“Cards are called Kĕrtas sakopong. The Malays are fond of card games, but few Europeans have taken the trouble to understand or describe them. The late Sir W. E. Maxwell contributed the following description of daun tiga ’lei to the Notes and Queries of the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society. It refers to the game in question as played in Perak:—

“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 knave, ten, and nine is a good hand.

“The best hand is three aces, Sat tiga.

“The next best is three court-cards, Kuda; naik kuda.

“The next is nine.

“The next is eight.

“All these four hands are known as tĕrus. 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 buta, in the hopes of getting good luck afterwards.

“Each player makes two stakes—kapala 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 ujong (tual = bĕrat).

“Or there may be a single stake only, which is called podul.

“Betting between players is called sorong, or tuwi, or sorong tuwi.

“A pool, tuwi tengah.

“The ekor stake is only paid to the dealer if he holds one of the hands called tĕrus, and if a smaller hand is held by a player, then the dealer takes both kapala and ekor (mengĕlong).

“A player who holds thirty exactly (except when he has three court-cards, kuda) is said to be out (buta).

“Any one except the player on the right of the dealer may cut. 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 card he has lifted (pengĕrat).

“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.

“There are all sorts of names for different cards and combinations of cards of various degrees of luck, and these are quoted by the cutter and dealer, each declaring his confidence in the luck coming to him by reason of the cutting or lifting of a particular card.

“A player does not hastily look at his three cards and learn his fate at once, but he prolongs the excitement by holding 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 uncertain 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 tiga, and then commences to slide 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 luck, ‘Tĕman handak pisang sarabu, sudah sa-batang sa-batang pula.’ (The plantain called sarabu is one which puts out fruit from every stem of the perdu about the same time, or one immediately after another.)”173

The following account of card games as played in Selangor was compiled some years ago by the writer. The names of the cards used in Selangor are these:—

The three most important card games are—(1) main sakopong, (2) main chabut, (3) main tiga ’lei, or pakau.

1. In the game called sakopong all cards from two to six are cast out, and five cards are dealt out to each of the players (who may be from two to four in number); a player leads (turunkan) the card, and the next player has either to follow suit (turunkan daun sagaji) or throw down a card, turning it over (susupkan). If the next player is able to follow suit, whoever plays the highest card of the suit wins. If each player wins a trick it is declared drawn (s’ri), and in this case all stakes are returned.

2. Main chabut is a species of vingt-et-un, and is played with either twenty-one or thirty-one points. If twenty-one points only is the game, court-cards are not counted; but if the game is thirty-one points they are also added in. Two cards are dealt by the dealer (pĕrdi) to each player, who draws (chabut) fresh cards from the bottom of the pack in his turn, and gets as near as possible to thirty-one. If he thinks he cannot safely draw another card (e.g. after twenty-six pips are in his hand) he “passes” (which is called b’lit kĕchil if he stops at twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight, and b’lit bĕsar if he stops at twenty-nine or thirty).

If he obtains exactly thirty-one pips he is said to “enter the points” (masok mata); but no player can draw more than seven cards, and if he has, after drawing to the full limit, still failed to obtain as many pips as he wants, he is said to “enter the pack” (masok daun). I may add that the first two cards are called lunas or “keels,” and this may be of various kinds, e.g.:—

• 1. Lunas nikah, i.e. angkong dĕngan sat (a court-card and an ace).
• 2. Kachang di-rendang di-tugalkan, i.e. two aces; a very convenient hand, as the aces may be reckoned as either one or eleven, as occasion may require.
• 3. Lunas sa-glabat, or sagaji ampat-b’las, i.e. angkong dĕngan daun ampat (court-card and four).
• 4. Lunas dua jalor, two threes.
• 5. Ace and two, which is the best of all.

In playing chabut or “casting out,” the tens should be thrown away (di-buang daun puloh). When two players have the same number of pips—e.g. nine and nine or eight and eight—the coincidence is described in the words, Jumpa di jalan, di-adu, kalah, di-chabut, mati. To be “bluffed” is called kĕna ranjau (wounded by a caltrop).

And again, when a player has obtained, let us say, twenty-six pips with six cards, and so has only one more chance, and is afraid to risk it, his position is ridiculed in the phrase, Sa-nepak Ulu Klang, a jest of obviously local coinage.

The phrase Tĕngah tiang (half mast), again, is applied to twenty-five pips held irrespective of the number of cards; and if more than thirty-one are obtained, the player is said to be out (mati, or masok piring).

3. Daun tiga ’lei or Pakau is played here as follows:—

Three cards are dealt by the dealer to each player, and the winner is he who holds the greatest number of pips, with certain exceptions.

A hand of three threes, it will be observed, is the second best hand in Selangor, whereas in Perak, according to Sir W. E. Maxwell, it is thrown away as the worst.

The stakes, which are deposited in two heaps by each player, are here called kapala or “head,” and buntut (or ekor), the “tail,” respectively; the kapala being generally, though perhaps not always, greater than the ekor in Selangor, instead of the reverse. The latter can only be lost when a player sweeps the board. A single stake, again, is podul (or occasionally tual), but bĕrtuwi is applied to betting between players, and sorong or tokong means to put down a stake before your rival replies with a counter-stake (bĕrteban or topah). A player who holds thirty exactly is not out here—e.g., he may hold a court-card and two tens. To look at the bottom card is mĕnengo’ angkatan.

Sir W. E. Maxwell gives a number of names and phrases applied to particular cards and combinations of cards, to which I may add—

• Two nines and a two—China Keh mĕngandar ayer.
• An eight and an ace (making nine) with a court-card, or a ten and two nines—Sĕmbilang bĕrtĕlor.
• Two court-cards and a nine—Parak hari ’nak siang.
• The four of any suit—Tiang jamban Lĕbai ʿAli.

The explanation of handak kaki tiga, as applied to an eight, appears to be that the eight has three pips on each side. It is also called bĕrisi sa-b’lah. Minta’ pĕnoh (I ask for a full one) means I want a nine (?), and minta’ tombak (I ask for a lance), I want two pips (or three, as the case may be).

Besides the above, there are miniature or bijou cards (chĕki)—e.g. chĕki dua-b’las, chĕki lima-b’las and ’tan or bĕrĕtan daun sambilan, etc., the daun chĕki being distinguished by their borders, e.g. iyu kuching, iyu nyonya, iyu panjang, iyu mĕrak besar, iyu kasut; and again gapet, gapet k’rang, gapet rintek, gapet lichin; babi, babi rintek, babi pusat, babi lichin; kau merah, kau bulat, kau lichin; layer, layer rintek, layer pitis, layer lichin. Six to seven people play these games. A sort of whist is also played from time to time under the name of main trup. At this game a trick is called sapudi; to sweep the board is pukol tani; and the players who get no tricks at all are said to be sold up (kĕna kot).174