185 



TRIBAL NAME AND ORGANIZATION. 

 The aborigines of Ijok call themselves Menik Gul wliich means 

 Peoj)lo of the Marsli lands. (Gul, a mai'sh ; menik, men. Baloli 

 menik = man}" people). Information was also obtained at this 

 place that the Lenggong Semang called themselves in their own 

 dialect Scmak Blum, people of the big (water), i.e., the Perak 

 River. (Scmak, people ; bliim, big. Semak lebeh = many people.) 

 Ong blum (Semang) = aver besar (Malay) = flood (English). As 

 at Lenggong each small group or tribe of Semang has an elderly 

 man in charge of it, who seemed to occupy rather tlie position of the 

 head of a family than that of a chief. 



NAMES OF PATTERNS. 

 (Plate xvi.) 



(a) Padi seed (Kembok bah) 



(b) Lotong monkeys teeth (Lemoin boi) 



(c) Tenwug 



(d) Flying-fox elbows (Kenyong kaweid) 



(e) Gourd seeds (Met labu) 



(f) Eyes of the Lotong monkey (Met basoh) 



(g) Eyes of the Kuwangkweit bird (Mat langkweitn) 



This bird is known as the ' gembala riraau ' or tiger's herdsman, 



and is said always to accompany a tiger. 

 (h) Bracelets (Gelang, name obtained in Malay onl}-) 

 (i) Tenwug of the flower sheaths of the Jack-fruit (Tenwug 



nangka.) 

 (j) Cucumber seeds (Biji timon, name obtained in Malay only) 

 (k) Tortoise breast pattern 

 (1) Snakes (Ular, name obtained in Malay only.) 



LANGUAGE. 

 Since several vocabularies of the language spoken by the 

 Semang of Ijok have already been taken, the writer thought it well, 

 instead of simi)ly cliecking other observer's lists, and possibly adding 

 a few new words, to make some slight attempt to break new ground. 

 With this purpose in view a number of short sentences in the 

 dialects both of Lenggong and Ijok wei^e obtained in order to 

 illustrate to some extent the gi-ammatical constructions employed. 

 This will be found below with their equivalents in both Malay and 

 English, the sentences in the former language, which is necessarily 

 used as the medium for communicating with the aborigines, being 

 given more with the idea of retaining the original form in which the 

 questions were put than of showing any woi'ds which may have been 

 borrowed from it by the aborigines or which have a common origin. 

 It will be noted that the Semang of Ijok as well as the aborigines of 

 Lenggong use numeral co-efiicients, only instead of speaking of "Oxen 



March, 191S. 



