go Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI, 



which means 



sky, give me back my moon ! 



1 am still upon the crust of the world ! 



The Senoi are very much afraid of thunder and lightning, 

 and certain actions which are thought to bring about bad 

 storms are tabu. If a person offends against one of these 

 tabus it is considered necessary to take precautions to avoid 

 the evil consequences of the infringement, otherwise the house 

 of the transgressor will be struck by lightning and everyone in 

 it killed. The tabus of this kind which I collected are given 

 below. 



It is tabu to — 



(i) take a jungle leech off the body and put it into the 

 fire. 



(2) put malau (a kind of gum) into the fire. 



(3) tease a cat or dog in the house. 



(4) tease a tame monkey or dress it up like a man and 

 laugh at its antics. 



If a child breaks the tabus relating to cats, dogs, or 

 monkeys and a storm comes up soon after, its mother cuts off 

 some hair from its head, wraps it up in a piece of thatch and, 

 going out of the house, places the parcel of hair on the ground 

 and strikes it with a parang or a billet of wood. Up-country 

 Senoi were also said to cut a piece of hair from a friend's 

 head, place it on the ground and strike it with a parang, when- 

 ever a thunder storm overtook them in the jungle. 



The hot springs near Jeram Kawan are thought to have 

 arisen owing to the infraction of a storm tabu by some Sakai 

 many generations ago, and the Senoi told me the following 

 legend about them. 



The Legend of the Hot Springs. 



Long ago a man who had three wives, all sisters, lived on 

 the present site of the hot springs. He was a Halak. One 

 day he shot a brok monkey* with his blowpipe and was just 

 going to roast it when his father-in-law came to his house and 

 seeing the monkey said " If you want to keep my daughters 

 with you and are really a Halak don't roast that monkey but 

 bring it to life again." For a long time the Halak refused but 

 as his father-in-law insisted on it he at last went and pulled 

 the poisoned dart out of the monkey and drew the poison out 

 of the wound with his fingers. Then the monkey came to 

 life again, and they dressed him in coat and trousers and gave 

 him a sword, and he danced (berstlat) on the ground outside 

 the house. 



After a time the Halak wanted to stop the monkey danc- 

 ing and said to his father-in-law, " that is enough," but his 

 father-in-law, who was much amused, told him to let it con- 



* Macaca nemestrina. 



