76 



The Pawangs or medicine men, called by these people Poyangs, 

 may perhaps also be classed as tribal officers. Their duties are 

 doctoring sick persons, taking the " semangat padi " (rice soul) 

 among the people who plant wet padi, and performing various 

 shamanistic rites. 



Among the Ulu Langat people the Batin regalia are said to 

 consist of a kris and a silk head-cloth. 



The Langat Batinship descends in the female line — i.e., to the son 

 of the Batin's eldest sister. 



TYPES OF HOUSES AND SHELTERS. 

 The permanent dwellings observed were of two forms, one raised 

 from the ground on posts and having a central roof-beam with an 

 atap roof sloping away from it on either side so that it x'esembles 

 the ordinary Malay type of house in its exterior, the other slightly, 

 if at all, raised from the ground, with a plain sloping type of roof 

 lacking any central roof-beam. Temporary shelters were of three 

 kinds, the first a structure with a sloping roof resembling that of 

 the simpler type of house ; the second a beehive-shaped hut made of 

 bertam or other large leaves, the proximal ends of the leaf petioles 

 being planted in the ground. A small circular opening which serves 

 as a doorway is left in one side of the beehive, and this has to be 

 entered on hands and knees or in a stooping position. The third 

 type of temporary shelter is the wind or rain screen, consisting of 

 large leaves planted with the bases of the petioles in the ground 

 which often lean at a slight angle from the perpendicular so as to 

 afford better protection to the occupants. The ground plan of a 

 shelter of this kind may be either a straight line or a semicircle. 

 Huts of this third variety are never used for more than a night or so, 

 but those of the two other t^'pes appear occasionally to become 

 temporarily permanent. 



MEDICINE HUTS. 

 A very fine example of the Pawang's medicine hut was seen in the 

 jungle in the Ulu Langat. It consisted of a beehive hut of bertam 

 leaves with a crawl-in entrance, erected on a bamboo platform so 

 as to leave a small verandah in front. On this verandah were lying 

 several bamboo stampers. Inside the hut, which had been abandoned, 

 was suspended a tray of plaited bamboo decorated with hangings of 

 fibre and bands of pandan leaf decorations called " tag ah" * or '^ jari 

 lipan," bunches of "' dann lebar'^ (? lit., broad leaves) and plaited 

 ornaments known as suhang (ear-rings). On the floor was a grass 

 whisk which the Pawang holds in his right hand and swishes 

 backwards and forwards when calling the spirits. The Sakai 

 coolies remarked that only a big Pawang would have his hut so far 

 from the village. Subsequently, other Pawangs' huts were seen both 

 in the Ulu Langat and also near the Kenaboi Mine, but in these cases 



* Probably tajok to which Wilkinson assigns the meaning " aigrette." 



