SOME NOTES ON MALAY CARD GAMES. 87 



follow in Perak, hands of nine and eight pips ; in Selangor, 

 says Mr. Skeat, hands of three tens, and three court-cards in 

 that order and then hands of nine, eight, seven pips and so on 

 in descending order of value. " The highest hand counting 

 by pips," Sir William Maxwell puts it clearly, " is that which 

 contains the greatest number of pips after the tens are deduct- 

 ed." In Perak, " a hand of three threes is really a good hand, 

 being nine, but it is considered a propitiation of good luck to 

 throw it down (without exposing it) and announce that one is 

 bota in hopes of getting good luck afterwards." 



Apparently, Singapore players recognize a different list of 

 daun tries. The best hand is three court-cards, tiga kuda : the 

 next best is three threes or a nine and two court cards. And 

 then follow hands of nine, eight pips and so od in descending 

 scale. The tens are not used at all. Court cards are valued 

 at zero, except when you have three in one hand and so hold 

 the best possible of daun trus. Three aces are reckoned as 

 three pips only : so, a hand of three aces is absolutely worth- 

 less, and a hand of two aces and a court card, for instance, 

 makes you only two pips. If you hold one court card, one ace 

 and one nine, the ace is counted as zero like a court-card and 

 you score nine : so, this hand is one of the daun trus, equivalent 

 to two court cards and a nine. 



Then there are the phrases, handak kaki tiya, minta penoh, 

 minta isi, minta kosong, used in the process, mengurut daun. 

 " A player does not hastily, look at his three cards and learn 

 his fate at once," says Sir William Maxwell, M but he prolongs 

 the excitement by holding his cards tight together, and looking 

 alternately at the outside ones, and last of all at the middle 

 one, sliding out the latter between the two others little by 

 little. Thus it is left uncertain for some time whether a card 

 is an eight or a seven, a nine or a ten " Handak kaki tiga is a 

 player for a six, seven or eight cards having pips in rows of 

 three. If after seeing my top and bottom cards I want the 

 remaining card to have no pip in the centre ; if, for example, I 

 want a six and not a seven or eight, I am said to minta kosong: 

 if, on the contrary, I want a pip or pips in the middle of the 



R. A. Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



