Malacca Lace. 



By Mrs. Bland. 



Fifty years ago really fine cotton pillow lace was made in 

 Malacca. The lace was worn by the Chiefs and Hajis on 

 their coats and trousers, and it may still be seen occasionally at 

 weddings, but with the use of European clothing the lace has 

 more or less disappeared. The present generation are content 

 to use nine to nineteen bobbins, while their grandmothers and 

 great aunts before them used fifty to one hundred, or even 

 more. Moreover, they have lost all their patterns, all their 

 fine bobbins and even their pillows. The white ants have 

 consumed them all. Occasionally ; one may come across a few 

 relics of this past art in beautiful ivory bobbins and faded 

 trouser borders. I myself obtained a very fine specimen of 

 the latter from an old Malay, and have no doubt others can 

 be picked up in the Kampongs (see plate No 3). All that 

 remains of this old industry is the present " biku " making, 

 chiefly found in the district of Pringgit, where quite fifty 

 women use pillows — also atBukit Tempurong and Bukit China, 

 but here in much fewer numbers — at the outside twenty 

 workers. "Biku" or edging is made of coloured silk for 

 native use to border handkerchiefs and veils, and is sold very 

 cheaply for that purpose to Malays and Chinese. It is sold 

 in lengths of 2^ yards or one " bimpul." The silk is bought 

 by the woman in skeins from " kelontong kain" the travelling 

 draper, or pedlar, and he also sells the " biku " itself with his 

 other wares. The pillow used, as depicted in the photograph, 

 (see plate 1 ) is of the simplest description — a rough wooden 

 sloping stool padded with cloth and stuffed with sawdust. 

 The cost is fifty or sixty cents at the present date. It is called 

 " bantal " by the Malays, and I have noticed the little girls 



Jour. Straits Branch, R. A. Soc, No. 45, 1905. 



