VIII. PERAK BIRTH CUSTOMS. 
By R. O. WINSTEDT. 
As soon asa Malay woman is with child, she and her hus- 
band are compelled to observe certain (1) rules (pantang) to 
elude vampires injurious to the mother, (2) rules to avoid any 
harmful influence (kénan) on the child unborn, (3) rules to 
expedite and make’ safe delivery. When the woman goes 
abroad, she must carry a parang, or iron of some sort as a 
talisman against evil spirits. If the husband stir out of 
his compound after dark, he may not return direct but must 
visit some other house first to put any chance vampire fol- 
lowing him off the scent. In the event of an eclipse, the 
woman must hide under the shelf in the kitchen, a wooden 
spoon in her hand and the basket stand, in which the cook- 
ing pot generally rests, upon her head—these a as weapons and 
snares against evil spirits (cf. Clifford, ‘‘ Studies in Brown 
Humanity,’’ pp. 48-50). In Malacca aud Singapore, she will 
bathe under the house-ladder at this crisis, so that she may 
not give birth to a parti-coloured child, half white, half 
black. At all times, the husband of a pregnant woman must 
be circumspect in taking life: if he wantonly fracture the leg of 
a fowl, his child runs the risk of being born with a deformed 
limb—though this taboo being very inconvenient, modern 
husbands at any rate get over it by the fiction that, if the 
deed is done with deliberation and forethought, there is no 
startling of the child in the womb and so no fear of harm. 
No one may enter at the front door and pass out at the back or 
the contrary; there is only one exit from the womb, the 
= ae of birth.’’ Guests may not remain only one night i in 
e house. Neither husband nor wife may sit on the top of 
ae house-ladder : such blocking of a passage entails protracted 
delivery. “In selecting timber for the uprights of a Malay 
house, care must be taken to reject any log which is indented 
by the pressure of a parasitic creeper that may have wound 
round it when it was a living tree; a log so marked, used in 
building a house, will exercise unfavourable influence in child- 
birth, protracting delivery” (Sir W lliam Maxwell, J.R.AS., 
8.B. XI, p 19), After the engagement (péngkéras, ménémpah, 
bérkirim ipbrut of the midwife in the seventh month, the 
husband may not have his hair cut till the birth has taken 
place for fear the after-birth break ; and every Friday the wife 
must bathe with cine and drink the water which drops off 
the end of her hai 
For in the sai month of pregnancy, there is sent to 
