20 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vou. IX, 
instrument, which I saw and photographed. This was a rect- 
angular frame made from four small branches of trees, with 
the ends of a couple projecting downwards to form feet. Amat 
was enclosed in the frame and was held in position by being 
slipped between rattan strings in pairs, which ran vertically, 
and were attached to the framework at top and bottom. A 
stick, for tightening the strings, was pushed between them at 
the top and passed behind the uprights of the frame. To 
play this instrument the performer squats facing the frame, 
which is usually propped against a timber of the hut, and 
pulls and releases the strings on the exposed face so as to 
make a “‘ ticker-tack”’ noise on the ma 
Though the people were not particularly communicative 
with regard to their affairs, I was able to gather a few rather 
interesting scraps of information with regard to their beliefs. 
hey are very much afraid of thunderstorms, especially 
if accompanied by high winds, for on such occasions they 
think that the ghosts of the dead embark in boats and set 
sail in the sky, travelling from the west towards the east. 
The light gleaming on the varnish of their boats is seen on 
earth as lightning. 
The belief in disastrous and seo etusing storms, 
caused by the infraction of tabus, is ee mong the 
Kemaman people as among the Bera Sakai-Jaku 
For fear of such storms it is forbidden to ‘ice lice in the 
fire, or to dress up a monkey and laugh at it. 
It is said that a village “‘above Jeram”’ on the Pahang 
River was once swallowed up because a storm-tabu had been 
broken, only a single post being left to mark its former site. 
With regard to punan beliefs, I was told that, if food is 
offered to anyone, but not wanted, the person to whom it was 
offered must take a little and rub it between the thumb and 
first finger of one hand, or on the inner side of the big toe. 
Sometimes both thumbs and both big toes are treated in 
this manner. 
The Kemaman aborigines said that they did not practise 
circumcision. 
The Tekam Tribe. 
These people, as I have mentioned above, were living in 
the jungle on the south bank of the Tekam River. The ey had 
a very small clearing, which was planted with Caladium, and 
their tiny huts,' only slightly raised above the groun und, an 
wretched in the extreme, were huddled together in a circle. 
1 The walls of the huts were of tree-bark. The floors, or rather sleeping 
oarsaeryt built up within the huts, did not in all cases cover the whole space 
y the walls, a piece of bare ground being left angen the front of 
which tie tatty fire was lighted, this a often kindled close against 
