport, so that the place is preserved everlastingly from dis- 
turbance, in the name of God suspc ct and distrust him not. 
If he keep faith, if he hold property, if his conversation be 
in accordance with the customs, if he weighs evenly, if his 
orders be just and proper, if the chupah will some day fill a 
gantang, if he be consistent as the morai which says kicha- 
kichau, or the fowl which says kn-ku, the note being always the 
same though the meaning may vary, that is what is meant by 
just. In the name of God who knoweth.^^ 



* For a sketch of the state of Menangkabau and the titles and position of the 
various cliief s, see Mock's Notices^ p. 1 1 :3. 
f Sumatra. 



38 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



There is a great want of arrangement, penal provisions 
being scattered here and there among moral disquisitions 
on conduct and duties. This, among other circumstances, 
makes it probable that the compiler has only selected such 
passages as suited him from a larger work. The Perak 
Malays, for some reasons which I have been unable to discover, 
call this collection ^' Undang-undang dua-belas " or "the 
twelve laws.^' Its provisions are undoubtedly ancient, and the 
comparatively modern date quoted above must be taken to be 
the date of the distribution of copies to Chiefs by a particular 
Raja of Menangkabau. not the date of the compilation itself. 

Ed. 



FOLK-LORE. 

31. Legends of Petrified Ships.— In connection with the 
legend of Changkat Rambian told by the Editor in the Ist 
number of Notes and Queries (p. 19), attached to Number 
14 of the Journal, I may mention a few similar legends I 
have come across from time to time. 

In 1879, when ti-avelliiig in Johor, I was iuFormed that 
Gunong Panti had once been a ship (its long ridge with abrupt 
fall at the western end readily suggests the idea of a vessel 
keel upwards), that an anchor and rope were to be seen on 
the summit, and that it was in some way connected with Na- 
khoda Ragam, how, I could not learn from my informant. 
There w^as also some tradition that when hiVu (the source 
of the river ) becanio JitUr ( the lower portion ) and vice 
ve/'sdf the ship would re-appear. 

In respect of Gilnong Jauiug, a Johor mountain near the 
Pahang frontier, tradition relates that in times of flood an 
anchor attached to the mountain by a rope makes its appear- 
ance to prevent the mountain being carried away. 

Some way up the Moar river, above Kuala Gemencheh, is 
a. rock called Batu Jong, resembling a vessel, and said to 
have once been one, but I am not acquainted with the de- 
tails of the legend. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 39 

I may also, iu this connection, draw attention to the way 
in which, in the legend about Nakhoda Ragam ( p. 39 ), 
various parts of his vessel are said to have been converted 
into the islands lying off the coast of Malacca. 

D.F.A.H. 

•X- 

32. The Berik-Berik or Baberik.— Lately in Malacca, I have 
observed large flocks of the bird called bSnk-berik passing 
over the flag-staff every evening. 

The superstition of the Malays about them is referred to in 
No. 7 of this Journal ( page 14) in Mr. Maxwell's paper on 
Folk-lore. 

The Malays here call them ^^the dogs of the Spectre Hunts- 
man ^' f anjing hantu pembiiru ) . 

They are supposed to cause sickness, especially when met 
with at night. The sickness is of two kinds — one in which the 
sufferer vomits leaves, (!) and which is rapid and fatal in its ac- 
tion; the other in which blood is vomited, but in this case the 
patient often lingers some time, though death is sure to ensue 
sooner or later ! 

I was told seriously of a man' who was struck by their influ- 
ence when travelling from Ayer Panas to Kesang in a bullock- 
cart about the middle of the night. He vomited leaves and 
died in less than an hour ! 

Both by night and day they are a sign of storm. 

They cannot be addressed or hailed by night without danger. 

I am informed that they are always to be seen in large 
numbers at the Screw Pile Light-house, which is 12 miles off 
the coast. They fly about both by night and day, and are 
easily distinguished by their note, which is peculiar. 

I believe that this bird is one of the bee-eaters (Mesopidce) 
and shall be glad to send a specimen to anyone who will iden- 
tify the species. 

H. T. H. 



40 KOTES A>'D QUERIES. 

33. Malacca Legends of Nakhoda Ragaui.— This person- 
aore, according to native tradition in Borneo ( see Jour- 
nal No. 5, S. B., R. A.S., p. 3 et seg.) was the fifth 
Mahomedan niler of that country under the title of Sultan 
BuLKEiAH. He gained the name of Nakhoda Ragam,"^ it is 
alleged, on account of his numerous caprices, but what form 
they took beyond that of a fondness for travel and con- 
quest, is not stated. He is feaid to have visited Java, 
Malacca, and Johor, and to have conquered, besides the East 
Coast of Borneo, both Sftlu and Luzon. ^* His tomb/' says 
Sir Hugh Low, in the paper above quoted, "of very ex- 
" quisite workmanship in very hard basaltic &tone, still 
"remains on the hill above the site of the ancient town 
*' ( Brunei ) ; it was probably imported from Achin or Java.^' 

The following legend professes to give an account of the 
manner of Nakhoda Ragam's death. 

One day the prahu ( vessel ) of Nakhoda Ragam was an- 
chored at sea off Panchor ( 1^ miles along the Coast N. VV. 
of Malacca ), and he was in the cabin, his wife ( Putri 
Gunong Ledang,the fairy princess of Mount Ophir) sitting^ 
by sewing. He teased her, she said :" Don't bother me with 
" your tricks, I want to sew now, and if I should become 
" lata,*'\ and you were pricked by my needle, you might die.^^ 

Nakhoda R%am, however, did not take warning, and his 
wife became lata, because he touched her in the ribs, and he 
received a stab in the breast from her needle, which caused 
his death. 

The princess then took a precious cloth and wrapped up the 
body in it for a night and two days, after which the crew of 
the vessel and the steersman became uneasy, having noticed 
that the Nakhoda had not left his cabin for some time. 



* Rdgam ( Sansk : raga ) means — first, colour, hue; and second, 
the various emotions — love, joy, sorrow, anger: and so perhaps the 
idea of a capricious or uncertain temper arises. 

t Por an account of this peculiar nervous condition, which seems, 
with few exceptions, to be confined to the races of Malaya, see 
Mr. O'Brien's interesting paper in No. 11 of this Society's Jour- 
nal, for June, 1883. 



NOTIS AND QUERIES. 41 

And one day at noon, when some of the crew went to the 
ship^s well to bale it out, they saw that the water in it was 
red like blood. Then they stopped baling and went to the 
cabin, and said to the princess : '^ What blood is that in the 
ship's well?'' She replied: " That is not blood, I was 
" cooking some spinach yesterday, and spilt the water, which 
"found its way into the well, that is what you saw looking 
" like blood." Then the crew went away. About three days 
later they became aware of an offensive smell, on which they 
went again to the cabin and asked the princess what it was ; 
she said: " I killed a rat last night, that is what has caused 
" the smell/^ 

The crew then left her, but began to talk amongst them- 
selves saying^• " The carcase of a rat does not cause this smell, 
" but perhaps Nakhoda Rigam is dead, for he has not left his 
*' cabin for several days." 

When the princess found they all knew that Nakh6da 
Eagam was dead, she began to be uneasy, wondering what 
would become of her all alone in the ship, and her uneasiness 
increased when she heard their talk, each man wanting to 
take her for his wife. ' 

So, one night she put up her fairy garments, intending to 
fly away somewhere, and when it was day, she called the crew, 
and told them to get ready a boat and oars, as she intended 
to go ashore and bathe ; she got into the boat, and the crew 
rowed her to Telok Gong * where she landed and where there 
is a stream called, after her, the princess's stream. When she 
had done bathing, she called out to the crew to go down and 
get the boat ready, as she was ready to return to the ship, 
and while they were doing so she put on her fairy cloak, and 
flew away to Gunong Ledang t ( Mount Ophir). 



* Telok Gong ia a bny at the foot of a hill some miles further 
along the coast than Panchor, beyond Pangkalan Balak, which is 
twenty-two miles from Malacca by road. Some one is said, I be- 
lieve, to have lost a gong in this bay, but whether it was Nakkoda 
Bagam's which went down at the time of the wreck, I do not know. 

f On making the ascent of Mount Ophir in October, 1881, with 
Governor Sir E. Weld, we had pointed out to us as Pintu Futrt 
Gmong Ledcuig ( the door of the princess of Mount Ophir) a dark 



42 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

When the crewsaw what had happened, they were all plunged 
into grief; some stood gazing after her, others bewailed their 
loss ; but not till she was lost to sight did they take to their 
oars and return to the vessel. Then they took the furniture 
out of her, put it into the boat, and abandoned her. 

One night a storm came up, and the vessel of Nakhoda 
Ragam was broken to pieces, and all that was in it was scat- 
tered about in all directions and was turned to stone. The 
utensils were turned to stone at Telok Gong, the ship^s well 
became Pulau tTpeh, "^ the cabin became Pulau Besar, t the 



cleft in the rock a little below a peak to the right of the highest 
point. 

Gunongy mountain. 0£ the word l(xla7iq, various render- 
ings have been suggested. In connection with its meaning here, a 
very good native scholar has declared it to mean '' ancient," but I 
have been unable to find any corroboration of this view. Javre's 
Dictionary gives the meaning, generally, as ** vast, extended,'* and 
this would very well apply to the wide-spreading spurs which 
radiate from the central peak of this vast isolated agglomeration 
of hills ; an objection may be thought to lie in the fact that, amongst 
the Malays, the " Gunong Ledang'* applies only to the topmost 
peak, but it may very well have been first named from a distance, 
though every peak has its own name amongst those who live near 
it. It remains, however, the fact, that I have been unable to ob- 
tain any confirmation for this, or indeed for any meaning of the 
word, and where Malays are entirely ignorant of the origin of local 
names, it is of ten found that the aborigines first bestowed them, 
but I have so far been able to gather no information on the point. 
As regards the name '^Ophir," it will suffice to refer to the note 
of the Editor on p. 8 of the first number of N. and Q. 

* Upih, the sheath of the betel-nut palm, used to make 
buckets of, and to wrap parcels or letters in. The island of 
this name now lies about 2^ miles from the port of Malacca, 
and was probably once connected with the Northern end 
of the town, i.e,, about the time of ALBrQUEBQUE*s conquest of the 
place, though, within a century after, the features of the coast 
seem to have materially altered. 

t The *' Big Island," the largest of the *' Water Islands," lying 8 
or D miles south of Malacca town. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 43 

cooking-place became Pulau Hanyut, ^ the cake-tray became 
Pulau Nangka, f the water-jar became Pulau Undan, J the 
incense-burner became Pulau Serimbun, § and the hen-coop 
became Piilau Burong. || 

As regards the vessel of Nakhoda Ragam^ subsequent to his 
death, there is another account, as follows : — '^ When Milan ^ 
Dewa ( an alias of iNakhoda Ragam ) was pricked by his wife, 
the Princess of Gunong Ledang, with her needle and died, 
there was a passenger on board endowed with supernatural 
power, aad he refused to assist in the navigation of the vessel. 

Then the Juru-mudi ( helmsman ) and the Juru-bdtu ( who 
looked after the sounding ) reproached this passenger, say- 
ing :— 

" Dudv^ di pisang goyangan 

" Dddtik di tebii herlengkar 

" Prut kemhong hi katah dengun tilar." 

i.e. — " Sit where the plantain can be had by a shake and 
^' the sugar-cane lies in coils, you fill youtstomach, but only 
with frogs and snakes/^ (Meaning *^ your idle behaviour 
won't do you any good/') 

The passenger caused the wind to rise and they sailed but the 
wind was so strong that both the Juru-mudi and the Jiiru-bdtu 
became sea-sick, and the passenger looked after the sails, and 



* Floating or drifting island, about 9 miles south-west of Ma- 
lacca. 

t Jack-fruit (aiiocarpus integrifolia) Island, lying between 
Pulau Bcsar and Pulau Iliidan. 

X TIndan or Ondan is a sea-bird. On tlie island of this name 
is situated the light-house ten miles JS.8.\\^ of Malacca. 

§ An islnnd about seven miles from Malacca on the way to PCdau 
Bt'sar. It used to be the site of a Leper Hospital, but the inmates 
have been transferred to Penang. SPrimhun is probably from 
remhun, luxuriant, in respect of plants. 

11 i.e.^ " Bird Island." This is a small island lying oft* the coast 
near Telok Masa, a place about seven miles south of Malacca. 

^ Probably an error for " Malim." 



44 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

in sailing along the sliore^ be grazed the tree-tops so that the 
jib-boom cut them to one level as far as Gunong Pulei, and 
they have never been able to grow otherwise but in a stunted 
way since. 

There is another version of the same event, which tells how 
the prahu of Nakhoda Rigam was turned finally into 
stone, but does not give the locality. It rnns as follows : — 

Nakhoda E-agam made his crew promise not to take any 
notice of or exclaim at anything that might happen. One 
night, through a violent wind, the vessel went ashore and razed 
ofl the tree-tops with her sail, on which the cook came out 
of the galley and when she saw what had happened, she 
lost her head and exclaimed : " Oh, the vessel has got on 
shore \" No sooner had she spoken the words, thaa the vessel 
was turned into stone. 

D. F. A. H. 



34.— Penang Legrends of Nakhoda Ragam,— The passage to 
which the Editor of N. and Q. draws attention in Logan^s 
Journal of the Indian Archipelago as bearing upon Nakhoda 
R4gam is to be found at p. 168, vol. ii. New Series. As 
there are not many readers of this Journal probably who 
have that publication, and as it will likewise seiTe to make 
these few notes more complete, it will be as well to insert 
the passage in question here. It runs as follows : — 

" The ancient name of Pulo Pinang was Pulo ka Satu ^ 
"and thus do they account for its derivation. A famous 
*' sea rover in days of yore named Kagam used to trade 
" between Linga ( Linoga ? ) and Kidda ( Kcdah ) and the 
" adjacent rivers. Falling in with no higher or larger iso- 
"lated island on the way than Pinang, he named it Pulo 
'^ka ^atu or single island. The latter name was retained 



* I do not remember to have seen this form of the numeral be- 
fore ; Ivnggal would have been the usual word for the signifi 
cation indicated in the i^xt. 



NOTES AXD QUERIES. 45 

'' rill the betel-nut was cultivated on the island after the 
" arrival of the British, when the name was changed to 
*' Pulo Pinang. * After Ragam's days, and some time before 
"the island became famous as Pulo Pinang, the natives of 
" the opposite coast knew it at Tanjong Panagar from trees 
*' of that name, t which grew on the spot where Fort Corn- 
*^ wallis is built. The inhal.itants of Province AVelleslev 
*' speak of Pulo Pinang to this day at Tanjoni> Panagar or 
''its abbreviation Tanjong. The name may be seen in all 
*'the grants of land issued by Government as late as 1800. 

To Sagam is imputed the names of all the bays, rivers, 
*' and points of Pulo Pinang. 

On one occasion, when off the south-western end of 
island his kindi { kendi ) or water-pot fell into the 
sea, and it was immediately transformed by the genii of 
the place into an island which still bears the name of 
"Pulo Kindi. 

" On leaving Pulo Kindi he pulled into a bay, which lies 
" opposite the island, and at the mouth of the river which 
'* flows into the bay he released a tame bird called Bayau, J 
•* and thenceforth the river has been called Bayan Lepas 
'* ( or the free Bayan ). 

" At another time, when ofl^ the point forming one side of 
" the above bay, he approached the shore for the purpose of 
" landing. The sea was, however, too rough, and in pulling 
" from the shore his boat was nearly swamped; she rolled and 
"pitched heavily, and as R^gam was steering her ofl*, his 
'* exertions loosened the pins from his hair, the knot became 
" undone, and the pins fell into the sea. He therefore named 
"the place "Gerattah Sangkol. '' § 



« 
ai 

<c 

€€ 

6€ 



* It was known by this name at least two centuries before Brit- 
ish occupation. 8ee Journ.. Str. Br. R.A.S. 'So. 10, p. 253 ;?. — Ed. 
* t Correctly P^ndga ; it gives a useful and hard wood, used 
among other things for carrviiig-sticks; the leaf is used medicinal- 

X A sort of parroquet (psitincns OahecJiii) . 

§ Savygul, the hair twisted np behind, as by women. GPrlnk^ 
in this connection shaking, used commonly for ** ti» threaten." 



46 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

'^ On passing Pulo Bittong, "^ he encountered.a heavy gale, 
*^ and on passing a point of land a short distance beyond 
" the island, he perceived his wife sitting pale with fear, so he 
" called the point ^ Puchat Muka/ or pale-faced/^ 

It is probable that these legends, or some of them, are 
ancient, and that, the name of the hero originally connected 
with them having been lost, that of Nakhoda Ragam as a 
noted traveller and conqueror has been substituted. 

The legend of ^^ Gertak Sanggul'^ (unless there is a slip 
here in the legend, and we should read *^his wife" instead 
Nakhoda R&gam himself), sufficiently points to the hero 
having been an Indian, as no Malay fastens his hair up be- 
hind with or without pins, or keeps any to be fastened up, 
with the exception of the Dato' of Johol, that I ever heard 
of. 

D. F. A. H. 

•X- -x- 

•X- 

35. Mantra Sandaran.— Devout Malays sometimes, on go- 
ing to bed, commit themselves to the keeping of the angels 
during the dark hours of the night, repeating an invocation 
which reminds one of the homely verse, familiar enough in 
Bngfand ( in which the four Evangelists are introduced to aid 
the rhyme, but to the utter destruction of the original sense) 
beginning, — 

^* Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, 
Guard the bed which I lie on.^^ 

The version in use among the Malays runs as follows : — 

EH'Saldmu 'a/cf/kinn, Jlei! Jibrail. Mikail, iHrafil, Azrail, 
hara miikatihin jahilin Hnjilin jaga-lah ani]kau sakalian j angan 
di-heri binchana sakalian jin dan manusia nainpir kapada jasad- 
hi ; ghaib'lah aku didalam knndonyan kalimah. La^ ilaha ilia- 
llah Muhammad errasul Allah. f 

" Peace be on ye, O ! Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and Azrael, 
ye who free us from ignorance and wretchedness. 



* Betonrj, a large variety of bam^JU. 

f This is called a mantra aandar-an^ — a spell to obtain protection. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 47 

Guard me, all of ye, and let no evil influences of devil or 
man approach my body ! I take shelter within the enclosure 
of the attestation. There is no God but God and Muhammad 
is the Prophet of God/^ 

Ed. 

■X- 

,36. Legend of Toh Kuala Bidor *~Once upon a time, a 
poor fisherman (a native of Pasei in Sumatra), who had 
emigrated to the Malay Peninsula, lived with his wife on 
the bank of the Perak river. He used to trap fish in the 
river with all kinds of contrivances (belat, gerogok, bubuy 
etc.), but this hardly enabled him to earn a livelihood, aiid 
he and his wife were so poor that they only had one gar- 
mentt between them, and when one went out, the other 
was obliged to stay at home inside the mosquito-curtains. 
The tide in those days used to reach Bandar Tuah, and it was 
near this place that the husband used to go fishing. He 
noticed repeatedly that his fish-traps had been interfered with ; 
more than once he found a buhu (basket-trap) 'that he had set, 
taken up and thrown on the bank, or his belat (stake-net) 
opened and empty. So he determined to watch. He accord- 
ingly squatted down in the water and hid his head under a 
keladi (calladium) leaf. After some time, a Jin clothed in a 
green robe like that of a Hdji and wearing a green turban 
came down to the water. The fisherman imipediately dived, 
caught the Jin by the feet under water and then rising secured 

* See the legend of Badang, the strong man ; Malay Annals, p. 63 ; Journ. 
Ind. Arch., V, 248. Legendes ct traditions histoo'ifptcs de VArchij^cl Iiulien 
(Devic), p. 75. 

t See the legend of Che Puteh Jambai— No. 9 Journal, Straits Branch, B. 
A. S., p. 23. 

Kain itam milri panjanff am pat, 
larik ka-atas di-bawah ter-Mia 
Tarik ka-bawah di~atas ter^huhi, 

" A black mvri cloth four cubits in leugtli, so scanty that whichever way 
you pulled it, there was a deficiency to be covered in the opposite direction.'' 



48 NOTES AiiD QUBRIES. 

him. ^^ At last/^ said he, '^ I have caught the thief who steals 
my fish : it is you have taken up my basket-traps and opeucvi 
mv weirs/' 

^^ Don't hold mc/' said the Jin. 

*' Why not ? '' retoi-ted the fisherman stoutly, " I am a very 
poor man and yet you treat me like this." 

^^ Let me go/' said the Jbiy " and I will give you whatever 
mav be the desire of vour heart." When the fisherman had 
wished for some relief in his poverty, the Jin said ^' Swallow 
this" and spat into the fisherman's mouth.^ Then he said " You 
will be the greatest chief in Perak and your descendants for 
seven generations will be prosperous." 

After this the fisherman prospered and grew rich and was 
eventually promoted to be Laksamana of the country. He was 
called by the people Toh Kuala Bidob, from his residence at 
the mouth of the Bidor River. The children of the present 
Laksamana, Datoh Muhammad Amin, who is a state-prisoner 
at the Seychelles, claim to belong to the seventh generation 
in direct descent from Toh Kuala Bidor. 

Ed. 






37. Gelegak nasi.— This is the name of a kind of shining 
worm supposed by Malays to frequent tin-fields and to make a 
bubbling noise like a pot of boiling rice. 

Ed. 



•je- 



ss. Seiwva langut.— " The bread of disappointment," (.^t'- 
rawa, a sweet dish made of plantains, sweet potatoes or bread- 
fruit : langut, to watch expectantly). A Malay who has been 
to a house where he expected to be entertained, and has had 

* See the legend of Nenek Kemang, Journal, StrailB Branch, R. A. S., No. 
H, p. 301). 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



49 



to come away hungry will say that he has eaten *^ serawa lan« 

gut/' 

Eu. 



•X- -x- 



39. Magic Circle. — The efficacy of a line or circle under 
some circumstances in keeping ofl* evil influences, is believed 
in by the Malays. In Perak a spell known as Ulnm bar is 
Laksamana (said to be borrowed from the Hakayat Sri Rama, 
the Malay RAmdyana*) consists in tracing a line on the ground, 
a prescribed formula being at the same time repeated. No 
enemy, Mtild beast, or spirit can cross this line. 

Ed. 



■X- -Jf 



40. Legend of Enbang Aji.—Kubang Aji is a deep pool in the 
Perak River near Belanja; it is famous for its fish. In the 
days when the sea covered a great portion of the tradt through 
which the River Perak now runs, there lived a Sakai named 
Si Aji who adopted the manners and customs of the Malays. 
He went on a trading voyage in a ship of his own, and when 
he returned he anchored off Sadang (now a village many miles 
up the river, but then a sea-port). As he lay asleep in the 
cabin, he was wakened by some of his men, who said that his 
father and mother (Sakais) were asking to see Nakhoda 
Aji. The old people were already on board, bringing with 
them various dishes of such food as aboriginal tribes delight 
in — roast monkey and so on. The Nakhoda, seeing that he 
was put to shame before his Malay seamen, denied his 
parents, and ordered them on shore, saying : *'Do you think 
that my mother is a Sakai ? ^^ As they went on shore, the 



* Seethe passapre (quoted in Maksden's Grammar, .pp. 17fi, 179), where 
LakHamana dcHcribi^H :i circle roimd the house in which he loaves SlTA Dkwi, 
in order to protect her I'rom Maharaja Raw ana. 



) NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Oman called out to him : *^ Yes, you are my son/^ and her 
isband cursed him, saying : *^ If you are my son, may your 
lip be wrecked/' As this curse was pronounced, the woman 
.rned away, and there came a waterspout, and the ship foun- 
jred. Two trees (pokok pauh) used to be pointed out at 
idang, one facing the place where the ship had been moored 
id the other turning away from it, which were supposed to 
3 the metamorphosed Sakais. 

Ed. 



41. Legend of Pulau Tunggal.— When tlic sea covered 
erak, leaving only the tops of hills and mountains dotted 
30ut over the expanse of ocean, like ant-heaps in a 
lain, there lived on one of these island-summits a chief 
Jled Datoh Pulau Tunggal, his island being the top of 
le mountain now known as Bukit Tunggal. He is cele- 
rated to this day in Perak for having discovered the secret of 
erpetual youth. Coming home hungry one day, he called for 
is dinner, and his wife set before him a dish of rice. When 
le cover was removed, behold, the rice was as black as the 
irow's plumage ! The slave-girl whahad cooked it was sum- 
moned angrily by the hungry chief, but she vowed that she 
ad put no poison in the pot, and produced, as a possible ex- 
lanatioD of the phenomenon, a wooden spoon"^ fashioned x)ut 
E a stick of the black lagundi ( vitex trifoliata J ,f which she 
ad used in stirring the rice. The Datoh, who knew that the 
igundi has valuable properties, was satisfied, and ate up the 



* KuaVy a wooden stick sometimes used instead of a spoon to take rice out of 
pot orbowL 

f There are many Malay stories in which the laginidi, endowed with mystic 
roperties, plays a part. Fokbes found one of these as far east as the i^nd 
: Buru. There, the natives in the vicinity of Lake- Waikolo say that, at certain 
)riods, a lagvndi tree suddenly grows up in the centre of the lake, its appear- 
ice being accompanied by fearful storms of wind and waves and the terrified 
ies of the birds that crowd its margins. On the subsiding of the storm, the 
gundi is found to have disappeared.— Forbes, Ua8ter?i Archijpelago, 405. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. , 51 

rice, black as it was. After this, he lived to an unprecedented 
age, and it is said of him that^ periodically, when the symp- 
toms of old age would begin to appear, and to ordinary ob- 
servers he would seem to be about seventy years of age, his 
teeth would drop out and his white hair would fall off, to be 
replaced immediately by new teeth and black hair, and his 
youth would be renewed again. When and why he at last 
died, no one can say, but believers in the virtues of the lagundi 
it am declare that his death happened not so very long ago, 

Ed. 



^ ^ 
^ 



42. Sang Kelembai. — A legendary personage of this name is 
connected with various myths in the Malay Peninsula, e,g,, 
the story of the mountain Gunong Buhi in Perak ( see Malay 
Proverbs, Journ. Str. Br., R.A.S., No. 2, p. 145 ) and the 
legend of the river Pelang-piitus in Johor, Id., No. 3, p. 98. 

Further contributions to the folk-lore on this subject are 
invited. 

Ed. 



•X- 



43. Origin of Orchids. — Malays say that trees, shrubs, corn, 
i^rass, &c., were planted by Nabi Noah. He filled the world 
with them, and Nabi Tuakal, who came after him and planted 
ferns and orchids, could find no room for them except on the 
trunks and branches of trees and on the uneven surfaces of 
rocks, where they still grow. 

Eu. 



52 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

44. The Malay Howdah.— The contrivance placed on the 
back of an elephant to accommodate the persons to be conveyed 
is a pair of rattan panniers slung across the animars back 
by stout cords. They rest. on a pacj composed of hides or other 
material. When women or persons of rank are carried, a 
dome-shaped hood, or cover, is placed over the panniers. The 
following are some of the terms used in Perak in connection 
with elephant riding : — 

Rengka ( Perak ) or Bengga ( Kedah ) the panniers. 

Cherematy the rattan rope which fastens the two baskets 
together in front. 

Senamy the hide which serves as a pad."^ 

KedHuj a mat or gunny which goes under the hide. 

Sempena, a rope which is passed under the tail, and serves 
as a crupper. 

Tali rdtj-\ a rope girth or belly-band. 

^usH rengka, the portion of the framework to which the rope 
girths are fastened. 

Tonokaty the frame. 

DdgH, the rim. 

Renut '( Kedah ), the rattan cord slung round the elephant's 
neck which the gambala holds between his toes. 

Kop or kapy the hood or cover. 

Sabkop ( Kedah ), a particular kind of covered rengga, 

Seng k a! a f hobbles. 

Rlaug, loose or uneven ; said when from an iujiidicious dis- 
tribution of weights one pannier is higher or 
lower than the other. 

ITeretok, a wooden bell slung round an elephant's neck. 

Kuasa, a goad. 



* In Kedali, bark (beaten tiU it is Boft ) is generally j:ref erred to hides ; this 
bark is from a tree called sanai. 

f IHf is evidently the pninitive word ficni which pt-nd, the belly, ir tlie deri- 
vative. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



53 



Peremng, padding composed of leaves and branches, placed 
in the panniers to make a soft seat. 

Ed. 



^ 



45. Fighting Dress of the Malays.— The fighting jacket of 

the Malays usually has no sleeves. One kind is properly em- 
broidered with pious words or sentences and is called kalamhu 
rasul Allah, " the Prophet^s bed-curtain.^^ It is supposed to 
protect the wearer from danger. Another kind is known as 
hher baju, because it is made of forty-four remnants left in 
cutting out the necks of forty-four ordinary jackets. These 
patches must be sewn together by seven maidens on seven con- 
secutive Fridays, and the jacket thus made will be pelif/as, or 
invulnerable. 

Ed. 






46. Malay Superstitious. — If a person visits a burying 
place without wishing the buried person happiness,"*^ he will 
come to some harm ere long. A case is cited of a white man 
who visited a Jcramat without wishing the buried person happi- 
ness ; that night he suffered from fearful dreams, and in three 
days he died. 

When a person is sick, it is the custom in some places 
lo offer incense, and sometimes food, at the grave of a cele- 
brated person ; should the sick man recover, he hangs a flag 
like a small pennant near the grave stone.t 

On the banks of the Johor river, a white flag is placed 



* The usual formula is ** Salam ^aleykum Datoh Kram4iV — Ed. 

f See No. 2 of the Journul, Straits Branch, B.A.S., pp. 237, 238. Among the 
Malays, holy places are hung with rags ipanji-pai^i) left by votaries. Ragr 
trees are similarly known iu India, Persia, Kthiopia, America, and Western 
Enro[)e, Prim, Cnli^ II, 150. As lo Persia, see GlLL^ Hirer of Golden Sand^ 
JI, 8*.— Ed. 



54 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

at tlie end of a helong to keep away the spirits that would 
otherwise frighten the fish away. 

lu the time of a great sickness in a lampoiig, it is be- 
lieved that a spirit — Sheitan or Iblis — has possessed the place. 
To free the place from the demon, a small ship is made, fully 
rigged and fit for sea ; in it several kinds of food are placed. 
It is then exhibited in some public place, and the women and 
children sing a kind of incantation. The same night it is 
taken out to sta by the chief men of the kamponff, a light is 
placed in it, and, the rudder being fixed properly, it is sent 
drifting away, bearing in it the evil-spirit that had caused the 
sickness. No persons but those in charge of the vessel are 
supposed to leave the kampong that night. The expenses 
attendant on preparing the vessel are met by a general levy 
on the inhabitants of the place infested."^ 

G. C. 



GAMES AND AMUSEMENTS. 

47. "Cbai Mui,'' (Hok-kien " Hoah-koon'O --The follow- 
ing description of this game has been furnished by a Chinese 

inhabitant of Singapore : — This game is called Ch^ai Mui (^>uxj 
pledge in cups by guessing at fingqrs held up) in Cantonese. 
The numbers shouted, 11 in number, are 0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 
8, 9,, and 10. The is called Tin Shdu, and the 5 is sometimes 
omitted by. the Cantonese. The game can only be played by 
two persons. It is the number of fingers that is guessed. For 
instance : — 

I. — A and B are playing this game. A holds up 5 fingers and 
shouts the number 7, and B 2 fingers and shouts another of 

♦ Such a boat, or raft, is called ImiclMng in Perak. One was secured on the 
Perak river soon after the an*ival of British troops at Kuala Kangsa in Decem- 
]->er, 1875, and caused muoh amusement in t.he camp. I have seen a similar 
ceremony carried out on a larjfe scale by the Chinese community in Malacca. — 
See also No. 12, Jouru., Str. Br., E.A.S., p. 231. 

Ed. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 55 

the 11 numbers; 3 + 5=7 fingers, the number A shouts, there- 
fore he wins the game. 

II. — A holds up his fist (no fingers) and shouts the number 2. 
B also holds up his fist but shouts Tin Shau (nought). Hence 
+ 0= finger, the number B shouts, therefore B wins the 
game. 

III. — A holds up his fist and shouts the number 4, /md B 
holds up 4 fingers and shouts the number 5 or 6 or any of the 
11 numbers except 4, then A will win the game for 04-4=4 
fingers, the number A shouts, or really guesses. But if B also 
shout the number 4, the game is won by neither of them ; it 
must be continued. The loser has to drink a cup of wine. 

Gii.ES, in his " Glossary of Reference on Subjects in the Far 
East/^ describes " Chai Mui^' as follows : — A game played by 
two persons at a Chinese dinner-party, or on any other festive 
occasion. The players look each other steadily in the face, 
and simultaneously extend one hand showing all, some, or 
none of the five fingers stretched out, at the same time crying 
out what each thinks will be the sum total of the two seta of 
fingers thus exhibited. When either succeeds in ouessing 
aright, his opponent has to swallow a cup of wine as a forfeit. 
Many fanciful formulas, varying in different parts oE the 
Empire, have been substituted for the mere numerals which 
would sound harsh to a Chinese ear. The following is an 
example of one of these : — 





-i^^ 


one heart. 




^# 


two friends. 




=17C 


three firsts .« 




^^ 


four seasons. 




ii^ 


five sons.* 




:hu 


six canlinal.s.'-' 



a, — First on the list at the three great public examinations. 

//. — Alludirg to the live roup of Ton Yen-Shan, who all took hiffh defcives . 

<>. — The wx cardinjil pointR — north, south, east, west, above, and beiow. 



56 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Hu ^3 • • • saven changeables .^ 

/\fll| eight genii.* 

7L^ ... nine long./ 




ten complete. 



and 



3i»j-^ ... hands opposite. 

the latter being used when one player holds out his closed fist 
and expects his adversary to do the same/' 

It has been necessary to regulate this game in Hongkong: — 
'livery person shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 
ten dollars who shall utter shouts or cries or make other 
noises while playing the game known as Chai Mui, between 
the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., within any district or place 
not permitted by some Regulation of the Governor in Coun- 
cil.'^ — Hongkong Ordinance, No, 2 of 1872. 



W. A. P. 



[ This is the morra of the Italians, known to the Romans as micare digitis. 
•* Morra is the pastime of the drinking shop in China as in Italy, and pnay 
perhaps be reckoned among" the items of culture which the Chinese have 
borrowed from the western barbarians." — E. B. Tylor in Contemporary Re- 
view, May, 1879.— Ed.] 



d. — The seven pieces of the Chinese puzzle. 
e. — The eight Immortals of the Taoist religion. 



/. — 7L, nine, here stands foryv. 



nine, here stands fory V, long, in the sense of a long life 



NOTES AND QUERIBS. 57 

48.— Daun tiga 'lei. — In Note 23, in the first number of 
Notes and Queries, t find that of the names of the four suits of 
cards, three are Dutch words corrupted. 

Retin for Diamonds is surely the Dutch word Ruiten. The 
diphthong ui is difficult to pronounce for one who is not a 
Dutchman and the sound would naturally be rendered some- 
thing like a in bad or e in bed, 

Glubs ; Kalalawar is the Dutch Klaver or Klaveren, The 
only change is the conversion of the v into w. 

Spades ; Sakopong is the Dutch Schoppen. Pronounce sch 
as sk and the similarity is at once apparent. 

These particulars, not mentioned in the note, may be worthy 
of being brought to notice. 

M. S. 

[ The Dutch had a small military post in Perak for many years 
and their commercial intercourse with that State was frequent 
though not continuous, as long as they held Malacca. No doubt 
the use of European playing-cards reached the Malays of Perak 
through the Dutch. See Jouni., Str. Br., R.A.S., No. 10, p. 
245. 

Ed.] 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

49. Armenian Inscription.— The following is a translation 
of an Armenian inscription upon a tombstone in the old Church 
at Malacca. — 

Hail thou, who readest the inscription on my tomb, 

Give me the news ; what about the freedom of my people ? 

For which I am very anxious. 



58 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Has there arisen among them a good deliverer and ruler ? 

For above all in this world, I wish this most. 

I, Jacob, the first to come to this place. 

Am of an ancient Armenian family. • 

Am son of Shamier Shamirian, whose name I bear. 

I was bom in a foreign land, in Julfa* in Persia, 

I am now going to my proper place on earth, 

In Malacca, in the 29th year of my age. 

On the 7th July, 1774, a.d. 

I am dying on the ground of which I am owner. 



60. Land Tenure in North Borneo.— Rice lands are firmly 
held and highly priced, descending regularly from father to 
sons. On a Dusun farmer dying without leaving direct issue, 
his nearest of kin, immediately on his decease, erects a stone 
or wooden land-mark, indicating his claim to the land. These 
are to be met with all over the country, in some cases being 
elaborately carved, in others representing a human efiigy, &c. — 
The British North Borneo Herald^ Oct. 1, 1885. 

51. Kate of Speed of Elephant.— Table shewing the dis- 
tance which a full-grown healthy elephant travels in a given 
time at its natural pace. The following figures are the mean 
results of several carefully made observations on a measured 
level road : — 



* Most (;f the Calcutta Armenians couie from Julfa, the Armerian suburb of 
Ispuhan. — Ei). 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



59 



Minntes. 


Feet& 


EqualB, 


Miles. 


Feet. 


Decimals. 


• 


Decimals. 




. 






1 


r 

264.90 




. 






*2 


529.80 










% 


794.70 








H» 


4 


1059.60 








1 


5 


1324.43 


» 




/ 


J 
6 


6 


1589.33 


\ 




• 


7 


1854.23 








g 


8 


2119.13 








^ 


9 


2384.03 








A 


10 


2648.93 








M. 


15 


3973.36 








20 


5297.79 




• 




25 


6622.22 




1 


535 


.22 t 


30 


7946.65 


_^ 


1 


1859 


.65 o 


35 


9271.08 


^■MB 


1 


3184 


.08 • 


40 


10595.51 




1 

J 


4508 


.51 


45 


11919.94 






5832 


.94 


50 


13244.37 






1070 


.37 


55 


14568.80 




2 


2394 


.80 


GO 


15893.30 


^ 


2 


3719 


.30 


Seconde 








• 




5 


22.07 










10 


44.15 








• 


20 


88.30 










30 


132.45 










40 


176.60 










50 


220.75 










60 


264.90 











Note. — To obtain the above results, an elephant should not 
travel longer than six hours per day, and should he fed before 
starling. 

A. J. L, 



STRAITS BRANCH OP THE 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



NOTES AND QUERIES 



EDITED BY 



THE HONORARY SECRETARY. 



No. 3, Issued with No. i6 of the Journal of the Society, 



SINGAPORE : 

Prlntad %t the Government Printing Offloc. 

1886. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 

:o:-^ 

BOTANY. 

52. The Lagundi.— In Notes and Queries No. 2, Straits 
Braneli of the Royal Asiatic Society, page 50, the lagundi is 
botanically styled Vitex- trifoliata: the Editor must have meant 
Vitex trifolia as no Vitex trifoliata exists. My impression is 
that the Malayan lagundi, rather than to Vitex trifolia^ is re- 
ferable to Vitex negunda, and both are reported to possess 
medicinal properties. 

B. S. 

•X- 

53. The Ipoh Tree. — There is a note under this heading 
in No. 8 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society by Sir Hugh Low. 

Since then I have had the good fortune to find a tree in 
fruit at Muar on the Plus River and collected botanical 
specimens, which I forwarded to Kew and which were identified 
as Anitaris toxicaria by Professor R. Thiselton Dyer. 

The specimens that were sent by Sir Hugh Low to Kew 
and which Professor Oliver says were less glabrous than the 
typical Kew specimens, were young rank shoots from a tree 
which had been cut down and had sprouted out again. Shoots 
so produced often diflFer very much in character from those 
put forth in a normal manner. The leaves which I sent were 
only slij^htly hirsute. There is, therefore, do reason to suppose 
that the PSrak Upas tree differs in any way from the Javan 
species. 

The juice which was sent by Sir Hugh Low with the leaves 
was pronounced by Professor Ringer to be '' absolutely dei' 
titute of poisonous properties of any kind/' On recently 



62 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

making inquiries of the Sakeis of Dipang, Kinta^ I was told 
that the poisoa soon loses its power, bat thit if it is heated 
over a fire, it then becomes as viraleat as when first prepared 
and that it may be revived ia this way several tiai33. This 
explanation removes the apparent contradiction in the state- 
ments of many who have seen the poison used, and Professor 
RiNGER^s report. 

L. W. Jr. 



HISTORY. 

64. The Stone Age in Perak.— Though neither Malays nor 
Sakeis seem to possess any traditions about the stone age, yet 
it is probable that the wild tribes of the Peninsula have not 
used iron for more than five or six hundred years, that is, 
since the Malays have been on the mainland ; it would be 
interesting to know if there is any mention of people using 
stone for weapons in any old Malay munuscripts. Stone im- 
plements, principally axes and adzes, are frequently preserved 
carefully in Malay houses, when they have in a great many 
instances become much prized heirlooms. I have at present 
collected twenty-two of these specimens and have deposited 
them in the Perak Museum at Thaipeng. 

A. H. 

[There are two drawings of stone impletnentp f ourd in the Malay PeninBula, 
in Ko. 16 of L'J/(wima for Aiigiist, 18bG. {^Vage depierre polie datisla pr^sqvi'iU 
Malaise par J. de Morgan). — Ed.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 63 

55. Letter of the King of Achin to King Jaines I.^ 

A translation of this letter, written in the year 1614, is, 
according to Marsden, to be found in Purclias. Of this 
letter, Dulaurier says : — '^ Cette lettre se trouve dans un 
recueil manuscrit de pieces relatives k POrient, appartenant 
k la Biblioth^que royale, et ayant pour titre : Ambassade dc 
Turquie, MS. frangais, fonds Saint- Germain, No. 778. ^ 



Is it the original or a translation which is alluded to? 



Ed. 



^Since this was in type I have heard from London that the paper referred 
to IB merely a French translation, probably from Pubchas, 

Ed.] 

•X- 

56, R^mbaa. — Those interested in this State, an account, 
of which by Mr. Hervey appeared in No. 13 of the Journal, 
Straits Branch R.A.S., will lind the original Malay version of 
the Troniba Pusaka Menanghahau, the credentials brought over 
from Sumatra by Rajah Labu ( the last R^mbau ruler deputed 
from Menangkabau), in JJulauriee^s Leitrcs ct pieces diplo- 
matiqveS; Paris, 1845. It is taken from a copy presented by 
Captain Newbold to the Asiatic Society of Paris. An English 
translation will be found in Newbold's Straits of Malacca, 
II, 81. 

Ed. 

67. Sang Kalembai. — A Kramat said to be that of Sang 
Kalembai is on Gunong Bujang, Malacca, near the north 
end of the mountain it is said that there are steps leading up 
to it. 

A. H. 



Lettres et pieces diplomati^^iet Sorites en Malay ^ p, 13. 



64 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

58. The Title "Sang. ^'— Is the title '' Sang'^ of Sakei deri- 
vation ? Lately there was a Sakei Chief in Ulu Kinta bearing 
this title, and the Chief of the Dipang Sakeis is called by the 
Malays ^Toh Sang. Ba' is a common Ulu Kinta Sakei title. 

Ba^ Sa^iimpal, a Sakei Chief, is said to have beCn a great 
friend of the Kinta Chief, 'Toh Saraja, and to have several 
times assisted him in his wars. 

A. H. 

[Sang, I venture to think, is a word of Indian origin. The title is given by 
Malaj hisU>rians to heroes and gods, e, ^„ Sang Sapurha^ the first Malay King 
who, I have endeavoured to show, is identical with *i'/ca.— Joum. R.A.S.y XIII, 
N.S.,403. 

"Sdin," in Sind is the "S4hib" of India; philologists derive it from the 
Sanskrit Snranti^ a lord or master. — Burton, cind Re-visited. I, 181. — Ed.] 

LANGUAGE. 

59. Malay Words of Portuguese Origin.— Writing in 
1881,^ M. Akistide Marre drew attention to the number of 
Portuguese words which liave been incorporated in the Malay 
language, and quoted Crawfurd^s authority for the statement 
that Malay words of European origin are mostly Portuguese, 
the Dutch contribution being trifling, and the English portion 
insignificant. lie printed in alphabetical order a list of 155 
words said to be used in ilalay and to be derived from Por- 
tuguese, most of them being extracted from Favre^s Dictionary 
{MaIais-FraH(;ai8). A selection of these are given below, classi- 
fied under appropriate headings. It will be seen that the 
derivation claimed for them by M. Marre is not always be- 
yond doubt. 

Nautical Terms. 
Malay. English. Portuguese. 

^Abit Bitts Abitas 

Armada Fleet Armada 

^Aves Heave up Avessas 



*Za langve Portvgaue dans Vliide Ifranqaise et en Malaisie; Bulletin de la 
Soci^t^ Acad^miqne ludo Cliitioise, 2me sdrie, tome ler, p. 46. 



NOTES AND QUERIES.! 

Nautical Terms, — Continued. 
Malay. English. Portuguese. 



65 



Raluk 


Felucca 


Falua. Spanish fa- 
Itica 


^Bomba 


Pump 


Bomba 


Bordo 


Gunwale 


Bordo 


Bornal 


Scupper 


Bornal or embornal 


Bosseita 


Box 


Boceta 


*Bot/a 


Buoy 


Boia 


^Bras, brassan 


Brace 


Brago 


*Bulin 


Bowline 


Bolina 


*Falka 


Hatches 


Falaca 


^Falto brassan 


Lee braces 


Falto bracear 


Fusfa 


Lighter 


Pusta 


Galei 


Galley 


Gale 


Galioung 


Galleon 


Galeao 


"^Lanchang 


Launch 


Lanchao^ lancha 


MarJeah 


Mark (on sounding Marca 




line) 




Pragata 


Large ship 


J^Vagata 


MiSf ris deri lay at 


Reef 


Rizes 


Sektan 


Sextant 


Sextante 


Sumaia 


Boat^ smack 


Sumaka 


^Trinket 


Foresail 


Trinquete 



Of these words^ those marked with an asterisk {*) may be con* 
sidered to be regularly incorporated into the vocabulary of 
Malay seamen. Words like armada, sumaka, pragata, etc. 
are to all intents and purposes foreign words to a Malay, 



66 



N0TS8 AVD QUSRlfiS. 



though /?ra^a^a occurs in AbdullaH^s autobiography. ' Baluk, 
having regard to the final consonant^ probably came to the 
Malays fr<»m the Arabic fttlk, and not from the Spanish /a/t^ca 
or Portuguese /a/ttfl. Similarly, seMan is probably a corrup- 
tion of the English sextant and not of the Portuguese sextante. 



IiIauly, 



Name of the months. 

English. Pobtuouesb. 



Agostu 


August 


Agosto 


April 


April 


Abril 


Desamber 


December 


Dezembro 


JulUy Djuhi 


July 


Julho 


Jurij Djun 


June 


Junho 


Marso 


March 


Marfo 


Mey 


May 


Maio 


OJctuber 


October 


Outubro 


Nubember 


November 


Novembro 


Setember 


September 


Setembro 



Here the alleged derivation from Portuguese is more than 
doubtful ; January and February do not appear in M. Marre's 
list. In the majority of the names of the ten months given 
above, the Malay follows the English closdfy. The forms 
Julu and Marso are not in use among the Malays in the Straits 
Settlements; Favre gives March and Julatfy and though he 
gives the word Agostu for August^ he says it is derived from 
the English. 

Instruments, Utensils, etc. 
Malay. English. Portuguese. 



^Alabangka 
'''As 

^Bandala 
Bandera 



Lever 

Axle 

Cartridge-pouch 
Flag 



Alavanca 
Axe 

Bandola 
Banddira 



Nax«s AN9 qu^i^iss- 



6T 



Instruments, Utensils, ztc.,— Continued. 



Malay. 

Bangko 

BerVfS 

Biola 

Bolah 

Boneka 

Botol 

Dadu 
Dedal 

Furun 

Garfu 
Oas 

Horloji 

Jandela 

Knreta 
Kasrol 

Lantera 

Marmor 
Martil 
Meja 
Miskal 

Piano 

Pipa 

Firing 

Boda 

Sako 

Tinta 



English. 


Portuguese 


Bench 

Brush 

FiOdle 

Ball 

DoU 

Bottle 


Banco 

Brocha 

Viola 

Bola 

Boneoa 

Botelha 


Dice 
Thimble 


Dado 
Didal 


Oven 


Forno 


Fork 
Gas 


Garfo 
Gaz 


Clock 


Relogio 


Window 


Janella 


Carriage 
Saucepan 


Carrfeta 
Casserola 


Lamp 


Lanterna 


Marble 
Hammer 
Table 
Jeweller's weight 


Marmore 
Martello 
Meza 
Metical 


Piano 

Cask 

Plate 


Piano 

Pipa 

Pires 


Wheel 


Boda 


Bag 


Sacco 


Ink 


Tinta 



68 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Of these words, three — b^rm, botol and gas — may be re- 
garded as being of English origin and borrowed respectively 
from brtish, bottle and gas, and not from their Portuguese 
equivalents. The introduction of such words as piano and 
^aa into Malay (If they can be said to be domiciled in that 
language) cannot of course be ascribed to the period of Portu- 
guese domination in the Eastern Archipelago. 

Food, Clothing, Imported Articles, &c. 



Malay. 

Beludu 
Berinch'al 

mta 

Kameja 

Kapan 

Karpus 

Kejo 

Kowelo 

Kubis 

Lingsu 

Mantega 

Paong 
Peniti 
Prada 

Renda 

Sapatu 

Sariding 

Supa 



English. 


PORTUOUESB. 


Velvet 


Velludu 


Egg-plant 


Bringela 


Ribbon 


Fita 


Shirt 


Camisa 


Coat 


Capa 


Cap 


Carapu^a 


Cheese 


Queijo 


Rabbit 


Coelho 


Cabbage 


Couve 
• 
Len^o 


Cotton stuff 


Butter 


Manteiga 


Bread 


Pao 


Pin 


Alfinete 


Tinsel 


Prata 


Lace 


Renda 


Shoes 


Sapato 


Sardines 


Sardinha 


Soup 


Sdpa 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



69 



Food, Clothing, Imported Articles, &c., — Continued. 



Malay. 



Chapiu 

Tembako 
Terigu 
Tingkal 
Tuala 

Chinela 



English. 


Portuguese. 


Hat 


Chapeo 


Tobacco 
Wheat 
Borax 
Towel 


Tabaco 
- Trigo 
Tincal 
Toalha 



Slippers 



Chinela 



On these words, it may be remarked that berindjal is not a 
Malay word, though it is to be found in Favre's Dictionary. 
The Malay word is trong and the word brindjal has been im- 
ported into the Straits Settlements from Bengal by Europeans. 
Sariding is probably the French word sardine, imported into 
the Straits of Malacca by the agency of English commerce, 
like biskilt for biscuit ; it is not to the Portuguese that the 
Malays are indebted for the former any more than for the 
manufactures of Messrs. Huntley & Palmer. 

It is unnecessary to extend this list further, but few per- 
sons with any knowledge of European history in the Straits of 
Malacca will aeree that polls and pos, obvious corruptions of 
the English wBrds police and post, are from the Portuguese 
policia and posta ! Englishmen perhaps, will be inclined to 
believe that mil and menit are more likely to be corruptions 
of mile and minute than of milha and minuto ! So fiskal is 
probably the Dutch fiscaal (the Dutch establishment in 
Malacca in former days comprised an officer with this title ) 
and must be subtracted from M. Marre's list of Portu- 
guese words. And kamar, a chamber, is clearly the Dutch 
kamer, though kamra, the form of the word generally used in 
British India, is the Portuguese camara. 

It is not likely that polan or pulan, such-a-one, is derived 
from the Portuguese fulano. It is perhaps preferable to 
derive it from the Hindustani fulana, coth having very likely 
the same Arabic derivation. And while on the subject of 



70 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Hindustani, it may be as well to add that M. Marre would 
have been more correct if, instead of heading his list " Malay 
Words of Portuguese Origin,'' he had described it as " Portu- 
oruese words adopted in eastern languages." For, tembako 
(tobacco), fita, (ribbon), bomha, (a pump), &c., &c., will 
be found in Hindustani dictionaries, and sapatu, a shoe, is 
certainly as much Tamil as it is Malay. 

Ed. 



60. Malay Titles In Ulu Perak.— The Malay Saiyids in 
the north of Perak claim to be descended from the Guru of the 
first Sultan, Sheikh Hussein ms Jamaludin, who came from 
Hadramaut. The daughter of a Saiyid in Ulu Perak has the 
title of Siti, and her son, by a man not a Saiyid, is addressed 
as Mir, evidently a corruption of the Arabic Amir."*^ Magat 
is a title given to a man \vho is of royal descent on his mother's 
side, his father bcinji; a commoner. I have elsewhere sug- 
gested the possible derivation of this word from mdgadha, 
(Sansk. ) the son of a Vaiyya by a Kshatriya woman. The 
sons of a Magat bear the same title ; his daughters are 
called Putri. The son of a Piitri by a man below her in 
rank is addressed as Fra Tan, The children of the four 
Chiefs of the first rank, and their descendants, have the title 
of Wan, 

Ed. 

■X- ^ 



* 



61. Malay in Cornell University.— A class in Malay 
has lately been organised in the University, and commenced 
by Professor Eoehrig, on Monday, September 21st. Malay 
is the easiest, the most easily pronounced, and the most well- 



* Our word Admiral is, probably, derived from the Arabic 
Amiru-l'hahr, Lord of the Sea. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 71 

sounding of the Oriental tongues, and one of the most wide- 
spread and practically useful languages in the world. Its 
importance for trade and business, and in maritime, consular 
and commercial relations with the richest and most favoured 
regions of the East can hardly be over-rated. It is to the 
East Indian Archipelago what Italian is to the Mediterranean. 
Professor Roehrig is said to be now busily at work preparing 
on a large scale a comprehensive Malayan Grammar, Exercise- 
book and Reader, based on a new plan, and calculated to 
satisfy the wants of the mercantile agent and commercial cor- 
respondent, the scientific traveller, the naturalist, the mission- 
ary, the diplomatic or government official, as well as the 
demands of the literary man, the scholar and philologist. 
There is now at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., the most 
extensive and complete Oriental department on the American 
continent, and that is owing to the steady and continuous 
efforts and the vigorous exertion of one man. Professor Roehrig, 
who, after having established here, many years ago, the study 
of Sanskrit and Arabic, added, by degrees, the modern Arabic 
dialects, then the Persian, afterwards Turkish, and now the 
present course in the Malayan language. The attendance 
at these Oriental classes, though comparatively small, as from 
the nature of things cannot be expected otherwise, is constant- 
ly increasing from year to year ; and this in many respects 
unique department of the University, it seems, will gradually 
find successful imitations in other institutions of learning 
throughout America, and promises, in the end, to have yet a 
very great and brilliant future. — Triibner's Record, 



BIOGRAPHY. 

62. T. J. Newbold.— Can any one give a complete bio- 
graphical account of the author of the best work yet pro- 



72 NOTES AND QUHBIES. 

duced on the Straits Settlements?^ He belonged to the 
23rd Madras Light Infantry and was Aide-de-Camp to Bri- 
gadier-General Wilson, c.b., in the Straits, where he seems 
to have served for three years (1832-1835). He appears 
to have been political agent at Kurnool in the Madras 
Presidency in 1845. 

Ed. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 

63. Death from Snake Bites.— Doubts have been expressed 
whether fatal results have attended snake bites in the Straits. 
The following notes may help to set this matter at rest. 

A boy of about five years old, the child of Haji Mam ah and 
his wife Mentusur, was bitten in the back of the head by a 
hamadryad, of about six feet long, while going to get water 
from a stream at Bukit Gantang in Larut. He died in less 
than an hour after being bitten. The snake was caught and 
killed. 

At Kampong Krau, a village at the back of Gunong Pon- 
dok near Gapis, a woman, the wife of Kanda Rasib, was bitten 
by a snake, which was not caught or recognised, and died 
shortly afterwards. 

An elephant, was bitten in tl^^ fore foot by an unknown 
snake. The foot and leg swelled to an immense size, and after 
repeated suppurations, mortification set in and the animal 
died. The time between the bite and death was four or five 
months. 

KuLOP Jeleh of Bukit Gantang was present when his 
father was bitten in the leg by a small snake about eighteen 



♦ A Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits 
of Malacca, Mubbay, 1839. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 73 

inches long known by the native name of Ular kapak sampah 
( a species of the genus Trimeresurus ).* The leg was much 
swollen and very painful, but the swelling and pain soon sub- 
sided, and he was quits well again in a day or two. 

Some months ago a Kling was bitten in the leg by a Biinga- 
rus fasdatus. He was taken to the General Hospital, Tha- 
peng, and put under medical treatment, and recovered. A 
leature in this case was that a quantity of blisters formed on 
the leg near the bitten part. 

L. W. Jr. 



^ 



64. The Bite of the Python.— A large Python which was 
measured, with the help of some Sepojw to stretch it, and 
found to be twenty feet long, was brought to fche Museum at 
Thaipeng for sale ; but as no arrangement could be come to, 
as to price, with the Chinese owners, it was taken away again 
into the town to sell, having been nearly five hours in my 
possession coiled up in an open basket, with only a thin piece 
of rattan tied round its neck. 

About half an hour after it was taken away, a man was 
dragging it along by the piece of rattan, when it seized him 
by the calf of the leg from behind and held on till it was 
beaten ofiP with sticks by the by-standers. Its formidable 
teeth made a large laceVated wound, and the man had to be 
removed to the General Hospital, and it was three months 
before he was considered well enough to be discharged. 

L. W. Jr. 



^ [In Cantor's Catalogue the ular kapak appears as Trigo- 
nocephalu^ Sumatranus, BafSes. — Ed.] 



74 NOTES AND QUERIES 

SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

65. Birth Ceremonies in Perak.— The following account 
of the ceremonies performed in the household of a Raja in 
Perak, on the occasion of a birth, was taken down verbatim 
from the lips of a member of the royal family in 1878 : — 

On the occasion of the birth of a child in the royal family 
( Sultan, Raja Muda, or Raja Bandahara) the following cere- 
monies are customary : — 

Three or five sages femmes (bidanj are employed. A large 
curtain or cloth is hung from the roof. It is square and is 
taken up in the middle and fastened by a chain ( gold or sil- 
ver ) from the roof, so that the corners and ends hang down 
round the bed of the woman in labour. (This is called pondong.) 

The btdan and a number of high-born dames in attendance 
on the sufi^erer go inside. If the delivery is protracted ( for 
which a technical word srat is used ) it is customary for chiefs 
to come and ask leave to make vows for her recovery. They 
say: '* If she recovers I will slay a goat.^* In token of the 
vow, one of the female attendants ties a ring round the wrist 
of the patient. If delivery is still delayed, the husband or 
mother of the princess puts dollars under her back, which are 
to be given in charity if she recovers. There must be priests 
and orang her-hantu present. The former repeat prayers and 
pious sentences [maghratib ). The orang her-hantu (devil- 
dancers) perform incantations to keep oS devils. 

While labour is going on, draughts of various kinds are 
given to the woman to drink, prepared by all sorts of wise 
people. These beverages are called salusoh. If the child is 
bom quiet and does not cry, the women say it is lemas. Then 
the master of the house ( the Raja or other ) orders guns to 
be fired, gongs to be beaten, and a tremendous noise to be 
made. As soon as the infant cries, the women commence to 
sing (her-dabul) . The child is then placed on a small mattress 
fkasauj, on which embroidered cloths folded up are first 
placed. Its arms are placed behind its back in a peculiar 
fashion so that the elbows are dislocated. The body is swathed 
up with a white"" cloth from the feet to the neck. ( This is 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 75 

called hedong. ) A little brush is then dipped in a kind of 
black ink made of burnt shell cocoa-nut {punggovg nior) and 
the eyebrows^ outlines of the Dose^ chin, &c., of the child are 
marked in black. A star is put on the forehead, and a spot on 
the nose. This tracing of lines ( which is sometimes done on 
the stomach of a sick person to relieve pain there ) is called 
rdjak by the Malays. The tracing on the infant's face is 
called tolak Suleiman (Solomon^s charm). Up to this time the 
infant has been tended by the family nurses, who have tended 
previous infants, or by the women of the household. A suite of 
attendants is however now procured for it by sending off parties 
of men (juioak-juivak) to impress nurses in certain kampongs 
and families which have always supplied them. The women are 
c brought by force sometimes. They are called nanda (short for 
tnangda ? ) and their husbands manda. 

On the morning after the birth of the child, a salute is fired — 
nine guns for the child of the Sultan, seven in the case of the 
Raja Muda, or five for the Raja Bandahara. Well-to-do people 
then flock to the palace bringing presents of cloths to place on 
the baby's bed and little pillows, richly ornamented, for his use. 
No mosquito curtain may be used, but a cloth is strung upon a 
rattan cane and waved backwards and forwards by a female 
attendant. One relieves another and it never stops waving 
(her-kirap-kirap) . 

The next ceremony is bersemhah oyer susu. Women of good 
family who have young children of their own take the royal 
infant^ one after another, and give him suck. Each of her 
children thus becomes foster brother or sister of the royal 
infant and they can never intermarry. To have this effect, pro- 
perly speaking, the royal mother should in her turn give suck 
to the infant of the foster mother ( this is called sempornia-kan 
sa-susu or her-halas siisu-nia). 

The attendants take it by turns to watch. They sing and 
wave the fan day and night. When they bathe the child they 
sing the same strain (her-dahul) , 

When the child wakes and cries in the early morning about 
4 A.M. (dinaharij y the women change the tune, and the air they 
now sing is called teiak kranji. The pantun is : — 



76 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Tetak kranji buat-kan tiang 
Burong nuri terbang sa^kawan 
Naubat ber-bunyi hari handak siang 
Bangun ungku mas tempawan. 

This is only the first verse of about ten. 

Lagu pengolik is used when putting the baby to sleep [per- 
lena-kan tidor), 

Ketik anak udang sent is the name of another tune which 
is used when feeding the child with pap ( made of rice and 
sugar ). One girl carries the child about and another fol- 
lows with a sembrib (brass dish) containing the pap with which 
she feeds the child from time to time. He is fed in this way 
when about fifteen days old. The rice is pressed with a 
cocoa-nut shell. 

The following are specimens of the songs : — 



Manggusta nama-nia kayu 
Daun-nia lurch menelentang 
Mahkota Raja Malayu 
Turun deri Bukit Saguntang 
Daun-nia lurch menelentang 
Daim puau di-raut-raut 
Turun deri Bukit Saguntang 
Kaluar deri dalam laut. 



Di-ketik anak udang seni 
Di-tangguh di Tanjong Kling 
Alang-kah chantik anak orang ini 
Janggut iya menieling. 

3 

Ilir deri S^lan ") ^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ 

Sarat ber-muat padi I j^j^| ^^ ^ ^ ^^ 

Puteh saperti bulan (^^^^^^l 

Kenmg buntoh taji. J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 77 

Landak di terubong 

Kijang kena jerat ^ This is the last verse. 
Jrandak kita ubong 

Panjang kita kerat. 

As soon as the swaddling clothes cease to be worn, the child 
is carried about naked but for a cloth over the abdomen which 
is called harut. 

The child is named before the umbilical cord is cut. It is 
cut with a sharpened bamboo (6//a OTsembilu)^ or bitten through 
by the h,dan, JSometimes the name of the child is changed 
(kalih). This is done especially if the child falls ill, an 
unluckf name having perhaps occasioned the illness. The 
infantas head is shaved when it is about seven days old. 
Notice is given that at about 8 a.m., the Raja will cause the 
princess head to be shaved (raja handak meniulur putra^nia) , 
A pretty woman of rank is selected and is placed on the 
child^s kasau with the baby on her lap. A box is behind her 
and she is surrounded by women. Oi\ ihepetarana (settee) in 
front of her a silver bowl is placed. The chief women in the 
palace then commence to shave the child's head taking it in 
turns according to their rank. Each shaves a little bit. Then the 
handmaidens strike up a song ( tarik nyanyij called anah 
gajah jantan and this is the signal for all the men to come 
forward and put money into the bowl. Hundreds of dollars 
are thus piled up sometimes. All the women of rank then 
have to make similar oflerings. The inang and pernfasoh 
( nurses ) are then appointed and named, and receive dresses 
suitable. 

After two or three months another ceremony, placing the 
infant in the swing ^//ft//c buayan), is performed. A trans- 
verse pole wrapped round with yellow cloth is fastened cor- 
ner-wise to two posts of the house and a cloth forming a 
swinging cot is hung from this. 

A halei (hall) is then built at the river side, it is in two 
stages, the first levi 1 with tlie shore and the second just under 
water t=o that the women sitting on it have the water run- 
ning over their knees. The child is carried down to the lower 
platform and the upper one is crowded with spectators. When 



78 KOTES AND QUERIES. 

the child is thus bathed in the river for the first time, all the 
women sing (ber-dahiil) again. A man casts a net below the 
halei and if he catches fish it is a good omen. There is also a 
pawang (medicine-man) in attendance who performs certain in- 
cantations before the child is put into the water. He throws an 
eg<? into the water and recites charms. When the women return 
to the palace carryinjjf the infant under umbrellas, all the men 
follow. OflFerin^s are again requisite. The Imam, Khatib, and 
BUal, ofiicers of religion, swing the cot and sing a hymn called 
Dondang Fatimah, after Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet. 
Then the women sing the ligu penqolik. The men march in 
by turns and place some money in the swing beside the 
child. The proceedings end with a feast. « 

There are other ceremonies, duduk jamhul (leaving a tuft of 
hair) and kachah tanah (touching the earth for the first time) , 
but before the latter ceremony there is one called let*tk 
kanda or the appointment of youths (handa), whoso oflRce it 
is to bury the placenta, and who thereby acquire a relationship 
to the infant raja. 

The number of kanda is usually twelve or nine in the Sultan's 
family, nine or seven for the Raja Muda, and seven or five for 
the Raja Bandaharji. They are boys of five or seven years old, 
of good family. Men of good birth are only too glad to send 
their sons for this office. The Raja selects the proper num- 
ber and appoints one to be kapala, or chief, and a second who 
is called penengkoh. The inang and pengasoh wear kain gun- 
chok and carry the end of their sarongs over their shoulders 
(meniampei or meniandavg kain dukong). All the boys are 
presented with a suit of clothes (persalin tit run tig a) consist- 
ing of three garments (tangkoloky haj'u, kalnj, the istana is 
gaily decorated {hi as) on the occasion. The knpnia kanda car- 
ries \heplacenta m a new earthen pot, the mouth of which is closed 
with a white cloth tied over it (ber-getattg ka n putth) , others 
carry sirihy water, sugar-cane, perasap (lighted embers for burn- 
ing incense on), etc., every one has something. If a child is too 
sm ill to cairv his share, his father carries it for him. The bovs 
are all assembled in the balei. Several elephants are prepared 
for the procession and their heads and sterns arc painted and 
ornamented with various designs and colours. The head of the 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 79 

foremost boy (Jcapala kanda) is then envelofied in a black clotb. 
All are placed on the elephants and the procession starts. The 
foremost boy carries the earthen pot {prink) on his head if he is 
big enough, if not his father who accompanies him on the ele- 
phant carries it before him. The kapala kanda has the right 
pannier, the penenjkoh the left. A suitable place has been 
selected for burying the temuni and there it is buried and a 
cocoa-nut is plauted. This cocoa-nut (nior gf^jah) is the one 
which was taken to the river on the occasion of the infantas 
first bath, which has already been described. On it the infant's 
foot first rested when placed in a standing position in the 
bath. These solitary cocoa-nut trees are pointed out here and 
there in Perak as the nior gnjah of such and such a raja. The 
procession then returns to the palace. The kapala kanda, 
whose head and face are still covered with the black cloth, is 
led up to the infant's bed and then saying " Om pechak cite 
ungku adek patek " he lifts his black veil and kisses the child. 
All the kanda are thenceforward regarded as the brothers or 
relations of the raja. (Many of these details are of Hindu 
origin. The bones of a deceased Hindu, after cremation arc 
buried in a new earthen vessel, and among the modes of cover- 
ing the spot \There a funeral pile hns stood is the practice of 
planting a tree. The w antra repeated by the chief boy in the pro- 
cession is probably a corruption of a Sanskrit formula. Many 
Malay mantras commence with the syllable om, the mystic 
name of the deity among the Hindus^ a word which a Malay 
pawang once explained to me to mean gang jadl di-dalam sen- 
dirty '*that which originated within itself'*). — Ed. 



66. Sacred Fire. — In the Netherlands India news pub- 
lished in the Straits Times of February 8, 1886, there is a 
statement which appears worthy of record among curious 
popular customs. Speaking of the continued eruptions from 
the Bromo volcano it is stated : — 

'^ Whenever an outburst takes place, the natives around, as 
soon as fire comes down the volcano, kindle therefrom the 



80 KOTES A!9D QUERIED. 

wood they use as fuel iu cookery. The fire which the 
natives so far have used iu their cooking-places was obtained 
from a previous outburst iu 1832. Whenever this fire in 
the healths went out from any neglect, it was never kin- 
dled anew bv lucifers or other means. In such cases fire is 
obtained from the nearest neighbours.'' 

A. K. 

67. Pelas Negri— In Perak (West Coast, Malay Penin- 
sula) it was the custom in ancient times to perform periodi- 
cally [ once in seven years or once in every Kaja's reign ? ) a 
ceremony intended to insure the prosperity of the country by 
the propitiation of friendly spirits and the expulsion of evil 
influences. This was spoken of as pe/as negri, the cleansing 
of tljc country from evil ( meivuchi-kan ncgri deri sagala 
hahaya) . The ceremony has been described to mo as follows : — 
The Raja, chiefs and a great following of people assembled at 
a selected spot, as far up the river as possible, short of the 
ropids which impede navigation. Jeram Kerengga was the 
usual place of meeting. There, a number of bamboo rafts, 
some of them of elaborate construction with houses on them 
(hahi (jamhang) were made. The four principal rafts were 
devoted to the propitiation of the four gicat classes of spirits 
in Pcrak, namely the Jlauta Bit'an, or tiger-spirits, the Mantu 
&ungkei, the Ilayiiu Mahnju and the Jin liaj'a. In each a 
number of pawafirjs, medicine-men, took up their station ac- 
cording to the particular class of demons which they affected. 
The first raft was the one prepared for the Hantu Blian and on 
it B. prali tree, felled for the purpose, was placed erect with all 
its branches complete. It was kept in position by stays (tarn- 
lirang) . 

When all were ready, the procession of rafts started down 
the river, those of the Ilantus leading the way. Behind them 
came a raft containing perscms engaged in religious exercises 
(mengajij. Then came a ib.it viith i\iG nauhat (royal band) 
and then the Eaja, chiefs and people in rafts of various sorts. 
As they floated down the river with the stream, the chief 



KQT]bS AND QUERIES. 8l 

pawangs in the leading rafts waved (me-lam^ei) white cloths 
and shouted invocations to the spirits and demons inhabiting 
the country through which they were passing, inviting them 
to come on board the rafts and eat what was provided for 
them. While thus engaged, the chief pawang in each of the 
four spirit-rafts stood upon a slab of tin, which was his 
perquisite. 

A halt was made at every kampong on the river banks of 
suflScient importance to have a mosque, and at each a buflFalo, 
subscribed for by the people {fne-ripai), was slaughtered and 
the liead placed on one of the spirit-rafts. The rest was eaten 
by the people. The ceremony ended at Bras Basah, a kampong 
on the left bank of the Perak river not far from its mouth, 
where the rafts were abandoned and allowed to drift out to sea. 

Ed. 

■X- -H- 



•Jf 



68 Legend of 'Toh Panglima Ghapar of Einta (called 
Hilang dalam Jalan) . — ^ToH Ghapar when he was about fifty 
years old and whilst he governed Kinta from his K* mpong 
called Kapayang^ was suddenly seized with an unaccountable 
desire to be always in the jungle by himself and refused food. 
Twenty or thirty people watched him day and night and very 
often brought him home against his will from his peregrina- 
tions. But one night, after the doors of the house had been 
securely barred, his guards slept, and the next morning he was 
gone although the doors had not been unbarred : after a long 
search he was found above the rice-fields of Pengkalan Pe^u, 
but he would not return with the searchers. They followed 
him through the jungle and up to several of the limestone 
bluflls and ultimately he was found sitting on a block of lime- 
stone at the entrance of the cave in the bluff which has ever 
since been called Gunong Dato. From thence he called to 
them that nobody was to go near him nor to speak with him 
with the exception of one ^Tias who had been his tandil and 
was a great favourite. Thereupon Tandil 'Tias went up into the 
cave and saw and spoke with the Dato and saw moreover that 



8) N0TX8 AlfB QVBHtB8« 

the cave was famished like a house^ and that a great many 
people were in the cave with the Dato, he also found out that 
the Dato was married to a very beautiful woman who was 
called by the people " Putri Bendang At/er Angai!^ bufe Tandil 
'TiAS soon understood that these were not really men and 
women, but that they were the " Orang bunyi ^' ( spirits or 
fairies ) of the mountains and that they were only visible 
to him because he was called by the Dato. Then the Dato 
told him that he was to tell the Ton Puan and his chil- 
dren and the people generally that he intended to stay and 
live with these " Orang bunyiy '' and did not mean to return 
again to Kanipong Kapayarig, but that if there was any- 
thing that his people required, a santjka was to be offered 
at the mouth of the rave, and he would help them in 
any pickness or any other matter. So Tandil 'Tias re- 
turned to Kamponpr Kepayang, but after some time the 'Ton 
Tuan sent him back to the cave with some presents of sweets 
and siri for the Dato ; then Tandil ^Tias found that the Dato 
had moved up into the upper chamber of the cave, but he 
calle d Tandil ^TiAS up the ladder to him, and as it seemed so 
very comfortable Tandil 'Tias asked for and received permis- 
sion to stay, and took a woman of the *' Orang bunyi" for his 
wif**, and he lived very happily, but what seemed very curious 
to Tandil 'Tias was that in three weeks' time his wife presen- 
ted him with a son. Soon after this event, the Dato ordered 
him to go down to Kampong Kapayang and take some presents 
to Ihe 'ToH Puan and his children ; he went, but before he 
started his wife made him promise to return in eight days ; 
unfortunately he forgot his reckoning, and it was nine days 
before he returned to the cave ; he then found the cave closed 
up and he could not enter, he hailed his wife, but she replied 
that he could not now return as he had broken his promise, 
lie was very melancholy at this, but asked to see his child, and 
he suddenly appeared besides him. He took the child down 
to Kampong Kapayang and gave it to his sister-in-law to 
nurse with her own baby. But when the child was applied to 
ihe breast, blood was given forth instead (if milk ; this made 
the fester mother ill and weak and a fresh foster mother had 
to be found. Several nurses were successively tried, but 



K0TB8.AND QUERIES. 83 

always with the same result ; as the child could not be brouQjht 
up at Kampong Kapayajig, he took it back to its real mother^ 
who received it into the cave again. Until lie died about fifty 
years aoro Tandil 'Tias could always speak with his wife and 
child and with the Dato although he never saw them again. 
^ToH Abu Kasim, the grandson of ^Toh Ghapar, is said to have 
stayed two nights in the cave and to have seen and spoken 
with the Dato ; this was about thirty years ago before Abu 
Kasim went to Mecca, where he died. 

The son of Tandil Tias and the " Oram bunylP was called 
Dualim ; he became the elephant driver of the Dato, he used 
to drive a very large elephant whose f.»otprints measured a 
cubit and a span across; if this elephant passed through a 
garden he did no harm, but that garden was sure to be very 
fruitful. KuLUB Lembong, when he first went to Rotan Seger, 
one night heard this elephant passing and the pambali singing 
as he went, the next morning he saw the footprints close to 
his hut; the rice-fields of Rotan Seger hive since been noted 
as the most fertile in Kinta. 

DuALiM died when the first Europeans came to Kinta, but 
to this day fresh elephant droppings are always to be found 
in the cave. 

A. U. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

69. Index cf Astatic Journals, — Mr. J. T. Cabletti is com- 
piling an Index of Asiatic Journals, and hopes to have finished 
his work some time next year. The following are the Journals 
he is indexing : — Journd of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great 
Britain and Ireland, from old scries, 1835, and new series, 18{)4; 
Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
from 1841 ; Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal 



84 NOTES AND QUEBIES. 

Asiatic Society, from 1858; Jmimal of the Indian Archipelago 
and Eastern Asia, from 1847 to 1«59 (all issued) ; Journal of 
the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, from 1878; 
Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Uoyal Asiatic Society, 
from 1R45; Transactions oi the Asiatic Socii'ty of Japan, 
from 1W2 ; Madras Journal of Literature and Science, from 
1884 : Journal of the American Oriental Society, from 1849 ; 
and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bcngalj, from 1832/^ — 
Athenwum, 24th October, 1885. 



EXTRACTS. 

70. The Borneo Coal-Fields —Having recently visited 
fome of the coal-fields in the Ishmd of Borneo, it may be in- 
ter^stin^ to yonr readers to know the result. The subject was 
one of special interest to me, and its investigation was one of 
the principal subjects I proposed to myself in my travels in 
the Kast. Just before leavinj^ Australia, I had published 
in the Proceed inj/s of the Linn can Society of New South Wales 
a complete history of the known coal flora of Australia, and a 
review of its geological position. The relation of the Austra- 
lian to the Indian coal fl<»ra is well known. It seemed hardly 
possible but that in Borneo, where such extensive coal-forma- 
tions exist, some connecting link would be found between 
Australia and India. 

The subject is very little known. The late Mr. Motley had 
the management of the Labuan mines. His are the only 
writings on the age of the Borneo coal which are known to me. 
What he wrote is quoted by Mr. Wallace in his work on 
" Australasia.^' He regarded the beds as Tertiary, and the 
fossils as of species of plants and marine moUusca now living 
on the coast. lie speaks of cocoa-nuts and the peculiar winged 
seeds of Dipterocarpus (so common in Borneo) being common 
also in the coal at Labuan. He thought that the beds evi- 
dently originated in the most recent times from masses of 
drift-wood brought down by the rivers and stranded on the 
coast, in the way the traveller sees so often repeated on the 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 85 

Borneo coast at the present day. He also stated that the 
Labuan coal was not, properly speaking, coal, but more like 
drift-wood partially bitumenised. 

Mr. Motley subsequently was killed by the natives at Ban- 
jermassin. It is now six or seven years since the mines at 
Labuan have been worked. I am not sure that he had the 
same impressions about the South Borneo coal as of the 
Labuan beds, but I think I am not far out in thinking that he 
regarded all Borneo coal-beds as belonging to one immense 
Tertiary formation. 

There are few countries of the world, except, perhaps, 
Eastern Australia, where coal is so extensively developed as 
in Borneo. Thick seams crop out in innumerable places on 
the coast and on the banks of the rivers. In some of the 
streams of North Borneo I have seen water-worn and rounded 
fragments of coal forming the entire shingle bed of the chan- 
nel. In some places, again, there are outcrops with seams of 
good coal 26 feet thick. The coal-formation is the one pre- 
vailing rock of the coast. It forms the principal outcrop 
about Sarawak. At Labuan, also, no other rock can be seen. 
Lining the banks of the Brunei River, I only saw picturesque 
hills of very old Carboniferous shale. All the grand scenery 
of the entrance to the port of Gaya is made up of escarpment 
of coal-rocks. At Kudat it is the same, and so I might go on 
with a long list of coal-bearing localities. 

Now, in such a large island as Borneo, with such a wondrous 
mountain system, it would be absurd to suppose that all this 
coal belonged to one age. We might as well suppose the same 
of the comparatively small islands of Great Britain, and yet 
what an error that would be. In Eastern Australia and in 
Tasmania, beds of coal pf very diflFerent age lie close together. 
I have found the same in Borneo. Whether there is Tertiary 
coal or not in the island, I cannot say ; but there is Mesozoic 
coal, and probably Palaeozoic coal, and coals like those of New- 
castle in Australia, wbose position hovers between the true 
Palaeozoic and the Trias. To begin with Labuan : the works 
there have been long since abandoned ; the adits are partly 
filled with water, and the shafts have fallen in, so that it is 
next to impossible to explore the mine now. But there is 



86 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

plenty of coal and shale on the surface, and there are excellent 
sections on the sea-cliflfs close by. The formation is a drifted 
sandstone with much false bedding. It contains not a trace 
of lime or any marine organism. Under the microscope the 
siliceous grains are seen to be rounded. I think it is an Eolian 
formation with lines of rounded pebbles of small size. The 
whole deposit is very similar to the Hawkesbury sandstone of 
Australia, which is of Oolitic age. In both formations there 
are roots and carbonised fragments of coniferous wood, in 
which the tissue is still to be traced. The coal on the surface 
is a truly bitumenised coal, very brittle, and like what we get 
in the same rocks in Australia. The few plant-remains I saw 
were not referable to any known genus; they were like Zygo- 
phyllites, and perhaps these are the plants which have been 
identified as wings of Dipt erocar pus, which they remotely 
resemble. 

I saw no marine fossil, and the absence of any lime in the 
beds makes one think that those which were discovered did 
not come from any of the strata which are exposed in section. 
Sir Hugh Low, who resided many years at Labuan, gave me 
some ca!<ts of marine fossils taken from the locality. They 
were casts not easily identified, and certainly not like any now 
existing on the coast. The moUuscan fauna of the locality is 
that of the usual Indian Oceanic type, with a slight admixture 
of Chinese and Philippine forms. In all recent beach-remains 
in these parts of the world theie is a large admixture of urchins, 
corals, &c. The aspect of the matrix was not of this character. 
It was much more like a blue-clay such as we have in Austra- 
lia above the Mesozoic coal. 

On the whole, I am inclined to regard the Labuan beds as • 
of Oolitic age, and not Tertiary. Of the value of the coal- 
seams, 1 had no means of judging. The amount on the surface 
showed that there was plenty to be had. Labuan is a naval 
coaling station. Stores of coal are brought out from England 
at a great expense for the use of Her Majesty's navy, and if the 
same thing could be got in the island the enormous advantages 
are obvious. I think it should be further tested. 

About fifty miles away to the south-east is the mouth of the 
Brunei river. Here the rocks are quite of a different character 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 87 

and much older. They are sandstones, shales, and grits, with 
ferruginous joints. The beds are inclined at angles of 25 to 45 
degrees. They are often altered into a kind of chert. At 
Moarra there is an outcrop of coal-seams 20, 25, and 26 feet 
thick. The coal is of excellent quality, quite bitumenised and 
not brittle. The beds are being worked by private enterprise. 
I saw no fossils, but the beds and the coal reminded me much 
of the older Australian coals along the Hunter River. The 
mines are of great value. They are rented for a few thousand 
dollars (by two enterprising Scotchmen) from the Sultan of 
Brunei. The same sovereign would part with the place alto- 
gether for little or nothing. Why not have our coaling station 
there? Or what if Germany, France, or Russia should pur- 
chase the same from the independent Sultan of Brunei? 

The Sarawak coal beds I did not visit, but a collection of 
fossils was kindly sent to me by the Hon^ble Francis Max- 
well, the Resident. I recognised at once well-known Aus- 
tralian and Indian forms, such as Ph>/llotheca anstralis and 
vericbraria. These are entirely characteristic of the New- 
castle deposits in New South Wales. The connection thus 
established between the Carboniferous deposits of India, Bor- 
neo, and Australia is exceedingly interesting. 

I intend to publish in another form all the observations I 
have made on the coal formations of Borneo and their included 
fossils. The main result of all I have seen may be embodied 
in the following conclusions : — 

(1) There are in Borneo immense coal deposits of very 
different ages. 

(2) These formations extend from the Palaeozoic to the 
Middle Mesozoic periods. 

(3) The fossils from some of the beds are specifically iden- 
tical with those of certain well-known forms common to India 
and Australia. 

(4) The Labuan coals are probably of Oolitic age, and not 
connected with any marine formation, but apparently of 
Eolian origin. 

J. E. Tenison-Woods. 
[Nature, 23rd April, 1885.] 



88 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

71. Malayan Antiquities. — Alterth'dmer aus dem Ostind- 
ischen Arcliipel uiid Avgrenzenden Gebieten. Herausgegeben von 
Dr. A. B. Mp:ykii. (Leipzig, 1884.) — The present sumptuous 
volume forms the fourth of the series being issued under the 
enlightened management of the Curator of the Dresden Zoo- 
logical and Anthropological Museum. These costly publica- 
tions, which could scarcely be undertaken without the active co- 
operation of the general administration of the royal artistic 
and scientific collections in the Saxon capital, will, when com- 
pleted, prove a great boon, especially to students of eastern 
antiquities, and of the progress of human culture amongst the 
peoples of Southern Asia. 

This fourth part, so far complete in itself, will be found of 
great value in elucidating the civilising influences both of 
Erahmanism and Buddhism on the races of Further India and 
the Malay Archipelago. It comprises nineteen photographic 
plates in folio, four of which are exquisitely coloured, with 
explanatory text and a map devoted almost exclusively to this 
important subject. Thus we have here embodied at once a 
descriptive and illustrated record of the archaeological trea- 
sures in the Dresden Collection, which serve to mark the pro- 
gress of the arts in the Eastern Archipelago and neighbouring 
regions from the earliest historic period, that is, from the first 
contact of those lands with the Indian religious and artistic 
world. 

The arrangement is thoroughly systematic and most conve- 
nient for purposes of reference and comparative study, objects 
in stone, metal, wood, porcelain, and allied materials being 
grouped separately, and dealt with in the order indicated. The 
four stone figures from Java, reproduced on the first two 
plates, show at once the advantage of this arrangement. Here 
we have on Plate I a genuine Brahmanical Trimurti placed 
side by side with a full-breasted female figure of undoubted 
Buddhistic type ; on Plate II an unmistakable Brahmanical 
Siva, again contrasted with the representation in high relief 
of two men, who, from their devout attitude and other indica- 
tions, are evidently of Buddhist origin. Taken collectively, 
these two groups thus present a striking illustration of both 
streams of Hindu culture, by which the island of Java was 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 89 

successively flooded. On this point the Curator's remarks in 
the accompanying text arc highly instructive : — 

''The Hindu antiquities found in Java are either Brahman- 
istic, Buddhistic, or mixed. Brahmanism repeatedly occurs 
in its Sivaistic phase. Buddhism, pure only in Borobudur and 
Tyandi Mendut ( ' Veth/ Java, ii, 172 ), is found mixed with 
Sivaism, Sivaistic divinities sometimes surrounding images of 
Buddha ( Leemans, 'Borobudur,' 444?), Buddhistic figures 
at others encircling Sivaistic idols ( 'Veth,' ii, 103, 173 ), or 
else assuming monstrous forms, such as often characterise 
Brahmanical deities ( * Veth,^ ii, 96, and Max Uhle, ' Des- 
criptive Catalogue in MS. of the Royal Ethnological Museum,' 
No. 1464 ).'' 

The greatest monuments of Buddhism appear to be concen- 
trated mainly in the central parts of Java, while those of the 
Brahmanical cult are scattered round them in all directions. 
Extensive Brahmanical settlements had already been formed 
in the island long before the first arrival of the Buddhist 
missionaries, who, according to Dr. Meyer, made their appear- 
ance probably about the fifth century of the new era. The 
stupendous Buddhist temple of Borobudur, rivalling that of 
Angkor-Vaht in Camboja, is assigned to the eighth or ninth 
century. But no attempt has been made to determine the 
date of the earliest Brahmanical remains in Java or the other 
islands of the Archipelago. They cannot, however, be much 
more recent than the first century of the Christian era, and 
may possibly be some two or three centuries earlier. It is to 
be /egretted that this point cannot be determined with some 
approach to accuracy, for it has obviously a most important 
bearing on the question of the migrations of the Indonesian 
races, and especially of the diffusion of the Malayo-Polyne- 
sian languages throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. 
Those writers, who are disposed to regard these as compara- 
tively recent events, should at least bear in mind that there 
are practically no traces of Sanskrit or Prakrit elements either 
in Malagasy, or in any of the Eastern Polynesian dialects. 
Hence, if Malaysia be taken as the point of dispersion west to 
Madagascar, east to the South Sea Islands, the migrations 
must necessarily have taken place at some time before the 



90 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

spread of Hindu influences throughout the Eastern Archipe- 
lago. 

However, the collection is not confined to Hindu subjects, 
and on Plate VII are figured a large number of iron spear- 
heads, some of which are undoubtedly subsequent to the intro- 
duction of Islam in the thirteenth century. Many of these 
objects, which were found in Jokjokarta (Java), are of sim- 
ple type, much corroded by rust, and no doubt of considerable 
antiquity. But others show distinct traces of damaskeening, 
an art unknown before the arrival of the Arabs, although now ^ 
universally difiused throughout the Archipelago. The process, 
locally known by the name of pamor, consists in manipulating 
steel and iron by means of acids, the designs being inlaid by 
the priests ( Pfyffer, " Sketches from Java,^^ p. 32). 

Conspicuous among the bronze objects is a magnificent lion^s 
head of absolutely unique type and great size ( compass found 
neck 34 cm., diameter 30 cm., weight 100 kilograms ), appa- 
rently from Camboja, although first discovered in Java. This 
superb bronze, whose analysis yielded copper 92*49, tin 5* 53, 
lead 1-40, cobalt and nickel 0*07, iron 0-12, total 99-61, is 
referred by Dr. Meyer to the flourishing period of Cambojan 
art as embodied in the monuments of Angkor Vaht, and 
would accordingly be some 600 or 800 years old. Front and 
side views are here given in half the natural size on two sepa- 
rate plates. From these it is evident that the lion is playing 
the part of a rakshasa or guardian to some Buddhist shrine, 
such as are found sculptured at Borobudur. Another rakshasa 
of a very difierent character is a wooden figure of X3aru4ha 
from the island of Bali, reproduced by the new phototype 
process, which has already rendered such valuable services to 
the arts, and especially to archaeology in Germany. ' Here 
Garudha is represented as a winged human figure bearing on 
his shoulders probably a Vishnu, of whom the legs alone, sus- 
pended in front, have been preserved. It is described as per- 
haps a Sivaitic representation from some Brahmanical temple 
in Bali, where Vishnuism and Sivaism are said to be inti- 
mately associated. The introduction of the Hindu cult into 
Bali, where it still holds its ground in the midst of Isldm, is 
referred to the beginning of the fifteenth century. But the 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 91 

fair state of preservation of this wooden image bespeaks a 
much more recent date. 

On the concluding plates are figured numerous designs of 
bronze drums or gongs from every part of the Archipelago 
and Further India. These instruments, which play so large 
a part in the social economy of the Indonesian and Indo- 
Chinese peoples^ are here brought together for the purpose of 
elucidating the obscure and hitherto little studied history of 
their origin and diflPusion throughout South-Eastern Asia. 
Those interested in the subject will find much instructive 
matter embodied in the accompanying texl^ 

A word of thanks is also due to Dr. Max XIhle, the Curator^s 
able assistant, not only for his general co-operation, but more 
especially for the great care he has bestowed on the map of 
the regions in question. On it are accurately indicated all the 
places in Malaysia where Hindu antiquities have at any 
time been discovered, or where monuments dating from pre- 
Muhammadan times are found. 



A. H. KEANE. 



[Nature, 26th March, 1885.] 



•5f -X- 
•5f 



72. Rock-Pictures in New Guinea.— A few years ago I 
mentioned in a paper in Globus ( Ixiii, 94) that Mr. Th. B. 
Leon had reported the existence of pictures on rocks he had 
«een in the Ogar and Arguni groups of islajads ( south part 
of McClure inlet), and that the officer in command of H.N. M.S. 
Batvia who ha:l be m charged to make further inquiries, had 
not been able to find them. At that time Mr. Leon^s acsount 
had not been published in the regular issue of the Batav, 
Genootschfip. Since then, however, explorations by Mr. van 
Bra AM Morris, whilst on his voyage in New Guinea in 1883, 
and by some of the officers of H.N. M.S. Samarang, have 
resulted in the discovery of rock-pictures similar to those 
spoken of by Mr. Leon. The papers giving an account of 



92 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

these explorations ( including Mr. Leox^s ) have been pub- 
lished in a recent number of the Tijdschrift roor Indische 
LanJ-y Taal-y en Volkenkiinde ( xxix, pp. 582-591 ), and an 
abstract of their contents may be interesting. 

One day Mr. Leon set out from the kampong ( village ) of 
Arguni, situated on the island of that name, for the purpose 
of fishing. In the beginning, on account of the surf, he 
kept at a great distance, but the third island of the group he 
was able to approach. He perceived the distinct representa- 
tion of a human ha^d^ painted in white, and surrounded with 
red spots, and other drawings in white, which appeared to be 
meant for letters, though traced in characters unknown to him. 
Afterwards, on penetrating between two other islands of the 
group, he saw several hands, all similar to the first and accom- 
panied by similar drawings. He was not able to land ; he 
estimated the height of the place at which they were drawn 
on the rock to be from 75 to 150 feet above sea-level, the 
hands being about three-quarters of the way up, and the other 
figures about 10 feet higher still. The hands were of all sizes, 
representing those of children, of full-grown men, of giants, 
and were in great numbers. He fancied the characters bore 
some resemblance to the written signs in use amongst the 
Orang Kling, the Orang Bugis, and the Orang Mangkasser ; 
they were certainly not Javan or Malayan. He was greatly 
puzzled as to how they could have come there, since the face 
of the rock was perfectly perpendicular, and without any pro- 
jections or caverns, so far as he could perceive. The only ex- 
planation he can suggest is that they must have been done at 
a time when that part of the rock-surface was nearer to the 
level of the sea, or the outward form of the rock must have 
been changed on that side by losing ledges or projections by 
which the native draughtsmen may have approached the place. 
It will be readily understood that the natives attribute these 
drawings to Kasuak, the prince of evil spirits, who, in their 
opinion, has his dwelling in one of the small islands, and of 
whom they are naturally greatly afraid. On another island 
Mr. Leon discovered a huge stone, which would probably re- 
quire half a dozen men to lift it, rudely shaped like a bullock, 
and surrounded with several other stones, evidently arranged 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 93 

on some fixed plan. 

Mr. VAN Bkaam Morris says: — On September 16, 1883, I 
came to McClurc inlet, and was told by the native chiefs that 
the figures I was in search of were to be found on Arguni, or 
the islands to the west of it. I discovered them on a small 
island a few hundred yards from the mainland. The shores of 
both the island and the mainland rose perpendicularly from 
the water, and in the rocky face of the former, about 5 feet 
above high -water mark, the surf had eaten out an excavation 
from 3 to 5 feet wide, thus leaving a narrow platform, on 
which several srasM prahus were deposited, some ol: them being 
3 feet long. Various figures were drawn on the rock above, 
especially hands, both of full-grown people and of children. 
A han<l had evidently been sketched in outline from a livinir 
model placed against the wall, and coloured to a depth of 6 
inches nil around it. The native chiefs who accompanied the 
Resident t^aid that the remains of the Hill-Papuans bad form- 
erly been deposited here, but were now interred with Mahom- 
modnn rites ; there were indications, however, that some prahus 
had been recently lodged on the platform. 

Though the most astonishing part of Mr. Leon's report, 
viz., the difficulty of drawing the figures on the rock at a cqn- 
sidernble height above the sea, is nut encountered by Mr. van 
Braam Morris's experience, it is not proved that Lhe latter 
explored exactly the same place as Mr. Leon. But just this 
point ( the considerable rising of the islands ) is most plainly 
stated with regard to the Ke Islands by Messrs. Alliol, Mol, 
van Slooten, Meijboom, and Deijl, of H.N.M.S. Samarang, 
which at the time of their visit lay off Tual (5° 37' 30'' S. 
lat. 132° 44' E. long. ), island of Litile Ke. These gentlemen 
were invited by Mr. Lanoen, the head of the English settle- 
ment there, to visit with him the north-western part of the 
island; after having steamed for three-quarters of an hour 
they dropped anchor «7i*-a-rw Kalumit, a village at the base of 
a hill, about 200 metres high. They went to the top to see 
there some idols situated in a small settlement. I pass over 
this part of the narrative, and take it up after they had des- 
cended from the edge of the rock, where they had found a 
burial-place belonging to the kampong, which is on the top. 



94 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

A tolerably well-made flight of ironwood steps allowed the 
visitors to descend easily ; after about half an hour's walk they 
came to the " necropolis/^ 

On the rock near it they discovered representations in red 
of various figures — human hands, with the fingers spread out ; 
imitations of human heads ; a fight between men armed with 
Mexvavys ( = cutlass ), and other figures which they took to 
be representations of the evil spirits, outlines of ships, &c. 
Though the heads were rudely drawn, the hands, which were 
fewer in number, were remarkably well done. The place where 
the drawings are seems to be quite inaccessible to human 
beings. In the rock are also caverns which are rather difficult 
to approach. In one of them two gongs and some pieces of 
bamboo were found j at the entry irogmcnts of broken glass 
had been spread, probably to prevent visitors from entering. 
It must be mentioned that the rock, from the base to the top, 
was covered with sea-shells. Attention is repeatedly drawn in 
the report to the circumstance that it seems incomprehensible 
how the pictures could have been drawn on the rock, which 
overhangs. 

The natives connect the rock-pictures with the burial-place 
on the top of the clifi: Near the edge of the steep descent 
stand two houses, which serve as mortuaries, one being close 
to the dwellings of the natives, which are surrounded with a 
stone wall. These two houses are built of ironwood ; on the 
roofs there are two pieces of wood, the one in the shape of a 
prow, the other in the shape of a keel. On the latter are two 
figures, a dog and a bird ; a stick bearing a piece of white 
cloth is stuck into the bird's body. The walls are 4 and 3 
metres, and in the shorter, which faces the sea, there are two 
doors, through which the coffin is carried ; inside this hut they 
saw two coffins with fruits and a bottle of oil which had been 
left for the spirits. 

The natives who called themselves Hindoos, or heathens, a 
name which of course has no ethnographical significance, but 
is merely used to distinguish them from their Mahommedan 
neighbours, said that when a dead body was placed in the hut 
the spirit was conducted by the bird or the dog on the roof to 
the caverns where it is to abide. In token of its arrival the 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 95 

animal draws a figure on the rock. The natives who accom- 
panied the explorers dur!>t not set foot within the caves. 

It was also said that the bird and the dog were merely sym- 
bols. The soul of the deceased, on leaving the body, flies as 
a bird through the air or runs as a dog over the earth, till it 
reaches the abodes of the spirits — the caverns — unseen by 
living men. Every soul that reaches this haven draws a 
figure on the face of the clifi^. In explanation of the contest 
between human beings and evil spirits in the pictures, they 
said that the latter try to prevent the souls from reaching the 
eternal dwellings ; but they cannot hinder those who have led 
good and honest lives, thoujzh those who have done wickedly 
are carried off by the evil spirits. 

The officers, judging from the many articles in gold and 
silver which were found in the caverns, concluded that they 
must formerly have been used by pirates as places of refuge 
and for hiding their stores, and that they were then nearer to 
the level of the water. On this view the drawings on the 
rocks would answer a double purpose ; they would keep the 
superstitious from approaching the caves, and would also act 
as a landmark for the pirates themselves when returning from 
sea, and indicate to them the places where their treasure was 
hidden. 

Without hazarding any opinion upon such incomplete ac- 
counts, I wish to state, merely by way of summary — 

1) That Mr. Leon^s evidence, combined with that of the 
officers of the Samarang, would seem to indicate that the sur- 
faces of certain islands in McClure inlet and of the Ke group 
have been considerably elevated. 

(2) That the rise has probably taken place at no distant 
date, but how long since cannot be determined until (perhaps) 
after close scientific examination. 

(3) That Mr. Morris's explanations, taken in conjunc- 
tion with the foregoing, suggest that the elevation is not a 
general one, but, though observed at distant points, is limited 
to certain islands of different groups, or even to particular 
sides of them. 

EMIL METZGER. 

[ Naturcy 9th April, 1885.] 



96 NOTES AND QUEU1K8. 

73. Astronomy. — Witli regard to the uew star in An- 
dromeda, Ur. Soriius Ti?omijolt relates the following curious 
story in a Norwegian Journal : — " In the Hungarian perio- 
dical, Losoncezi PhUnix for 1851 is a story by Maurus Jokai^ 
the celebrated author, in which he refers to this star. Jokai 
makes an old Malay relate that the evil t^pirit, Asrafil, revealed 
to King Saul and his sons the star in the nebula; and 
predicted that those who could not see it should die in the 
impending battle. The ^lalay also reveals the star to his 
listeners, and describes its position so accurately thatthcre 
cannot be any doubt of the Andromeda nebula being the one 
referred' to^. although it is not named/' The story accord- 
ing to JoKAi rests on a biblical or Jewish legend. On the 
writer of these lines asking one of the greatest living autho- 
rities on biblical research whether the Bible contains any 
reference to the point, he was informed that there is absolutely 
no such reference in that book and that it is h^irdly possible 

the nebula is mentioned in nny Jewish legend I intended 

to enquire of Jokai wiiethcr his story is founded on any tradi- 
tion or only an outcome of the author's imagination, but even 
should the latter be the case the story is a very curious one." 

{Nature, 15th Oct. 1885.] 






, FEB 25 







STRAITS BEANCII OF THE 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



NOTES AND QUERIES 



EDITED Br 



THE HONORARY SECRETARY. 



No. 4, Issued with No. 17 of the Journal of the Society 



8 1 NG A PORK: 

riiiitC'l ill ihc riovoniuu'.nt PriiitiJiflf Oflico. 



*• *;* 



1SS7 



<l 



p 



f 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 

:o: 

BOTANY. 

74. The Brinjal.—In Notes and Queries No. 3, p. 69, 
there is an allusion to the brinjal, which has been said to 
be known to the Malays by its Portuguese name. This is a 
mistake, for the Malays have their own word, throng, to des- 
cribe this vegetable. Burton has the following note on this 
plant : — 

'^ Arab ' Badinjdn ' ; Hind. ' Bengan ' ; Pers. ^ Bddingdn * or 
' Badiljdn ' ; the Mala insana f Solanum pomifertim or S. melon- 
gena ) of the Romans, well known in Southern Europe. It 
is of two kinds, the red (Solanum lycopersicum), and the black 
(S, melongena). The Spaniards know it as *berengeria' 
and when Sancho Panza (Part II, chap. 2) says, * The Moors 
are fond of egg-plants ' he means more than appears. The 
vegetable is held to be exceedingly heating, and thereby to 
breed melancholia and madness ; hence one says to a man that 
has done something eccentric, * Thou hast been eatipg brin- 
jalls\ ^' — The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Bur- 
ton, V. 4. 

[ For a much fuller note about the briDJal, see Yule's Glossary, sub- 
voce Brinjaul. — Ed.] 

G. H. 

75. Ketiar. — A fruit of which the Perak Malays make oil. 
It is one of the three royal perquisites, the other two being 
elephants and river-turtle (tuntong). It used to be a capital 
offence to give false information to the Raja about any of 



98 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

these. The ketiar tree is said to afifect certain localities, and 
is found in groves not mixed with other trees. In former 
days, when the fruit was ripe, the whole of the Raja's house- 
hold used to turn out to gather it. It is said to yield a 
very large percentage of oil. What is the botanical name 
of the tree, and has the oil any commercial value ? 

Ed. 



LANGUAGE. 

76. Malays. — By former generations of officials and re- 
sidents in the Straits, the Malay language was always spoken 
of as ^' Malays J*^ This idiom was common in ifenang twenty 
years ago, but has now probably nearly died out. Colonel 
Yule, in his recently-published Glossary of Anglo-Indian 
Words, notices a similar use in the last century of '^ Moors '' 
for Hindustani, " Malabars '' for Tamil, etc. 

Ed. 



f( 



77. Pagar. — Colonel Yule has the following in his 
Glossary '^ : — 

Pagavy s. This word, the Malay for a •' fence, enclosure," occurs in the sense 
of " factery " in the following passage: — 

1702. "Some other o\\Uj)aga7'S, or factories, depending upon the factory 
of Bencoolen.'— Charters of Ea?t India Co., p. 324. 

The word pagar here seems to be meant for pajak, a place 
where revenue is collected. 

Ed. 

78. Temikei; Mendikei; Kamendikei.— These are syno- 
nymous Malay names for the water-melon ( Cvcurhita citruUus, 
L,), Temikei seems \o he ioimeAivovix mendikei , by metathesis, 
which is a common trick of speech in Malay ; and kamendikei 



NOTES AND QtEBIES. 9d 

is the same word with the additioa of a particle. Is mendikei 
derived from pateca the word used by the Portuguese in India 
for a water-melon ( Ar. al-battikh ot al'bittikh)t Of. Span. 
albadeca and French pasteque. See Colonel Yule's Glossary, 
sub voce Pateca. 

Ed. 






79 Jalibat. — Jolly-boat^ a word borrowed perhaps by the 
Malays from the English. The word was known in 1878 on 
the Perak river, where the Malays remembered a boat with 
this name being used by a former Raja. The following /?a/2- 
tun was repeated to me apropos of this : — 

Derijalibut ka balei gambang 
Lain meng-angkat kalamdan surat 
Hari handak ribut bulan pun mengambang 
Hati di-dalam sangat-lah dlurat. 

Colonel Yule (Glossary, sub voce Gallevat ) shews that 
"jolly-boat^' is a corruption of an Indian word, "gallevat,^' 
applied, down to the latter half of the 18th century, to a kind 
of galley in use on the west coast of India. In 1613 an 
English navigator records having sent off two men in his 
*^gelly watte'' to take soundings. (Captain N. DowntOxV in 
Purchas, 1, 501, cited by Colonel Yule). 

I know of no instance of the use of a word jalt by the 
Malays in any sense approaching to the English jolli/, and 
authority is wanting for the following, which I extract from 
Pavre's Dictionary (Malais-Fran9ai8) i'OIck jdli {Ang}..jollyJ, 

joli, agreable. t^ji — jali bot, un joli bot, un joli bateau (EL),'* 

The learned Abbe, who seems to have assumed that " jolly- 
boat " is a compound of *^ jolly '^ and " boat,''* was no doubt 
unaware of the mysterious workings of what Colonel Yule 



100 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

calls " Hobson-Jobson/' the assimilation, " perhaps by vulgar 
lips/' of Oriental words to the English Vernacular. 

Ed. 

* 

80. Gookup. — Colonel Yule has the following { Glossary, 

p. 175 ) : — 

** Cocknp^ s. Aa excellent tablo-fish. f juncl in th^ mouths of tidal rivers in' 
most parts of India. In Cal'mita it is generally known by the Bang, name* 
of hegtl or hhiktl^ and it forms the daily breakfast dish of half the European 
gentlemen in that city. Tlie mivie ning be a corruption^ mekiiom not of what ; 
or may be given from the erect sharp spines of the dorsal fin. It is Lates 
calcarifor (Gunther) of the group Pei'cina^ family Pt^rcidce^ and grows to 
an inmensa size, sometimes to eignt feet in length." 

Cockup seems to be a corruption of the Malay name, kakap, 
of this fish. Favre ( Dictionnaire Malais-Frangais ) has 
4-fl.^lS^ S<i\ ikan kakap, nom d'une sorte de perche de mer, 
barbonue f Lates nobillsj." 

Ed. 

8L Galgal. — In Shakespeare's Dictionary, this appears 
as a Hindustani word : — '' Galgal, a mixture of lime and lin- 
seed oil, forming a kind of mortar impenetrable to water '' 
(See Yule's Glossary, sub voce Galgal), Is this the Malay 
word gala-gala which has been carried westward, or have the 
Malays borrowed from India ? Duplication is very charac- 
teristic of Malay. Favre explains gala-gala to mean certain 
milange de resine et de chaux qm sert a goudronner les navires/^ 
The same word is used in Makassar and in the Philippines, 
where gala-gala (in Bisaya) is said to mean '^ espece de mastic 
qui se fait avec de la chaux et de rhuile/' Colonel Yule 
quotes a passage in Cocks' Diary (1621) where the writer 
speaks of making *^ galle-galle^' in Japan with lime. 

Ed. 



NOT£S AND QUERIES. 101 

82. Jam. — This is the word commonly used in Malay to 
express the English " hour/^ a division of time which they 
have learnt in recent times. It also signifies a clock or watch. 
Favre derives it from a Persian word meaning a glass or 
mirror, but it seems more likely to be the Arabic Zam (plural 
azwam) . " The Zam in practical parlance is said to be the 
8th patrt of day and night ; it is in fact a nautical watch or 
Hindu Pahar.^' Prinsep, quoted by Colonel Yule, Glossary, 
p. 809. 

• Ei). 

83. Maimk. — In the last number of the Society's Journal, 
I noticed that the word ' mdnuky^ is stated to mean * a bird' in 
the Sulu Dialect, and moreover that the same word is found 
in Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Tagala, and Bisaya signifying 
the domestic fowl. It may be interesting to know that the 
same word (bearing the latter meaning) is also met with in 
the dialects of two Sakai tribes inhabiting respectively the 
Plus and Lengkuas districts of Perak. 

Another word, ^ puky* is also in use among the Lengkftas 
S^ikai, though it is not employed by the Plus and Kesob 
tribe. 

The final * ^ ' in both these words is pronounced, and it is 
curious to note that in every case where a Malay word is 
introduced into S^kai, it is invjiriably pronounced as it is spelt, 
Hlthough >akai have no knowledge of any form of writing, 

example in the word ' tiba ' to arrive (which is used in 

many cases instead of the S&kai word ' bwal ' ) the final ' a ' is 
pronounced l^ke the ^ a ' in soprano, although the Perak Malays^ 
in the centre of whom these Sakai live, pronounce the same 
final vowel almost like the ' er Mn the English word 'father.' 

This would seem to show, that the words in question were 
adopted at a date when the final ' k ' and the final * a ' were pro- 
nounced by the Malays in the manner which I believe is fol- 
lowed to this day by the natives of Borneo. 

It is noticeable that a S^kai, whbn talking Malay, drops 



l02 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

these peculiarities^ but resumes them immediately when he 
has to use a Malay word in the middle of a S&kai sentence. 

xi. C. C 

[See p. 134 of \o. 5 of this Journal, where the occurrence of the word 
vianuky either to signify "bird" or "fowl" or both, in the dialects of 
numerous tribes, is noted. See also Wallace's Malay Archipelago, Vol. 
II, p.p. 479 and 485, where thirty-three languages of the Malay Archipelago 
are compared. * In the majority of them the word which expresses " bira"# 
and ** fowl " is fnanu, nianok, or some form of that word. — Ed. ] 



84. The Sakai Language. — Has it ever been stated that 
these are tones in any of the dialects spoken by the Hill Tribes 
of the Malay Peninsula ? I believe this to be the case in the 
two dialects of S&kai, spoken in Perak, with which I have any 
acquaintance. In both these dialects the syllables are pro- 
nounced separately, and Malay words, adopted by the S&kai, 
are split up into monosyllables. 

The tones I believe to be three in number, and to resemble 
those found in Burmese. They appear to me to be as follows. 
The first tone is long and the voice descends. The second 
tone is short and checked, the sound produced being much 
like that expressed by the hamzah (**) in the Malay word 
'Dato^ {y\^)> The third tone is the ordinary sound of the 
voice, but in the case of a final vowel a very slight * h ^ sound 
is distinguishable. 

These in the S^kai dialect spoken by the Plus tribe — 



1st tone 


ne 


means 


one. 


2nd „ 


ne 


99 


three. 


3rd „ 


neh 


}} 


to see. 


also 








1st tone 


ts 


means 


the ground, earth. 


3rd „ 


teh 


i» 


down river. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 103 

In the Lengkuas dialect — 



1st tone 


Su 


3rd „ 


eu 


1st ,, 


ts 


3rd „ 


teh 


1st „ 


gds 


3rd ,, 


gas 



means I 

„ to carry. 



9} 



the ground, earth, 
these. 

to throw away, 
skin disease. 
In this latter dialect, though the second tone is found in 
such words as ^ cho'^ (a dog), and ^ni-che" (short), I hav? not 
succeeded in finding words having three significations distin- 
guished by the respective tones. 

H. C C. 



HISTORY. 

85. English T^adewith Perak— The Dato Panglima 
B6sar (who died in 1880) furnished the following particulars 
of European intercourse with Perak in his recollection : — 
" I remember when there was trouble between Sultan Abdul- 
lah ( father of Raja Muda Yusuf ) and Raja Bandahara 
J'affab, who afterwards became Sultan. The former was 
going to attack the farm at Kola Setia. A man-of-war was 
despatched from Penang for its protection. I don^t know 
her name, but she had eleven guns on each side and was 
commanded by Captain Otter (?). Captain Hardy and Cap- 
tain CuTHBERT (?) took mc ou board of her. Messrs. Nairne 
and Stuart Heriot of Penang farmed the dues at Ku&la 
P^rak. My father Toh Sri Dewa Raja weighed the tin when 
it was exported. 

The person who cleared the hill at Sungei Limau was a 
Mr. HowisoN. He owned a warehouse in Beach Street, 
Penang. His partner was a Mr. Lamb. He lived at Sungei 
Limau for three years. He started the manufacture of salt- 
petre out of the bat^s guano in the caves in Gunong PoDdok, 
and built a large shed with 40 or 50 pans. The saltpetre 
which he produced was very white. He lost money in this 
enterprise. Then he discovered a kind of stone in Ulu Perak 
{batu abrak, talc, mica?), a quantity of which he exported 
to Singapore, but that, too, did not pay.'^ 

. Ed. 



104 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



86. The Founding of Singapore. — ^The following letters are 
of historical interest. They are to be found in a file of native 
correspondence among the Dntch records in Malacca. It is 
amusing to find Baffles' friend, the Tumonggong of Johor, 
writing to Malacca to assure the Dutch Oovernor of his undy- 
ing devotion at the very moment that the island of Singapore 
was being made over to the British. The other letters, too, 
are characteristic of Malay diplomacy, the Bandahara of 
PahaAg, for instance, hastening to declare his friendship for 
such person as may be the friend of his master the Baja of 
Johor, without committing himself to any opinion as to the 
proper person to be recognised in that capacity. 

Ed. 



Letter from Tuan Raja Tumunggong, Singapore, 

To Tuan Raja Muda Adrian Koek, Ma^uaa, 
No date. (Dutch translation dated the i6th Feb., rSig[A,) 







1 <J.f*^j iOI ^^ Oi^-^J' 



~ sea 

alto o>**« / yjl 



ht* 






NOtES AND QtERIES. 105 

ol>^->*^ c)'"^ cJ '^^ s^^ c)^~^ «-fli;^ ui—Ui «IX.<^^ 

v'j^*^ ^y o^"* t*»j-^ v^y s?**** "fc*ii»«> y^ ^-^ 

d3bl ut.^ ^U« V^^ c^ ^^^ *^^' o^jki dO^j 

Jfl^ ^b fW ^-^ by^>i tS^-^*^ "^*^ i)^ •Z^*" ^ 

c^^^,.^^^^! i^^ csA/* _^l ub»^jJ uia6L» IjiyU,^ JI^JU^ 

j3Aa* it^ Ja «_»! yU al^ aJ^ ja-j ^y «-a^ ^^ ^^^^Ij 
^b ^y ^y /:« ^^ 4i1 blast ^bj Jjl dJ^j *_r,> J5V 

^gjl^ bylAft^a 45jIj Ji^ yi>^ 4^j ^jj^l^ a^^ ^J by l^a-^ 



106 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Ji^ ^^Ixj c.:^ ^U. diyO,] «:^1 ^-^y ^l^f*- v^^ r)yU^w^J 

v'^l ^.>^ o'^ c?'^ ^' s^^ v-^' ^>^ ^>^ Jj' 



After Compliments. — Be it known unto our friend that, while 
we were living at Singapore, nine vessels suddenly arrived, 
namely, seven ships, one kura-kura, and one ketch. All 
of us who were at Singapore were very much startled. At 
last the Chiefs (of the expedition) landed and paid us a visit ; 
they were Mr. Raffles and Major Farquhar. The latter 
went on to Riau, but the former remained at Singapore and, 
informing us that be intended to remain there, he proceeded 
to land his men and stores. We were pow^erless to say any- 
thing, and could neither send word to Malacca at that moment 
nor to B/iau. Just at this juncture Tunku Long arrived at Sin- 
gapore from Riau, having heard that a number of ships had 
arrived at Singapore, and being anxious about his S(m whom he 
came to take away. As soon as he came, he had a meeting 
with Mr. Raffles, who forthwith laid hold of him and made 
him Raja, installing him as Sultan at Singapore. All this we 
make known to our friend. 

At this present time the English are establishing themselvce 
at Singapore, and are making a lor/ie, and so we inform our 
friend, assuring him at the same time that we in no way 
separate ourselves from the Dutch. As it was with us in the 
beginning so shall it be to the end as long as there are a sun 
and a moon. 

We have nothing to send except our salutations to our 
friend. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 107 

From the Tumonggong, Singapore^ 

To the Yang dt-per Tuan Muda, RiaUy 

Dated the i6th Rabia-us-sani, 1234, (Jehy.j rSig.) 



^ba ^J ^j^U JJ s^-^^ *^^ a^U y ljjJ13l «J^Js^ JJ|^a 

Ijo^jJ -£)jJ^ jJiS' ^^y*^ Ij^^l <jJ)j) <^w) J^^v^ esJ^^ 
^j^ ^b yfcU^jj^ r^lK-* 'w^^l -^^^ ^ ^^^^ *^^ 

^)j^ c^b) ^J^ii ^Jii^ ^a ijsA^i ^jj^ dJji u^isy d)i5jgf 
dJb) by u^ ^b ^y ^y yCij b^i ^^jj <^u 3i\ i;U) 

^yliU^j ^.b Jfl^ jkj^ eo^y ^^) ^^l^ ^::-Oj Ij^I ^"b 

c«^^ ^ yCiJ u:^i] lj^ ^^JJ J-.*^ (3^^^-^ ^'^ V^' <-^ 



108 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

\i^ji ^yj> \^)\j ,^i^ ^j \iu^ji tiU IjiyU^ 



«Im^ 



^UaU V->^^ ^>*^ eJ<^'/^ v:/'^ eb V^Xii^l^J c^U Si) 

1J^J5S) ^^JJ ^1 ^^ J iSX^ ^IC^ C^ ^^^ 4^^ ^^y,..^ 



After Compliments. — I have to acquaint you with the pro- 
ceedings of the English, that is to say, Mr. Raffles and the 
Raja of Malacca,"*^ who came to Singapore, the latter going on 
to Riau and the former remaining at Singapore. I was simply 
forced to submit to this proceeding, of which I had no notice 
or knowledge. When Mr. Raffles came, I was simply told 
that we intended to settle at Singapore, and I had no power to 
prevent him. Thereupon he landed his men and stores and 
proceeded to make a block house flogiejf. Of course I could 
say nothing. While this was going on, Tunku Long arrived 
in Singapore, having been alarmed by the news that there 
were a number of ships there, and having come for the pur- 
pose of fetching his son Tunku Besar. On his arrival in 
Singapore, Tunku Long went to see Raffles, whereupon the 
latter laid hold of him and forcibly made him Raja, with the 
title of Sultan Hussein. He also presented him with a sealed 
letter of appointment, and used so much insistance that Yang- 
di-per-tuan Sultan Hussein could offer no opposition to what 
he did. (Usual complimentary ending.) 

• Major Faequahar. 
t Dutch. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 



I 



/^r(?/w the Yafng di per Tuan, Singapore. 

To the Yang diper Tuan Muda, Riau. 



UL^yU ^^lv» iwU^) ^^J^ <J)^1 y^ ^^^ ^i^^ iiaJj^^ ^ . 
^)J ^gJ ^U 6^ ^>^ gb 1j^) ^)^ <jJi^J ^:5^l^ IJsaW) JU 

yU^ ^y^^ IJ^I V-5C. ^t'^;;li ^b ^S *-*W V^^'^J-* 

ail lj^ -al^jj ^) ^ly. ^)^ ^ j^jj ^t ^^JJ^ ^^ 

Ij^U-w^J )Jjl23) ^gi-*^ ULA^-^ ^^S IJo^I JsJ^Ji ^Uji^^.5.4-* aiv* 
^3 |ja53) ijjy oOW^'/ ^^ v^^l^ 0^*=^ V>^^ eb 

^U ^b^ ljuJi3l ^^l^ ^U ^y dL5GyQ) |juJi3l ^^Uk 
Ij^I d)b) J^ ^K^ ^ ^^j A)y3) u^l c^^ ^^gju^ 



llO NOTES AND QUERIES. 

cJ> IJo^I -SJ^Ji cjliu. ^jL.) ^jj^iJL. IjJ^IJ^jJi JJir^l::J 

ail Ijj^ -sJyj ^b ^fyuy ^ ijjLfis) c^^ ^k]^ 

eb o^^r* '^^^' ^l "^ by '^^^ b^«^ Jy a> ^j' ^^>-oj 

«^' v:)<A^ W>»^ <J^t ^Louo "^53) ^-U ail ^<i^ Ijjl^J 
^ly^y^l^^j,^^ csA^ljU^^^b {illegible in M\S?^ 
{illegible in MS^ ^jb Uj^fiil ^^1 ^-iCo ^cj) ^^1 ^b 
^W^ c)^^'>^ "^' ^>>^ cji^^ dA^-.C*J ^1^^) JU ^^l| 



(Translation.) 

After Compliments. — I have to inform you that the Raja of 
Johor came to me one night in the middle of the night 
and announced that there were a great many ships at Singa- 
pore, and that numerous soldiers and quantities of stores were 
being landed. I was a good deal surprised at this news, and 
not a little anxious and uneasy on account of my son who was 
there. Without taking thought of what I was doing, I set off 
the very same night. I completely lost my head and never 
thought of letting you know of my departure. When I reach- 
ed Singapore, I went to see Mr. Raffles, who immediately 
laid hold of me and would not let me go again, but insisted on 
making me a Raja with the title of Sultan. There was nothing 
else for me to do and I had to comply with what he proposed, 
but I pointed out that I was under the [ Dutch ] Company. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. Ill 

Thereupon he gave me a sealed document of appointment, 
These things I make known to you, and I ask for your pardon 
and forgiveness, for it is in you that I trust, for I regard you 
as my father in this world and the next, and I have in no wise 
acted against you or abandoned you. 

Further, Raffles has directed me to fcring to Singapore the 
women and children of my family, and I am now ordering 
Raja Shaban to take them there together with any property of 
mine. {The rest unimportant, M.S. illegible in places.) 



From the Dato' Bandahara of Pahang, 

To Tuan Raja TiMMERMAN Thyssen, Governor of 

Malacca. 
Dated the 8th Jamadelawal, 12J4. 



^h]6 ^jy^ u-i>U ^ ^/b ^ ^6j ^X. ^^^ 




112 NOTES AND QtEKIES. 

O^^ J^ o'^ ^^^ J'-^-^ Ob^'-^^ ^' </^ Sr^'L^ 

v:)'>»i>^ f «^ v'^^^*^^ ^X^ ^J u:^ jJi^ dLiU^ dlJ ^1 

5-^ «u^la-o JiX ^^,1^ ^U-el^ Ui>^ «^<^ <-^ ^'^^^ 

JU J^ ^1 a^ a^UsHO Ji;^ uolj ^ j^ d^y\j\ «:-i^ ^l^ 

«:^dbl^^^ ^^jUk ^?S l;ir^ vi2>'^'>l> S?^^ ^ J'^' 

Jji^ ^^^ ^6^ u:^ l;l^ ^^^ Ji^ ^y ^{^^ J^j] 

c^bl ijJ^l a^UnO ^a «:^l»^'^b ^1 ^J 

^U ^ a^ «HUi^ ^^^ «^ Jlyl ii^^ly ^gr a^ f ^ICo 
^b c^bl dL-jC.j ^Jl <^\k^ ^b c^ ix^ a^lft^ dL&>\e^ 

^\^ £iX^ Y^\i sa>^ "^ £j>j' v:>^JS>^ «-t*^ ^' s?^^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 113 

^a>J ^ ^^ 4^1 ^jy^ 'la*^ &t^ J'W/^ t^wL» «J^ 

._3i.xA^ ^jk «^ ^jij' t3^>^ ^ft^ ><*- >-> jy^ y^ ^^^ 

After Compliments. — Be it known unto our friend that we 
[hasten to] inform him on the subject of his letter, and 
of that of our relation the Yang-di-per-tuan Muda of Riau, 
which was addressed by him to our friend. Both letters 
reached us safely on the 4th of the second Rabia at eight 
o^clock. We received them with great pleasure and satisfac- 
tion, and read them both from beginning to end and under- 
stood their contents. 

We thank our friend heartily for giving us aathentic news 
as regards all that has passed in Riau. We have been struck 
with amazement at the dispensation of the Lord, the Creator 
of all the worlds, who has accomplished his divine will and 
decree in a way which is not comprehensible to us, parting 
brother from brother, father from son, and friend from friend. 

As for ourselves, by the aid of God most high and the bless- 
ing of the Prophet, we shall in no way depart from our en- 
gagement with our friend, that whoever is the friend of our 
master, the Raja of Johor, he alone is our friend. Let notour 
friend entertain any doubt or anxiety on this head. 

We have sent one of our people to Malacca to buy goods 
and would beg you to order him back to Pahang as soon as 
his business is completed, and if not inconvenient to you we 
should be glad of a large bottle of rose-water, which might be 
sent by him if there is time. We have nothing [ ///. no sign 
of life] to send with this letter save our salutations to our friend. 



114 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

87. SealsofJohor and Pahang in 1819,— From a histori- 
cal point of view, the inscriptions on the seals used respectively 
by the Tumunggong of Johor and the Bandahara of Pahang, 
in the foregoing correspondence, are worthy of notice. In 
1819, neither claimed more than to be al wakil al Sultan 
Mahmud Shah, " the agent of Sultan Mahmud/' in Johor and 
Pahang, respectively. Further, there was no claim to royal 
style or dignity. Each is described as Dato', the ordinary 
title of a Malay chief not of royal blood. Both seals bear the 
same date (A. H. 1221) and correspond closely one with the 
other ; it is, therefore, probable that they were simultaneously 
bestowed — one upon each of the chiefs, at the time of the 
accession of Sultan Mahmud Shah. As the present inheritors 
of the offices of Tumunggong and Bandahara respectively 
have now adopted the title of " Sultan, '^ (in the case of Johor 
with the authority of Her Majesty^s Government), a note to 
distinguish the new titles from the traditional Sultanships of 
the Peninsula may be of use to Malay students hereafter. It 
will be observed that the Dutch (Acting) Governor of Malacca 
is addressed as " Tuan Raja Muda '' and that Major Farquhar 
is spoken of as the '^ Raja of Malacca,'^ the title '^ Eaja,'^ n both 
instances, being given to European Governors by Malay Chiefs, 
who did not claim it for themselves on their seals. 

Ed. 



88 Date of the Foundation of Singapore. — His Excellency 

the Governor has forwarded to the Honorary Secretary, for 
publication, the following letter from Mr. R. Blanchard 
Raffles : — 

^^ I learn that it is the intention of the Governor of the 
Straits Settlemtnts to erect a statue on the Esplanade at 
Singapore to the memory of the late Sir Thomas Stamford 
Raffles ; and I trust that you will pardon me if, as a mem- 
ber of his family, I venture to warn you against the possible 



KOTES AND QUERIES. Il5 

reproduction on the pedestal of an error as to the date of the 
foundation of Singapore which has crept into many books^ 
owing to a misprint in Lady Rapfles's Memoir of her hus- 
band. For instance^ Colonel Yulb in his Glossary, '* Hobsox 
Jobson/' gives the date as February 23rd, 1819; but he has 
accepted without controversy, the correction which I now 
take the liberty of submitting to you. 

On p. 375 (Ed. 1830) of the Memoir mentioned above, the 
following passage occurs : — " Sir Stamford, determined to 
accomplish the duty entrusted to hira, proceeded in person 
down the Straits of Malacca, and in ten days after quitting 
Penang hoisted the British flag, on tha 29th of February^ 
1819, at Singapore, as he had anticipated upon leaving 
Bengal.^' 

In 1819 there could, of course, be no 29th February. The 
letter on the preceding page is dated " Penang, January 16th, 
1819^'.; and the next letter given after the passage quoted 
above is dated "Singapore, January 31st, 1819,'^ and an- 
nounces the occupation ' of the island. It is thus plain that 
in the sentence I have copied from the Memoir ''29th of 
January J 1819 '' should be read instead of " 29th of February ^ 
1819/' 

If the correction which I have ventured to send is super- 
fluous, I must apologise for laving troubled you unnecessarily 
by drawing your attention to a point in connection with which 
I have seen various errors.^^ 

[Mr. Raffles is no doubt right in his contention, and the Malay letters 
above printed, the Dutch translations of which are dated February 16th, 
1819, show clearly that the occupation of Singapore took place at a date 
earlier than tnat quoted by Lady Raffles. — Ed.] 



BIOGRAPHY. 

89. The Light Family. — Francis Light, the first Superin- 
tendent of Prince of "W'ales^ Island, who died in Penang, 
October 21st, 1794, left two sons, one of whom entered the 



Il6 NOtES AND QtERlES. 

Army, rose to the rank of Colonel, and died in Australia in 
1839. Colonel Light was appointed Surveyor-General, and 
fixed upon the site where the city of Adelaide now stands. 
On 28th December, 1836, just half a century after Francis 
Light had taken possession of Penang, Colonel Light forme I 
one of the party which, under Governor Hindmarsh, landed at 
Holdfast Bay. There, under a venerable gum tree, not far 
from tlie shore, in the presence of the Officers of Government 
assembled, the Orders in Council creating South Australia a 
British Colony were read. Light's other son was christened 
Francis Lanoon, he having been born at a time when Penan<( 
WPS being attacked by Lanoon pirates. After the taking 
of Java, he went to Minto as Resident, and there married a 
native w4io became a Christian. His son Robert Hollo, born 
in 1818, is now living in Perak. 

K. 

[In a Jetter published in "The Times'' of November 13th, 1875, a Lieut.- 
CoJonel George Palmer, who described himself as "one of the original 
" (^olonizr.tion Commissioners for foundinj]^ this colony (South Australia) 
" jjnd a jicisonail friend of the late Colonel Light " g!»ve a sketch of the 
service s of the latt<^r. It is possibly more correct than the old fable (re- 
^UKcitate(l in this letter) of Captain Light's marriage with a Kedah Princess 
who broujrht him Pennng as a dowry I • According' to Colonel Palmer, 
Colonel Light was (.riginally in the Knyal Navy, which service he left to join 
the staff of the Duke of WELLINGTON, with whom he remained as "a confideutial 
-Aide de Camp" until after Wat erho. Colonel Light then went back to his 
old pr( fcBsion, and commanded a line of battleship for the Pasha of Egypt. 
This position he gave up at the Duke's suggestion to go out to Australia (in 
jVJay, IboG), as Surveyor-General of South Australia. — Ed.] 



MEDICINE. 



90. Senna. — As an example of tlie present slate of medi- 
cal science amonp^ the Malays, the following translation of 
insti uctions for the use of a well-lnown drug may be of 
intcicst. It \m11 be seen that it cures as many diseases as 
some of the patent pills of modern advertisements. The men- 



XOTES AND QUERIES. lit 

tion of grapes, dates and pomegranates as ingredients may 
shew that the Malay prescription is itself a translation from 
Indian or Arabic sources : — 

'^ This is designed to explain the virtues of the Senna of 
Mecca {daun sana-makki), which is famous among all doctors 
of great experience. 

• First. Take some senna leaves wnth their stalks and bark, 
pound the whole up fine and then weigh out a quantity as 
heavy as. three Java duits. Let this be mixed with honey. 
If this is swallowed, its properties are to cause all diseases of 
the'ch^t to disappear. 

Second, Mix the senna leaves with moist sugar. If this 
ds taken 'internally, the effect is to expel cold from the body 
and to give strength to the organs. 

Third, Mix the senna leaves with sugar candy. This gives 
strength to the bones. 

lourth. Mix the senna leaves with clarified butter and 
moist sugar. If this is taken for three days, it will get rid 
of air bad humours in the body and will give health. 

Fifth, Mix the senna leaves with fresh butter to which no 
salt has yet been added. The properties of this mixture arc 
to cure headaches and to cleanse the brain and to remove any 
bad taste in the mouth. 

Sixth, Mix the senna leaves with curds. This mixture 
operates as an antidote to poison and prevents evil con- 
sequences from it. 

Seventh, If senna be taken with goat's milk, it will cause 
an accession of strength, though complete weakness existed 
just before.' 

Eighth, If senna be taken with dates, everything offensive 
is removed from the mouth and the body is made healthy, and 
a good appetite is established. 

Ninth, If senna be taken with pomegranates, the body 
becomes strong, and though the patient may be old, nevertlie- 
Icss there is an addition of strength, and the organs of the 
chest are cleansed, and the appetites are stimulated. 

Tenth. If senna be taken with grapes, it gives light to the 
eyes which were dim. This is proved by experience. 



Il8 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Eleventh, If senna be drunk with vinegar, it cures fever 
accompanied by shivering and trembling of the bones, and 
expels all mischief from the stomachy and cleanses the organs 
of the chest. 

Twelfth, If senna leaves be taken with orange-juice, all 
internal heat is removed, and a man who was before quite 
thin will speedily grow fat. 

Thirteenth. If senna is drunk with dew, the eves become 
bright and clear. 

Fourteenth, If senna is taken in water in which pome- 
granate peel has been boiled, it cures dysentery.- 

Fifteenth, If senna is boiled with cocoa-nut water and 
taken internally, it will cure diabetes and gravel, by the will 
of God ever to be praised and Most High.^' 

Thus the properties of the Senna of Mecca are concluded, 
under fifteen headings. 

Ed. 



SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

91 . Panjat. — The word panjat in Malay means literally " to 
climb/^ but it is used in Perak, and perhaps in other Malay 
States, to signify a forcible entry into a house for the purpose 
of securing as a wife a woman whom her relations have already 
refused to the intruder. This high-handed proceqding is re- 
cognised by Malay custom, and is regulated by certain well- 
known rules. 

Panjat is of two kinds — paniat angkara and panjat ^adat, 
entry by violence and entry by custom. In the first case, the 
man makes his way into the house armed with his kris or other 
weapon, and entering the women^s apartment, or posting himself 
at the door, secures the person of his intended bride, or pre- 
vents her escape. He runs the risk of being killed on the spot 
by the girPs relations, and his safety depends upon his reputa- 
tion for courage and strength, and upon the number of his 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 119 

friends and the influence of his family. A wooer who adopts 
this violent method of compelling the assent of unwilling 
relations to his marriage to one of their kin must, say the 
Malays, have three qualifications, 

f ka-rapat-an baniUk, 

wang-nia ber-lebih, 
Jantan-nia ber-lebih , 

'^ a strong party to back him, plenty of money, and no lack 
of bravery." 

Plenty of money is necessary, because by accepted custom, 
if the relations yield and give their consent, all the customary 
payments are doubled ; the fine for the trespass, which would 
ordinarily be twenty- five dollars, becomes fifty dollars; the dower 
is likewise doubled, and the usual present of clothes (salin) 
must consist of two of each of the three garments {salendang, 
haju, kain), instead of one as usual. The fine iorpanjat angkara 
may be of any amount, according to the pleasure of the woman's 
relations, and they fix it high or low according to the man's 
position. I have heard of one case in Perak where the fine 
^ was five hundred dollars, and another in which the suitor, to 
obtain his bride, had to pay one thousand seven hundred and 
fifty dollars, namely, one thousand two hundred and fifty 
dollars as a fine, and five hundred dollars for the marriage 
expenses. But in this case the girl was already betrothed to 
another, and one thousand dollars, out of the fine, went to the 
disappointed rival. 

Sometimes the relations hold out, or the man for want of 
one of the three qualifications mentioned above has to beat an 
ignominious retreat. In the reign of Sultan Ali, one Mat 
Taib, a budak raja, or personal attendant on the Sultan, as'ked 
for Wan D^na, the daughter of the Bandahara of Kedah (she 
then being at Kota Lama in Perak) in marriage. Being re- 
fused he forced his way into the house and seizing the girl by 
her long hair drew his kris and defied everybody. No one 
dared to interfere by force, for the man if attacked would have 
driven his kris into the girPs body. This state of things is 
said to have lasted three days and three nights during which 



120 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

the man neither ate nor slept. Eventually he was drugged by 
an old woman from whom he accepted some food or water and 
when he fell asleep the girl was released from his grasp and 
taken to the Sultanas palace where she was married off straight- 
way to one Mat Arshad. Mat Taib had his revenge, for 
within a year he amoked at Bandar where Mat Arshad lived, 
killing the latter and wounding Wan DfiNA. 

Panjat ^adat is a less lawless proceeding. A man who is in 
love with a girl, the consent of whose parents or relations he 
cannot obtain, sends his kris to their house with a message to 
the effect that he is ready with the dower, presents, etc., doubled 
according to custom and that he is ready to make good any 
demands they may make. 

Mata daching mata kati di-tolok'ti 
Chupak gantang di-penoh-ti. 

The kris is symbolical of the violent entry, which in this case 
is dispensed with. If the girl's guardians are still obdurate, 
they send back the kiis, but with it they must send double the 
amount of the dower offered by the man. 

Ed. 

92. Influence of the Breath in healing.— In Notes and 

Queries No. 1^ p. 24. a Malay bomor, or doctor, is described as 
blowing upon something to be used as medicine. Breathing 
upon sick persons and upon food, water, medicines, etc., to 
be administered to them is a common ceremony among Malay 
doctors and mid wives. The following note would seem to shew 
that' the Malays have learnt it from their Muhammadan 
teachers : — 

Healing by the breath [Arab. ^^ NafahaV^ breathings, 
benefits, the Heb. Neshamah, opp. to Nephest {^ovl) 2JiARuach 
(spirit) ] is a popular idea throughout the East and not unknown 
to Western magnetists and mesmerists. The miraculous cures 
of the Messiah were, according to Moslems, mostly performed 
by aspiration. They hold that in the days of Isa physic 
had reached its highest development, and that his miracles 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 121 

were mostly miracles of medicine ; whereas in Mohammed^s 
time, eloquence had attained its climax^ and accordingly his 
miracles were those of eloquence, as shewn in the Koran 
and Ahddis." — The Booh of the Thousand Nights and a Nighty 
Burton, V, 30. 

G. H. 



4fc 
•9f 



93, Modes of carrjring loads. — ^Notes are invited on the 
diflPerent modes of carrying loads, in baskets on the back, in 
use among Eastern peoples. The Malays of the Peninsula do 
not apparently use such baskets, but the Sumatran tribes do, 
also the aborigines of the Peninsula and the Dayaks of Borneo. 
Accurate descriptions of the baskets (called amhong, jangki, 
solely jaraSy etc., by the Malays) and the modes of fastening 
them would be of ethnographical interest. Gtill saw (at Shih- 
ku, Yunnan) men and women carrying loads in baskets sup- 
ported on the back and fastened to a wooden collar. — River 
of Golden Sand, II, 275. 

Ed. 



FOLK-LORE. 

94. The Raja of the Bamboo. — Some years ago, I collected 
a number of legends current among Malayan tribes having as 
their principal incident the supernatural development of a 
prince, princess, or demi-god in the stem of a bamboo, or tree, 
or the interior of some closed receptacle.* I omittel, how- 

* Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N. S., XIII, Part 17. 



122 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

ever, to mention that this very characteristic Malay myth 
occurs in the ^* Sri Rama/^ a Malay prose hikayat, which, as 
its name betokens, professes to describe the adventures of the 
hero of the R&m&yana. 

RooRDA VAN Eysinga's edition of the Sri Rama opens with 
an account of how Maharaja Dasaratha sent his Chief Mantri, 
PusPA Java Karma, to search for a suitable place at which 
to found a settlement. The site having been found and cleared, 
the narrative proceeds as follows : — 

" Now there was a clump of the betong bamboo (saWumpun 
buluh betong), the colour of which was like gold of ten touch 
famas sapuloh mutuj, and its leaves like silver. All the trees 
which grew near bent in its direction and it looked like a state 
umbrella (payong manuwangi). The Mantri and people 
chopped at it, but as fast as they cut down a branch on one 
side a fresh one shot forth on the other, to the great astonish- 
ment of all the Rajas, Mantris and warriors. Puspa Vikrama 
Jaya hastened back to King Dasaratha and laid the matter 
before him. The latter was greatly surprised, and declared 
that he would go 4iimself the next day and see the bamboo 
cut down. Next day he set out on a white elephant attended 
by a splendid train of chiefs and followers, and on reaching the 
spot ordered the bamboo clump to be cut down. Vikrama 
Puspa Java pointed it out shaded by the other forest trees. 
The king perceived that it was of very elegant appearance, 
and that an odour like spices and musk proceeded from it. 
He told Puspa Jaya Vikrama to cut it down, and the latter 
drew his sword, which was as big as the stem of a cocoa-nut 
tree, and with one stroke cut down one of the bamboos. But 
immediately a fresh stem shot forth on the other side and this 
happened as often as a stroke was given. Then the king 
grew wrath, and getting down from his elephant he drew his 
own sword and made a cut with it at the bamboo, which severed a 
stem. Then, by the divine decree of the Dewatas, the king 
became aware of a female form in the bamboo clump seated 
on a highly ornamented platform {geta), her face shining 
like the full moon when it is fourteen days old, and the colour 
of her body being like gold of ten touch. On this, king 



NOTES AND QUERIES. l23 

Dasaratha quickly unloosed his girdle and saluted the prin- 
cess. Then he lifted her on to his elephant and took her t o 
his palace escorted by music and singing.'^ 

[ BooBDA VAN Eysinga's text of the " Sri Rama " was taken from a Mb. 
in parts iUegible. De Hollander, speaking of this edition, says that 
there exist divers Malay recensions of the " Sri Rama," all in prose. Ex- 
tracts from a copy of this work are to be found in Marsden*s Malay Grammar. 
They shew that his copy differed from that of Roorda. 

The main feature of the same legend occurs in a Japanese story called 
Momotaro or Li\}tle Peachling from which I extract the following : — 
"A long long time ago there lived an old man and an old woman. One day 
the old man went to the mountains to cut grass, and the old woman went to 
the river to wash clothes. While she was washing a great big thing came 
tumbling and splashing down the stream. When the old woman saw it she 
was very glad and pulled it to her with a piece of bamboo that lay near by. 
When she took it up and looked at it she saw that it was a very large peach. 
She then quickly finished her washing and returned home intending to give 
the peach to her old man to eat. When she cut the peach in two out came a 
child from the large kernel. Seeing this the old couple rejoiced and named 
the child Momotaro or Little Peachling because he came out of a peach. As 
both the old people took care of him he grew and became strong and 
enterprising." 

Ed.] 

95. The Crocodile. — In Perak the following name^i are given 
to the teeth of the crocodile. 

The front teeth, ... ... kail seluang. 

The middle teeth, ... ... apa data. 

The back teeth, ... ... charik kapan. 

The ^ kail seluang ' is a small fish-hook which is used with- 
out a bail for catching the ' seldang ' a small fish rather larger 
than a sardine, a fish it somewhat resembles. Men, seizod by 
these teeth only, have, so say the natives, a fair chance of 
escape. 

* Apa ddia ' may be translated what power ? i. e. " How can 
I '' ? A man seized by these teeth, though escape is said to 
be still possible, has very little chance. 

' Charik kapan' may be translated ^^ tear off (a strip of white 
cloth for) the shroud. " All's up. 



124 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

96. Ceremonies when shooting rapids. — In No. 9 of this 

Journal, p. 26, mention is made ot the propitiation of the 
spirits of the stream with offerings of rice and leaves by a 
passenger on board a raft, when shooting the rapids on a river 
in the Malay Peninsula. The same custom has been noticed 
in China. See Gnx's description of the " pilots of the rapid^^ 
in The River of Golden Sandy I, 218; he says, "Another 
method of softening the stony hearts of these ferocious deities 
is to sprinkle rice on the stream all through the rapid. This 
is a rite that should not be omitted.'^ 

En. 



DEMONOLOGY. 

97. Mantra. — Mention has frequently been made in the 
Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, of 
the incantations employed by Malay paicangs in summoning, 
propitiating or threatening evil spirits. The following speci- 
men (from Perak) is particularly rich in curious nomenclature. 
Hindu and Muhammadan influences are severally traceable, no 
want of fitness in the confusion of names and ideas being 
perceived by the Malay mind. It is an incantation called 
. arak-arak jin aa'rihu, or the procession of the thousand spirits. 
It is the first formula used by a jpawang when commencing 
an important series of operations : — 
Bi-smi-Udhi-r-rahmdni-r-rahim 
Hei ! Jin Allah akan kata-ku 
Kata hak yang sa-benar-nia 
Hei ! Janu, jin janu, jin pari, jin aruah, 
Jin nianusia, jin bahdi, jin pela, jin pedaka 
Jin jembalang, jiu berauang, jin ebni jana, 




not£s and queries. 125 

Aku tahu asal mula-mu jadi 

Imam Jamala nama bapa-mu 

Siti Indra Sendari nama mak-mu 

Rubiah Jamin nama datoh-mu 

Hakim Liar Suri nama moyang-mu 

Chichit Malim di hutan 

Piyat Berangga Sakti di belukar 

Siah Badala di rimba 

Siah Rimba di langit 

Sri Jambalang Makar Alam (iya yang di-sru sakarang 

Tungku Malim ka-raja-an) di bumi 
Sang Berangga Bumi (iya yang di-sru sakarang Tungku 

Setia Guna) yang ber-tegak di pintu bumi di Bukit 

Kaf. 
Bantara Alam di awan-awan 
Sang Rangga Buana di angin 
Berangga Kala di gunong 
Tambar Boga di bukit 
Langgi Tambar Boga di pangsa tanah 
Berangga Kala di barat 
Sang Begor (iya-lah Nasahi) di timor 
Sang Degor (iya-lah Nasahu) di utara 
Sang Rangga Gampita (iya-lah Nasahah) di selatan 
Sang Rangga Gambira (iya-lah Nasahud) di tanah datar 
Apa-apa Sipar Tapa di tanah lepan 
Astara Pancha-mahbota di tanah dSrut 
Jamshid di tanjong 

Sangka Kala D^gor di pangkal tanjong 
Anei-anei Siku Tanei di ujong tanjong 
Anin-anin Siku Tanin di busut 
Si-Kuda Belang di jerulong 
Si-Bedut di mata ayer 
Sang Kabut Lela di p^rigi buta 
Saner Lela Ma-indra Fanchalogam di tras 
Shah Gardan di padang 
Changhong di gaung 
Sanor Rangga Berhala di tanah ruab 
Rakshasa Sang Grahab di tanah busong 



126 KOTES AND QUERIES. 

Sangka Raksbasa di ^uha 

Sang Begor Indra di teluk 

Purba Kala di permatang 

Sri Permatang .di lurab 

Dalik Bani di dani 

Sri Danglit di batu 

Jin Pari di kayu 

Jin Bota Sri di umab 

Eangga Kala di bendang 

Sangka Kala di danau 

Dangga Rahab di paya 

Sang Lela Chandra di ayer 

Misei di arus di ayer mati 

Sangka Pana di laut 

Mambang Indra Gampita Simun Bangkana di tasek 

Sang Begor Indra di arus 

Sri Gemuntar di tasek 

Sri Jala di pulau 

Sri Gantala di kuala sungei 

Jiji Azbar Jiji Dang Siti Udara Salam di sungei 

Mezat di dusun 

Simun di dalam kampong 

Adas di rumah 

Sang Lela di dalam manusia 

Al kanas rub bewani nama niawa-mu 

Gardam-gardin kapada tampat-mu diam 

Nabi Kayani nama Penghulu-mu 

Aku jangan angkau pechat-i. 

Ed. 



98. Belief in Spirits and Demons. — Abdullah bin Abdul 
Kadir^ Munsbi, in his Autobiography, has an interesting pas- 
sage on the beliefs of the Malays on the subject of spirits and 
demons, beliefs 'which are much more deeply-rooted than is 
generally supposed. He does not, however, diflFerentiate be- 
tween national customs and beliefs, and those which haye 



128 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

Chinese Gleaner/' And I said '^ Sir^ listen to the account of 
the penanggalan. It was originally a woman. She used the 
magic arts of a devil in whom she believed, and she devoted 
herself to his service night and day until the period of her 
agreement with her teacher had expired and she was able to 
fly. Her head and neck were then loosened from the body, the 
intestines being attached to them and hanging down in strings. 
The body remained where it was. Wherever the person whom 
it was wished to injure happened to live thither flew the head 
and bowels to suck his blood, and the person whose blood was 
sucked was sure to die. If the blood and water which dripped 
from the intestines touched any person, serious illness im- 
mediately followed and his body broke out in open sores. The 
penanggalan likes to suck the blood of women in child-birth. 
For this reason it is customary at all houses where a birth 
occurs to hang up jeruju ^ leaves at the doors and windows or 
to place thorns wherever there is any blood lest the penanggalan 
should come and suck it, for the penanggalan has, it seems, a 
dread of thorns in which her intestines may happen to get 
caught. It is said that a penanggalan once came to a man's 
house in the middle of the night to suck his blood and her 
intestines were caught in some thorns near the hedge and she 
had to remain there until day-light when the people saw and 
kiUed her.'' 

^^ The person who has the power of becoming a penanggalan 
always keeps at her house a quantity of vinegar in a jar or vessel 
of some kind. The use of this is to soak the intestines in, for 
when they issue forth from the body they immediately swell 
up and cannot be .put back, but after being soaked in vinegar 
they shrink to their former size and enter the body again. 
There are many people who have seen the penanggalan flying 
along with its entrails dangling down and shining at night 
like fire-flies.'' 

*' Such is the story of the penanggalan as I have heard it 



* A kind of thistle. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 129 

from my fore-fathers but I do not believe it in the least. God 
forbid that I should/' * 

" The origin of the polong is this. The blood of a murdered 
man must be taken and placed in a bottle [bulUbuli, a bottle 
having a spherical or vide body and a long, narrow neck). 
Then prayers are said over it, and something or other is read, I 
don't know what but it has to be learnt. After seven days of 
this worship, according to some people, or after twice seven 
* days according to others, a sound is heard in the bottle like 
the chirping of young birds. The operator then cuts his 
finger and inserts it into the bottle and the polong sucks it. 
The person who thus supports the polong is called his father^ 
or^ if it happens to be a woman, she is his mother. Every day 
the parent feeds it with his (or her) blood. The object of 
4ping this and the advantage to be gained from it are these — if 
he entertains a feeling of anger against any one, he orders the 
polong to go and afflict him, that is to say, to cause him pain or 
sickness; or if a third person is at enmity with another he goes 
in secret to the person who keeps the polong and gives him a 
sum of money to send ihQ polong to attack the 'person against 
whom he bears ill-will. This is the use of it. The person 
who is tormented by the polong , whether a virgin or a married 
woman or a man, cries out and loses consciousness of what he 
(or she) is doing and tears and throws ofP his (or her) clothing 
biting and striking the people near^ blind and deaf to every- 
thing, and does all sorts of other things. Wise men are called 
in to prescribe remedies ; some come and chant formulas over 
the head of the patient, others pinch his thumb and apply 
medicines to it. When a remedy is successful, the sick 
person cries out ^* Let me go, I want to go home." The doctor 

•The Karens of Burma hold a similar belief: — "The Na ov 
KephoOf as it is sometimes called, is, according to one myth, said 
to be a horrid vampire which sallies forth at night in the repul- 
sive form of a human head and entrails, seeking whom it may 
devour. A person possessed of a iVa, imder tbe strange hallucinn- 
tion that human beings are rats, dogs, pigs, or other animals fit 
for human food, is supposed incontinently to devour them.'* — 
I McMahon, Earehs, p. 151. 



130 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

replies ** I will not let you go if you do not make known who 
it is that has sent you here and why you have come and who 
are your father and mother/' Sometimes* he {the polong in the 
patient) remains silent and will not confess or give the names 
of his parents ; sometimes he confesses and says " Let me go, 
my father is such-a-one and lives at such-and-such a kampong 
and my mother is so-and-so. The reason that I have come 
here is that such-a-one came to my parents and asked for their 
aid and gave them a sum of money because he bore ill-will 
against this person (or whatever the reason may have been)." 
Sometimes he makes a false statement and mentions entirely 
wrong persons in order to conceal the names of his patients. 
As soon as the people know the name of the person who has 
contrived the attack and the reasons, they let him go, and the 
sick person at once recovers his consciousness, but he is left 
weak and feeble. AVhen a polong attacks a person and wMl 
confess iiothinjjf, the person who is attacked shrieks and yells 
in anger and after a day or two he dies. After death, blood 
pours forth bubbling [ber-kopak-kopak) from, the mouth and 
the whole body is blue with bruises. [HikaT/at Abdullah, 
p. 143.] 

Ed. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 
99. Land Revenue System, China.—'' AH the houses, shops, 

and halls, pay a ground rent to the general Government, depend- 
ing on their size and value, but no data are available for com- 
paring the tax with that levied in western cities. The Govern- 
ment furnishes the owner of the ground with a hung ki, or red 
deed, in testimony of his right to occu])ancy, which puts him 
in perpetual possession as long as he pays the taxes. '^ 

'^ Houses are rented on short leases, and the rent collected 



r 

I 



> 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 131 

quarterly in advance ; the annual income from real estate is 
between nine and twelve per cent. The yearly rent of the 
best sliops in Canton is from $150to$|^O0; there is no sys- 
tem of insuring buildings, which, with the Municipal taxes 
and the difficulty of collecting bad rents, enhances their 
price/' The Middle Kinffdom— Williams, II, 18. 

'* The Land Tax, — When waste shore lands [ jj^Qf ] are re- 
claimed [4|£]> the cultivator is usually allowed to reap the 

free benent of his labour for five years before the land is made 
taxable [ 4t£|« ] • Arrears are seldom claimed for more than 

one year, as there are always witnesses ready to declare that 
the year of official discovery is only the fifth or sixth year. 
The highest land-tax is collected in Kiang-nan, where it runs 
as high as 3 mace 6 candareens the mow, or say 10 shillings 
t\te aero. The lowest taxation seldom falls below 1 mace and 
a few candareens the mot^. Lands are classed as of best, worst, 
and middling quality, and are taxed accordingly'; but no 
alteration in the quality of the land afibcts the taxation, which, 
as we have pointed out elsewhere, has been immutable since 
the reign of E'ang Hi. When reclamed land is made taxable 
there is a lump sum charged for registration [ ijrflB*]. The 

proper and legal charge for land-transfers is 3 per cent., but 
6 per cent, is usually charged. This 3 per cent, is duetotho 

Provincial Treasurer, who issues slips [ ^ M ] to be attached 

to each newly-registered deed. The fixed official charge for 
these stamps is about 7 piace, but one dollar is the usual charge 
in Canton. As a rule, no one registers a land-transfer until 
the Magistrate is about to leave his post, when he reduces his 
fees to the lowest amount compatible with profit to himself/' 
China Review, p. 352. 



^f 4fr 



132 NOTES AND QUERIES. 

100. The Indian Notes and Queries. — This successor of 

the '^ Panjab Notes and Queries^' is to make its appearance 
in October next, 1866. The plan of the periodical will be 
practically the same as the '^Panjab Notes and Queries '^ ; 
but with the help of various scholars, all India and the Far 
East will be included in the scope of its operations. It will 
contain Notes from Aden, Afghanistan, Bombay, Burma, 
Central Provinces, Ceylon, Chamba, China, Gujerat, Java, 
Korea, Eumaun, Madras, Manipur, Nepal, North- West Pro- 
vinces, Oudh, Panjab, Bajputana, Shansi, Sikkim, Sindh and 
Singapore. — Trubner^s Record, 



[The publication of this serieB of Notes and Queries, in connectipn with the 
Journal of the Straite Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, will now cease, 
but the Honorary Secretary hopes that Members of tibe Society and othen 
will still continue to send him notes for publication in '* Indian Notes and 
Queries/* edited by Captain Temple. 

Ed.]