III. MALAY FILIGREE WORK, 



By I. H. Evans, B.A. Assistant Curator and Ethnographical 

 Assistant F.M.S. Museums. 



By the courtesy of Mr. R. O. Winstedt, District Officer, 

 Kuala Pilah, the writer was recently enabled to visit a Malay 

 goldsmith at the village of Berlombong, about three miles from 

 Kuala Pilah. The art of making gold filigree was, until 

 recently, sujjposed to be dead in the Federated States, but 

 Mr. Winstedt has lately discovered several smiths in Negri 

 Sembilan who are capable of turning out this class of work, 

 Tukang Adam, the man visited at Berlombong, being one of 

 them. 



There is an .excellent account of the manufacture of 

 Malayan gold filigree work in Marsden's " History of Sumatra " 

 (pp. 178-180), and this is reproduced in Mr. Winstedt's 

 pamphlet on Malay Industries in the series of papers on 

 Malay subjects published by the F.M.S. Government. 



The present short article has little claim to add anything 

 new to the subject, except perhaps, the pendinding prayer 

 used by the smith, but it may be useful as confirming 

 Marsden's observations, which were made more than a 

 hundred and thirty years ago, and showing that the same 

 methods still prevail. 



Before starting work upon the raw- gold the smith 

 repeats the following spell or prayer in order to shield himself 

 from all harm. 



Allah tuhanku, rasul Allah. 



Di-hadapan aku Raja Jibrail, 



Di-kiri di-kanan 'ku segala sidang malaikat. 



Meninding aku Salam laut sipat-u'llah. 



Ya, Musa kalam u'llah, 



Ya, hanan,-ya dayan ; 



Ya-sin dalam koran tiga-puloh. 



Tutup terkunchi hati mulut 



Barang barang satu bahaya 'kan lawan-ku ; 



Terbuka, terkembang segala pintu rezeki-ku. 



Tajam mengadap aku lagi tumpul ; 



Bisa mengadap aku lagi tawar; 



Gunching (Kanching?) pada hadap aku lagi momah 

 (mamah ?). 



4 



