A few notes on the "Anyam Gila" 



Basket Making at Tanjong 



Kling, Malacca. 



By Mrs. Bland 



Once upon a time there was a goblin named Sang 

 Kelembai. He lived long ago and it was in his time that 

 men-folk began to appear in the world. When he saw how 

 they caught the beasts both wild and tame, and made them do all 

 sorts of work, and how they even made the wind drive their 

 boats on the sea, he began to get alarmed lest he, too, should 

 be caught. So one day he went down to the sea-shore and 

 assembled all manner of beasts — the jungle people, and spoke 

 to them " O, all living things, come away with me over the 

 sea to the sky's edge. This is no place for us. See how 

 mankind is catching all the beasts and making them work." 

 But, said the Beasts, " Why should we go so far ? What will 

 we do over there?" Said the Buffalo: " if the men catch 

 me, I will kill them with my horns." Said the Horse : " if the 

 men catch me, I will slay them with my heels and teeth." 

 So spoke all the Beasts, each boasting of his own weapons, for 

 indeed they had no wish to go so far as the sky's edge. These 

 replies troubled the mind of Sang Kelembai so he took all his 

 possessions, his fishing nets and his rombong baskets, and 

 having burnt them to ashes, he departed alone to the sky's 

 edge. Soon after the human folk came down to the sea 

 beach and there they found the ashes and the remains of the 

 nets and rombongs. They carefully examined the meshes 

 of the nets and the weaving of the basket work and tried to 

 copy them. One of the women went home to her daughters 

 and said " Let us get some pandan leaves, and split them 

 and then dry them." They did this and in the night came the 

 rain and soaked the leaves, and next day the sun shone and 



Jour. Straits Branch, R. A. Soc, No. 46, 1906. 



