1916.] I. H. N. Evans: Upper Perak Aborigines. 



207 



on the Temengoh River, and some five or six miles below 

 Temengoh village, I paid a visit to a shelter, or rather assem- 

 blage of shelters, which was much more typically Negrito. 

 This camp consisted of eight screens of attaps placed roughly 

 in a circle, and arranged so that the "roofs" nearly met in the 

 centre, a\ hile enclosed within the circle were the boles of two 

 fairly large trees. One or more bamboo sleeping-platforms 

 was to be seen under every shelter, and a fire, at which the 

 Jehehr not only cook their food, but warm themselves at night, 

 was smouldering close to each platform. This type of habita- 

 tion was exactly similar to those I 'had seen on a former 

 occasion among the Semang of Lenggong. 



In reaching the settlement just described, I had to pass 

 through t\NO clearings of considerable size. The first of these 

 was deserted, but the second, although the padi crop had been 

 reaped, still afforded the Jehehr some bananas, some brinjals 

 and other vegetables. In this second clearing was a small 

 watcher's hut, built in a commanding position, and raised 

 on very high posts. On one side of the clearing and not far 

 from the jungle, was a house built on posts in the usual 

 Malay (or Sakai) fashion, but this had been abandoned, after 

 the harvest, in favour of the ground shelters already described, 

 which were in the jungle. 



As far as I could gather, the Jehehr have practically 

 no religious beliefs. Souls after death, according to their 

 statement, went to dwell by the edge of the sea, and they seem 

 to be afraid that the spirits of the dead may linger near 

 the huts of their relatives and trouble them, since they told me, 

 that when a corpse is being buried they say "Bail Dun\ 

 Dunl Diinl Di-prak\" \\hich they said meant "Dig! Leave! 

 Go ! " I was also told that offerings of food were placed on the 

 graves. Two kinds of grave-ghosts, not, it seems, spirits 

 of the dead, are much feared, these being named Kemoid and 

 Sara. I could obtain no evidence that there was any belief in 

 a Supreme Being, though the Jehehr, are certainly, exceedingly 

 afraid of thunder {hare), as are most of the aboriginal tribes, 

 but though thunder, according to Vaughan Stevens, is the 

 Semang supreme god I could find nothing to show that it was 

 so regarded by the Jehehr, yet it is certainly thought to 

 be caused by a powerful spirit, who may be appeased by an 

 offering of blood. 



The Jehehr said, that when a thunderstorm came on, they 

 cut the outside of the calf of the right leg near the shin-bone 

 with a knife, and taking a few drops of blood from the wound 

 on the knife blade, and putting them into the palm of the left 

 hand, threw them up into the air saying, "Haroidl Saidthl" 

 (Throw it away! Sleep! (?)). Various actions are tabu, as 

 they are supposed to bring on thunderstorms, which may 

 involve the death by lightning (cJiilou) of others, as well as of 

 the transgressor. For instance it is tabu for anj^one to kill a 

 millipede, to shoot an owl with blow-pipe, or to flash a 



