28 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VII, 



the work. Similarly during the first three days of felling the 

 big trees nobody may touch an adze belonging to another num. 



At the time of the reaping of the padi crop the settlement 

 is laid under certain tabus for a period of six days. During 

 this period cigarettes may not be smoked nor blow-pipes and 

 lish be brought into the houses. Tabu signs of palm leaves are 

 hung up as a warning to outsiders not to visit the clearing. 

 On the first day of reaping seven ears of padi, the rice-soul, 

 are tied up, and incense burnt to them. These seven ears are 

 left till reaping is finished, and round them sufficient padi to 

 fill two or three reaping baskets, this being the rice-soul's 

 companion. The rice-soul is finally reaped, and incense is 

 burnt under the place where it is hung up for six days. After 

 this the grain from the rice-soul and its companion are taken 

 and mixed with the seed padi. 



Si Busu also gave me a little information with regard to 

 customs connected with child-birth. It appears that after a 

 bii th the navel cord is buried under the house. Should the 

 child fall ill and its body appear swollen, the cord is dug up 

 and inspected to see whether white or other ants are eating it. 

 Should this be the case, the ants are killed with hot water and 

 the cord is re-buried in another spot. If no ants are found, 

 the cord is again interred in the same place. 



After a woman has been delivered, spells are said over her, 

 and when this has been done, she is allowed to eat every kind 

 of food with the exception of chilies, which are forbidden to 

 her for six days. 



I was told that articles of property, not necessarily be- 

 longing to the deceased, and food are placed on a newly made 

 grave, and that a fire is kindled, morning and evening, at the 

 spot for the first six days after burial. 



Contact with Malays and Chinese has tended to destroy 

 the customs and beliefs of the Sakai living within easy reach 

 of the settlements of these races. Consequently the Sakai 

 around " Kampong Ulu Pipe " seem to have lost most of their 

 distinctive customs, and the same is true in a less degree of 

 those living above the dam. I gathered that some of the 

 customs described above are obsolete or obsolescent among the 

 people that I visited, though they probably remain in full 

 force among the wilder aborigines in the headwaters of the 

 Kampar River. 



ABORIGINES OF THE PAHANG BOUNDARY. 

 Apart from the fact that aborigines of the foot-hills have 

 little intercourse with the people of the main range and are 

 therefore ignorant of the whereabouts of their settlements, my 

 visit to the Kampar district was very ill-timed with regard to 

 getting coolies for an expedition to the mountains, since the 

 Sakai were engaged in making clearings for planting their padi. 

 Repeated questionings of the Malays and Sakai gained me but 

 little information about the people of the mountains, though 



