igi5.1 I. H. N. Evans: Sakai of the Uln Sungkai. 93 



VARIOUS BELIEFS AND TABUS. 



Most of the following tabus are I believe not in force 

 among the people of the settlement near Sungkai, and are less 

 rigidly adhered to at Jeram Kawan than" among the up-country 

 Senoi. 



(i) Women and children may not eat, cook, or touch 

 deer's flesh, or go near the body of a dead deer.* 



(ii) They are also prohibited from eating the flesh of the 

 following animals. 



The Seladang (Bos gaurus) 

 The Brok Monkey (Macaca nemestrina) 

 The Krah Monkey (Mac^aca fascicularis) 

 The Menturun Raya or Benturong (Arctictis bintu- 

 rong) 



(iii) The flesh of elephants may not be eaten by the 

 Senoi of Sungkai under any circumstances. It was said that 

 anyone who broke the tabu would fall ill and die. 



(iv) Some people consider it tabu to tell their own 

 names. 



(v) It is tabu to strike a parang (working knife) into an 

 old tree stump in a clearing and leave it sticking there. This 

 action would disturb the earth spirit and cause plagues of rats 

 or insects. 



(vi) If a man drops a piece of food and says " Peninah," 

 which is a curse, he considers that the food is tabu to him and 

 will not pick it up and eat it. To do so would be to court 

 dysentery. 



The existence of one rather interesting tabu, which I 

 believe is also kept by local Malays, I found out in the follow- 

 ing way. Yok Dalam, the headman of the Jeram Kawan 

 people, had the misfortune to fall from a tree and bruise 

 himself very badly. It appears that a message was sent to 

 the settlement near Sungkai asking that any women, who were 

 skilled in medicine should come to Jeram Kawan to treat him. 

 On the day after the accident I was sitting outside the hut in 

 which I was staying, when three Sakai women and two youths 

 went by, evidently on their way to Jeram Kawan, walking 

 quickly in single file. As I was acquainted with two of the 

 party I called out and asked them if they were going to treat 

 Yok Dalam, but was rather surprised to get no answer. On 

 thinking for a minute I concluded that there was probably a 

 tabu against speaking binding on persons going to treat a sick 

 man, and on subsequent enquiry I found my surmise to be 

 correct. 



Another rather curious little observance came to light 

 owing to the same accident. One of the Sakai, after telling 

 me how Yok Dalam had fallen down, said that his companions 



* The infringement of any of these tabus is said to bring convulsions on 

 the head of the guilty party. 



