158 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vor. IX, 
to represent a bird with outspread wings, recurved and 
retracted legs, and a long tail bent somewhat to one side.! 
Above this carving are representations of three discoidal 
objects, set triangularly, the uppermost being a plain disc, 
like that on the Kémudi, to which I have already referred. 
above the uppermost disc comes a bowed dividing ridge in 
relief, and above this again the word “ Allah” in Arabic charac- 
ter, and standing out in relief. After this the stone tapers to 
its curiously shaped head which can be well seen in the 
illustration. 
I have already put forward, with some diffidence, the 
view that the Pédang may be a conventionalised phallus. If 
this is so, I would suggest that the portion of the stone above 
the inscription represents the glans, while the band, to which 
I have just referred, may be meant to represent the scar left 
by circumcision.* The whole group of stones, apart of course 
from the inscription, is absolutely foreign in design and spirit 
to the custom and teaching of Islam and there would appear 
to be fairly good reasons for considering the granite monoliths 
to be of older date than the Mohamedan grave and possibly 
antecedent to the propagation of Islam in the Malay Penin- 
sula. Only subsidiary stones to the granite monoliths are of 
laterite while, in the case of the Mohamedan grave, laterite, 
with the exception of four stones of Batu Acheh (a kind of 
sandstone brought from Achin), is the only material of the 
dressed blocks of which the structure is built. Furthermore 
two small granite monoliths, obviously absolutely unconnect- 
ed with the grave, stand within the quadrangle of the outer- 
most wall of laterite blocks and two others just outside the 
aforesaid wall near one corner. Moreover one piece of granite, 
taken from the ‘‘older’’ remains, was discovered in the 
foundations of the outer wall on its down-hill side; and an- 
other, a discoidal granite flake, presumably dressed at the 
edges, while excavating the wall between the central block 
of the grave and the outer course or wall. I think, therefore, 
that the probabilities are that the builders of the Mohamedan 
ence—and left them, in so far as possible, undisturbed even 
where they occurred on the site marked out for the tomb. 
A few pieces of granite—perhaps mere waste stuff from the 
1 Dr. Bosch, Director of the Antiquarian Survey of the Dutch East 
Indies, to whom I have shown a photograph of the Pédang, thinks that this 
culiar carving may be a degenerate representation of the head of the Kala 
(a mythical animal) which is frequently found depicted on Javanese ruins o! 
the Hindu period. 
2 There is reason for thinking that a form of circumcision may have 
been practised in the Peninsula before the advent of Mohamedanism, 
8 No. 107 and another stone not shown in the pl 
Ses ces ee 
