1 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N.S. vol. xiii. part iv. Cp. also the note to page 8 supra, in which the Golden Dragon is made to say, “I have neither father nor mother, but I was incarnated from the hollow part of a bamboo.” See also J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 91. ↑
3 Mantri; i.e. “Minister of State.” ↑
5 Manuwangi; perhaps a mistake for manuwanggi, cp. bĕraduwanggi, infra. ↑
6 J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17. Notes and Queries, No. 4, sec. 94. ↑
7 Sĕmangs are aboriginal non-Muhammadan inhabitants of the interior of the Peninsula. Their type approximates to that of the Negritos of the Andaman Islands and the Philippines, but the one referred to in this legend had white blood, which is considered by Malays to be the royal colour. ↑
8 Teh, short for Puteh, “white”; Pûrba, or Pûrva, Sanskrit “first.” This name is also given to the first Malay Raja in the Sajarah Malayu. ↑
9 J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, pp. 90, 91. For a similar story vide Leyden’s Malay Annals, p. 29: “It happened on a certain day that the river of Palembang brought down a foam-bell of uncommon size, in which appeared a young girl of extreme beauty.” She was adopted by the Raja, and “named Putri Tunjong Bui, or the Princess Foam-bell.” ↑
10 It is Gabriel who performs this office in the account which follows. ↑
11 “Concerning the creation of Adam, here intimated, the Mohammedans have several peculiar traditions. They say the angels Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil were sent by God, one after another, to fetch for that purpose seven handfuls of earth from different depths, and of different colours (whence some account for the various complexions of mankind); but the Earth being apprehensive of the consequence, and desiring them to represent her fear to God that the creature He designed to form would rebel against Him, and draw down His curse upon her, they returned without performing God’s command; whereupon He sent Azrael on the same errand, who executed his commission without remorse, for which reason God appointed that angel to separate the souls from the bodies, being therefore called the angel of death. The earth he had taken was carried into Arabia, to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where, being first kneaded by the angels, it was afterwards fashioned by God himself into a human form, and left to dry for the space of forty days, or, as others say, as many years, the angels in the meantime often visiting it, and Eblis (then one of the angels who are nearest to God’s presence, afterwards the devil) among the rest; but he, not contented with looking on it, kicked it with his foot till it rung, and knowing God designed that creature to be his superior, took a secret resolution never to acknowledge him as such. After this God animated the figure of clay and endued it with an intelligent soul, and when He had placed him in paradise, formed Eve out of his left side.”—Sale’s Korân, ch. ii. (of translation), p. 4 (note). ↑
12 “The Creator determined to make man, and for that purpose He took some clay from the earth and fashioned it into the figure of a man. Then He took the Spirit of Life to endue this body with vitality, and placed the spirit on the head of the figure. But the spirit was strong, and the body, being only clay, could not hold it, and was reft in pieces and scattered into the air. Those fragments of the first great Failure are the spirits of earth and sea and air.
“The Creator then formed another clay figure, but into this one He wrought some iron, so that when it received the vital spark it withstood the strain and became Man. That man was Adam, and the iron that is in the constitution of his descendants has stood them in good stead. When they lose it they become of little more account than their prototype the first failure.”—Swettenham, Malay Sketches, p. 199. ↑
13 Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 351, 352. In Selangor, some of the greater bones, at least, have their own mystic nomenclature, e.g. the backbone, which is called tiang ʿarash, or the “Pillar of the Heavens.” ↑
14 Of the superstition which forbids the imitation of the royal insignia I can speak personally, as when a set of models of the Selangor regalia were being made for me, with the late Sultan’s full permission and knowledge, I found it impossible to get them made really like the originals either in shape or size, the makers alleging their fear of being struck dead in spite of this permission by this Divine Power or “Daulat” if they were to imitate them too accurately. In Perak the custom would appear to be less strict. Thus from Malay Sketches (p. 215) we may gather that in the “silver” state even the most sacred pieces of the regalia accompany the royal party upon their annual expedition to seek for turtles’ eggs. ↑
15 “The kabesaran or regalia of every petty state is supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers, for instance that of the ex-Panghulu of Naning.”—Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 193. ↑
18 Leyden, Malay Annals, pp. 22–23. The words in brackets are mine.—W. S. ↑
19 Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 199; cp. Leyden, Mal. Annals, pp. 38, 39. Limbuara, limbuana, or sĕmbuana (= singhabuana) is the name given to the lance of the Spectre Huntsman, (vide Chap. V. p. 118), whose k’ris is called salĕngkisa. It has been suggested that singhabuana may be composed of two Sanskrit words meaning “lion” and “world,” but put in the Malay order, which is the opposite of Sanskrit. If this supposition is accepted, the name would mean “lion of the world,” vide App. xxviii.–xxx. ↑
20 J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, pp. 91, 92. ↑
21 It would appear from Malay romances that the full complement of musical instruments forming part of a royal orchestra was, at all events sometimes, twelve. Thus when S’ri Rama is bidden by the astrologers to get up an expedition by water for the amusement of his Princess, “dresses of honour were given to the attendants, and musical instruments of the twelve kinds were got together.”—Maxw., in Sri Rama, J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17, p. 93. ↑
22 This list was given me by H. H. Raja Bôt of Selangor. Besides the above there are several royal “properties” not usually included in any list of regalia. These are H. H.’s chain jacket (baju rantei); a species of shield or targe, said to be made of brass, and called otar-otar; H. H.’s seal, and possibly his mat and the dish he ate from. One of the tombak belonging to H. H. was a species of trident, and was called tombak bĕrchĕranggah or the “Branching Lance.” The ordinary lances might be borrowed by the people, and carried, for example, in the procession escorting a bridegroom (by virtue of his supposed “one day’s sovereignty,” Raja sa-hari) to the house of his bride, but the trident never. ↑
23 “All the insignia of royalty were hastily fashioned by the goldsmiths of Pĕnjum, and whenever To’ Râja or Wan Bong appeared in public they were accompanied by pages bearing betel-boxes, swords, and silken umbrellas, as in the manner of Malay kings.”—Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 115. ↑
24 Maxw. in Raja Donan, J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 18, p. 253. ↑
“Ta’ lapok de’ hujan,
Ta’ lĕkang de’ panas,
Pĕsaka di toras (? turis) di-tĕladan,
Pĕsaka di-lintas tumbang.”
26 It is usually upon a portion of his insignia (as, for instance, his k’ris, which is dipped into water which he drinks) that a Malay sovereign swears his most solemn oath. Sometimes, however, it is upon a lump of iron called bĕsi kawi, which not unfrequently forms part of the regalia as well.—Vide Klink. s.v. Bĕsi. ↑
27 The following recital of the titles of a Sumatran Raja will show at least the extraordinary pretensions to sanctity which to this day (with, in some parts, no great diminution) hedge about the person of the Malay king:—
“The Sultan of Menangcabow, whose residence is at Pagarooyoong (after pardon asked for presuming to mention his name), who is king of kings, son of Raja Iscunder-zulcarnainny, ... master of the third of the wood maccummat, one of whose properties is to enable matter to fly; of the lance ornamented with the beard of Jangee, of the palace of the city of Rome; ... of the gold of twelve grains named coodarat coodarattee, resembling a man; ... who is possessed of the sword named Chooree-se-mendong-geree, which has an hundred and ninety gaps, made in the conflict with the arch-devil, Se Cattee-moono, whom it slew; who is master of fresh water in the ocean, to the extent of a day’s sailing; possessed of a lance formed of a twig of ejoo (the gomuti, or sugar-palm); of a calewang (scimitar) wrapped in an unmade chinday (cloth); of a creese (dagger) formed of the soul of steel, which, by a noise, expresses an unwillingness at being sheathed, and shows itself pleased when drawn; of a date coeval with the creation; possessed of a gun brought from heaven, named soubahana hou ouatanalla; of a horse of the race of sorimbor-ahnee, superior to all others; Sultan of the Burning Mountain, and of the mountains goontang-goontang, which divide Palembang and Jambee; who may slay at pleasure without being guilty of a crime; who is possessed of the elephant named settee dewa; who is Vicegerent of Heaven; Sultan of the Golden River; Lord of the Air and Clouds; master of a balli (Audience-Hall), whose pillars are of the shrub jelattang; of gandangs (drums) made of hollowed branches of the minute shrubs pooloot and seelosooree; of the gong that resounds to the skies; of the buffalo named Se Binnooang Sattee, whose horns are ten feet asunder; of the unconquered cock, Sengonannee; of the cocoa-nut tree whose amazing height, and being infested with serpents and other noxious reptiles, render it impossible to be climbed; of the flower named seeree menjeree, of ambrosial scent; who, when he goes to sleep, wakes not till the gandang nobat (state drum) sounds; one of whose eyes is as the sun and the other as the moon.”—Marsden, Hist. of Sum. p. 270.
On the foregoing list I should like to remark (1) that the necessity of asking pardon for mentioning the king’s name is considered by the Peninsular Malays to be as imperative as ever. (2) The expression “who is master of fresh water in the ocean” is explained by a passage in Leyden’s Malay Annals (p. 37), where, all the fresh water being exhausted, “Raja Sang Sapurba directed them to bring rotans and tie them in circles and throw them in the water; then having himself descended into a small boat, he inserted his feet into the water, within the circles of bamboo (sic), and by the Power of God Almighty and the virtue of a descendant of Raja Secander Zulkarneini, the water within these circles became fresh, and all the crews supplied themselves with it, and unto this day the fresh water is mixed with the salt at this place.” (3) The horse, which is usually called “Sĕmbrani,” is a magic steed, “which could fly through the air as well as swim through the water” (Leyd., Mal. Ann. p. 17). (4) For the mountains Goontang-goontang (or Saguntang Mahamiru), cp. Leyden’s Mal. Ann. p. 20 seqq. (5) The privilege of “slaying at pleasure without being guilty of a crime” is a privilege which still belongs to Malay sovereigns of the first rank.
Similar sacred objects, belonging to another Sultan of “Menangcabow” named “Gaggar Allum”(GegarʿAlam), “were a sacred crown from God”; “the cloth sansistah kallah, which weaves itself, and adds one thread yearly of fine pearls, and when that cloth shall be finished the world will be no more”; “the dagger Hangin Cinga (Singa?) which will, at his command, fight of itself”; “the blue champaka flower, which is to be found in no country but his (being yellow elsewhere),” and many others worthy of the Sultan “whose presence bringeth death to all who attempt to approach him without permission,” and of the “Sultan of Indrapore, who has four breasts.”—Marsden, Hist. of Sum. p. 272. ↑
28 I.e. purple, vide Klinkert, s.v.; cf. the following from J.R.A.S., S.B., No. No. 9 , p. 93: “Tan Saban was frequently to be seen on the outworks of his fort across the river, dressed in garments of conspicuous colours. In the morning he wore red, at mid-day yellow, and in the evening his clothes were green. When he was pointed out to Magat Terawis, it was the morning, and he was dressed in red.”
The foregoing superstitious observance is found among more than one Indo-Chinese nation. “Le général en chef doit se conformer à plusieurs coutumes et observances superstitieuses; par exemple, il faut qu’il mette une robe de couleur différente pour chaque jour de la semaine; le dimanche il s’habille en blanc, le lundi en jaune, le mardi en vert, le mercredi en rouge, le jeudi en bleu, le vendredi en noir, et le samedi en violet.”—Pallegoix, Description de Siam, vol. i. p. 319. ↑
30 The usual form is pĕnggonggong, from gonggong, to carry in the mouth. ↑
31 Their Malay names are “Si-mulajadi,” “Ashik sa-kampong,” “Si-putar leman,” “Asam garam,” “Ahadan mabuk,” “Sa-palit gila” “Sri gĕgah,” and “Doa unus.”—J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17, pp. 94–97. ↑
32 The Malay word is changgei, which means “long nails” (whether natural or artificial); artificial nails are several inches in length, being much affected by Malay actors performing as royalty. ↑
33 A long step and a slow swing of the arms reminds the Malay of the way a man steps and raises his arm to plant bean-seeds six feet apart; a quicker step and a rounder swing of the arms is compared to the action of scattering small seeds.—J.R.A.S., S.B., loc. cit. ↑
34 In house-building it is further forbidden to dovetail or make the ends of the timbers (e.g. of the roof) fit accurately together, and also to build two verandahs, one on each side of the house, with their floors on a level with the floor of the main building; if two verandahs are used, the floor of one must be lower than that of the main building (kelek anak). ↑
35 I.e. the sarong or Malay national garment; for the custom, vide Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 158, and for an exception, ib. 27. ↑
36 The hilt of the creese (k’ris) must, however, be hidden by a fold of the cloth about the wearer’s waist. ↑
37 “The covered portion of the barge which carries the Sultan’s principal wife is decorated with six scarlet-bordered white umbrellas. Two officers stand, all day long, just outside the state-room, holding open black umbrellas with silver fringes, and two others are in the bows with long bamboo poles held close together and erect.”—Malay Sketches, p. 214. ↑
38 Leyden, Malay Annals, pp. 94, 95. ↑
39 Code of Malacca, translated in Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 234, 235. ↑
40 In Selangor this royal right to one of each pair of elephant’s tusks is still a tradition to which an allusion is occasionally made. There are said to have been other perquisites as well as those mentioned, e.g. rhinoceros’ horns (sumbu badak) and bezoar stones (guliga). ↑
41 Notes and Queries, No. 4, issued with J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17, sect. 75. ↑
42 J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 30, p. 127. ↑
43 Swettenham, op. cit. pp. 211–226. ↑
44 Others are titah (commands); patek (slave); mĕrka or murka (wrath); karnia or kurnia (favour); and nĕgrah or anugrah (permission); the penalty of uttering any of which, except in addressing the sovereign, is death, i.e. should the offender be a royal slave; should he be any other individual, he is struck on the mouth.—Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 233–234; vide also Malay Sketches, p. 218, where the same list of linguistic taboos appears to be used in Perak. ↑
45 Marhum, one who has found mercy, i.e. the deceased. It is the custom of Malays to discontinue after the death of a king the use of the title which he bore during his life. A new title is invented for the deceased monarch, by which he is ever afterwards known. The existence of a similar custom among other Indo-Chinese races has been noticed by Colonel Yule: “There is also a custom of dropping or concealing the proper name of the king. This exists in Burma and (according to La Loubère) in Siam. The various kings of those countries are generally distinguished by some nickname derived from facts in their reign or personal relations, and applied to them after their decease. Thus we hear among the Burmese kings of ‘the king dethroned by foreigners,’ ‘the king who fled from the Chinese,’ ‘the grandfather king,’ and even ‘the king thrown into the water.’ Now this has a close parallel in the Archipelago. Among the kings of Macassar, we find one king known only as the ‘Throat-cutter’; another as ‘He who ran amuck’; a third, ‘The beheaded’; a fourth, ‘He who was beaten to death on his own stair-case.’” Colonel Yule ascribes the origin of this custom to Ancient India. [Journal Anthrop. Institute.] J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 98. ↑
46 Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 288, note. ↑
47 The bakong is a kind of lily; the sirih is the Malay betel-vine. ↑
48 J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17, p. 93. ↑
49 Touching hands is done with both hands together. If you touch hands with a man who is somewhat your superior in rank, it is proper, in drawing back your hands, to bring them at least as high as your chest; and if the other is decidedly your superior, even as high as your forehead, bending forward somewhat while doing so. ↑
50 Cliff., Stud. in Brown Humanity, p. 175. ↑
51 Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 113, and compare the following:—“Visitors to Jugra may often in the evening see a party of some 30 or 40 men coming along the road with His Highness” [the late Sultan ʿAbdulsamad of Selangor] “walking a few paces ahead of them. Should a native meet the little procession he will squat down at the side of the road until the Sultan has passed, for according to Malay ideas it shows a want of respect in a subject to remain standing in the presence of his Raja” ... “on replying to His Highness natives place the palms of their hands together and so raise them to their forehead, by way of obeisance, and this is done even by his own children.”—Selangor Journal, vol. i. No. 1, p. 5. ↑
52 This dressing up of the buffaloes, when taken in conjunction with the suspension of the breast-ornament about their necks, suggests the survival of anthropomorphic ideas about the sacrificial buffalo. ↑
53 Among the Malays the use of the naubat is confined to the reigning Rajas of a few States, and the privilege is one of the most valuable insignia of royalty. In Perak the office of musician used to be an hereditary one, the performers were called Orang Kalau, and a special tax was levied for their support (J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 104). ↑
54 I was told that these dangerous genii or spirits resided in the naubat or Big State Drum, the two gĕndang or Small State Drums, the two langkara or State Kettle Drums, the lĕmpiri or State Trumpet, the sĕrunei or State Flute, and the k’ris or State Dagger, called (in Selangor) b’rok bĕrayun, or the “Swaying Baboon,” which latter is said to have slain “a hundred men less one” since it was first used. [I learnt this from H.H. the late Sultan himself, and here record it, because it has sometimes been asserted that H.H. the Sultan claimed to have slain these ninety-nine men with his own hand, which H.H. assured me was not the case.] The sanctity of the remaining pieces of the regalia appears to be less marked. They are the payong ubor-ubor or State Umbrella, the State Trident, and the State Lances or tombak bandangan. Of the Selangor State Trumpet I was told that any one who “brushed hastily past it” (siapa-siapa mĕlintas-nya) would be fined one dollar, even if he were the Sultan himself (walo’ Sultan-pun kĕna juga). ↑
55 But in Malay Sketches (p. 215) we read that in Perak the royal instruments accompany the royal water-parties, and that “the royal bugler sits on the extreme end of the prow, and from time to time blows a call on the antique silver trumpet of the regalia.” ↑
56 The Malay headman (Haji Brahim), the priest of the local mosque, the Bilal (an inferior attendant at the mosque), and some thirty Malays belonging to the village, took part in this ceremony. A goat had been killed for the occasion, and the party who were paying the vow brought its flesh with them, together with a great heap of rice stained with saffron (turmeric). The men assembled at the tomb, incense was burned, and Arabic prayers read, after which a white cloth, five cubits long, was laid on the saint’s grave. A banquet followed, in which we all took part. ↑
57 Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 189. ↑
58 For the ideas referred to in this and the preceding paragraph, cp. Frazer, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 187–207. Cp. also for the abstention from hair-cutting at childbirth, Clifford’s Studies in Brown Humanity, p. 48. The idea of long hair is found even in animistic conceptions of natural objects. Thus the wind (Angin) is begged in a wind-charm “to let down its long and flowing locks.” ↑
59 Raja Bĕrma, son of Raja Jaman of Bandar (Wan Bong). Cp. also Clifford, In Court and Kampong, p. 114, “He wore his fine black hair long, so that it hung about his waist.”
The old custom in Selangor is said to have been for men to wear their hair down to the shoulders (rambut panjang jijak bahu), but they would frequently wear it below the waist (rambut sa-pĕrhĕmpasan), in which case it appears to have been commonly shorn at puberty or marriage. When worn full length by men it was usually, for convenience, coiled up inside the head-cloth or turban (saputangan or tanjak), or was made up into rolls or chignons (sanggul dan siput) like that of the women. It was not infrequently used as a place of concealment for one of the small Malay poniards called “Pepper-crushers” (tumbok lada), not only by men but by women. ↑
60 Frazer, op. cit. vol. i. p. 193. ↑
61 Vide infra, Chap. VI. p. 569, seqq., etc. ↑
62 Vide infra, Chap. VI. pp. 353–355, Adolescence. ↑
63 “Ces danseurs et ces danseuses ont tous des ongles faux, et fort longs, de cuivre jaune.”—La Loubère, Royaume de Siam, tome i. pp. 148–150 (quoted by Crawf., Hist. Indian Arch. i. p. 131). Cp. “They have a custom to wear their thumb-nails very long, especially that on their left thumb, for they do never cut it, but scrape it often.”—Dampier’s Voyages, vol. i. pp. 325, 326. ↑
64 Vide infra, Chap. VI. pp. 355–360. ↑
65 Or Sumangat. The derivation of the word is unknown: possibly it may be connected with sangat, “excessive,” or bangat, “sudden, quick.” The meaning covers both “soul“and “life” (i.e. not the state of being alive, but the cause thereof or “vital principle”). ↑
66 In calling the soul, a clucking sound, represented in Malay by the word kur or kĕrr, by which fowls are called, is almost always used; in fact, “kur sĕmangat” (“cluck! cluck! soul!”) is such a common expression of astonishment among the Malays that its force is little more than “good gracious me!” (vide infra, p. 534, note). ↑
68 In another charm we find the sick man’s body compared to a weather-beaten barque at sea. ↑
70 The entire conception of the soul among the Malays agrees word for word with Professor Tylor’s classical definition in Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 387, and hence I have not hesitated to use his exact words in so far as they were applicable. ↑
71 Cp. Tylor, Prim. Cult. vol. i. p. 422. ↑
72 What these seven souls were it is impossible without more evidence to determine. All that can be said is that they were most probably seven different manifestations of the same soul. Such might be the Shadow-soul, the Reflection-soul, the Puppet-soul, the Bird-soul (?), the Life-soul, etc, but as yet no evidence is forthcoming.—Cp. Tylor, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 391, 392. ↑
73 Professor Tylor calls this “a combination of several kinds of spirit, soul, or image, to which different functions belong” (op. cit. vol. i. pp. 391, 392). ↑
79 We might then expect to get some such table as the following:—
| Colours of Cloths (used to enwrap the lump of earth from the footprint). | Colours of Cosmetics (used by the sick man). | Colours of Rice (such as may be used by medicine-men). | |||||
| ... | white | white | Highest | Color. | |||
| yellow | ... | yellow | Medium |
|
|||
| ... | ... | blue. | |||||
| red | red | red. | |||||
| ... | ... | purple or orange | |||||
| ... | ... | green. | |||||
| black | black | black. | Lowest |
|
|||
Green is not a common colour. Blue appears to be rarely used. It is, however, the colour assigned to a (fabulous (?)) champaka flower, which is supposed to be the rarest of its kind (vide p. 29 n. supra). Orange (jingga) is also extremely rare, though it is occasionally used for certain decorative work (e.g. small wedding-pillows). ↑
80 Infra, Chap. V. pp. 211, 250, 251. ↑
81 Or is this phenomenon of a bird-shaped soul inhabiting certain trees to be explained by the “notion of a vegetable soul, common to plants and to the higher organisms, possessing an animal soul in addition”? and are we to take this as only “one more instance of the fuller identification of the souls of plants with the souls of animals”?—Tylor, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 428, 429. ↑
82 Professor Tylor’s pregnant phraseology in this connection is entirely applicable to the Malays, who “talk quite seriously to beasts alive or dead as they would to men alive or dead, offer them homage, ask pardon when it is their painful duty to hunt and kill them.” Cp. also his remarks upon this subject, ibid. p. 423.—Prim. Cult. vol. i. p. 422. ↑
83 Infra, Medicine, Divination, etc. ↑
86 Infra, Vegetation charms. ↑
89 The central idea of this conception appears to be that these animals, birds, and trees were once human beings, but were turned into their present shapes by reason of some wrongful act for which they were not invariably themselves responsible. ↑
90 Vide introductory remarks to Hunting, Fowling, Fishing, Planting, and Mining charms. ↑