1922.] I. H. N. Evans: Negvito Beliefs and Customs. 195 
nteng Tapern pi-weg kaii pek-kid' beteu!’’ ‘This is, I think, 
fairly correctly translated as follows: ‘‘ Yak Kalcheng, Yak 
Manoid, come up and give advice to the ears of your grand- 
children Chapor and Chalog éo relate to the ears of Tapern that 
he should make go back the thunder to the roots' of the 
waters.”’ 
In my former paper I have referred to the Chinoi, whom 
Tapern uses as messengers. From Mémpélam I gota good 
deal of fresh information with regard to these beings. They 
are both male and female, and have many occupations. The 
female Chinoi use different words from those of the ordinary 
them chingchong. ‘This is the same as that which the Kintak 
Bong call awih ehyim (akar jintrok of the Malays). Among 
the beings who come to the shaman during a séance are many 
Chinoi, including, as will be seen from the lines chanted by 
bridge over which the dead pass to Belet, the Barau-bird 
Chinoi, the Argus pheasant Chiuoi. Inthe songs, too, are men- 
tioned a male Chinoi, Menlus, who plays the Jew’s-harp to 
Yak Kalcheng, the Screw-palm Chinoi, Langyau (a male 
Chinoi who lives near Ligoi), the Tepus-plant Chinoi, the Chinoi 
who lives near the Tang-al of the Batu Herem, and others. 
Mémpélam gave me some interesting details with regard 
to the Mat Chinoi. He said that a large snake—the Mat 
Chinoi—lives on the road to Tapern’s house on a piece of care- 
fully smoothed ground. The snake is two fathoms long and 
ten cubits in circumference. This snake makes long, many- 
layered mats for Tapern. Some, ornamented with beautiful 
patterns, it hangs over a cross-beam, and it is under the shelter 
of these that it lives. Inside the snake are twenty or thirty 
female Chinoi of great beauty and also beautiful combs, head- 
dresses, etc. 
N there is a male Chinoi called Halak Gihmai*® who 
lives on the back of the snake, and looks after the clothes 
and ornaments which are stored inside it. If a male Chinoi 
asks to go into the snake, Halak Gihmal tells him to make 
trial of the mats first. There are seven of these mats, hang- 
ing over a beam above the snake, and these are always open- 
ing andclosing. When the male Chinoi tries to pass along the 
passage under them, they close on him, so that, unless he 
runs very quickly, he gets caught. If he manages to get 
through the mats safely he is told to enter a tobacco-box * of 
which the lid opens and closes rapidly. If he is lucky enough 
Literally ‘‘ anus,”’ ‘* bottom.”” Pagan Races, p. 515, Ais Tokek 
says that kid yihuk means the bottom of a tree, including the roots. 
Vide «* Musical Performances, * 
Shaman. 
+ The kind which Malays call ch#lépa. This is generally watch-shaped. 
1 
(1921) 
2 
