2 BASKET MAKING AT MALACCA. 



bleached them. Then they tried to weave them like the 

 goblin's baskets, but their efforts were in vain. Day after day 

 they tried but could not succeed. At last a fairy in the guise 

 of a woman came by. She saw the women sitting distracted 

 in the house and said to them. 



Oh ye who sit within the house distracted," 

 Striving to learn the craft of Sang Kelembai," 

 Come ye while I the daughter of the fairies," 

 Teach you to weave the web of the distracted." 



11 So the Fairy taught them to find the long mengkuang 

 leaves, to split them, to dry them, to supple them, to 

 bleach them." Everything she taught them, and when 

 the baskets were finished with their ornaments, she 

 said " Now you understand the Distracted Weaving, 

 and why it is called so. You work at it till your eyes are 

 dim and your brain reels, till the back aches, and the hands 

 grow weary, but still it does not come right." 



This ancient industry exists to the present day amongst the 

 Malay women at Tanjong Kling in Malacca. The baskets are 

 woven of mengkuang, which grows there in great quantities. 

 This mengkuang is a screw-pine or Pandanus (Pandanus 

 fascicularis) and there are many other species also used by 

 the Malays for weaving mats and coarse baskets and known 

 by them as Pandan, but the particular screw-pine used at 

 Tanjong Kling is called mengkuang. It is very supple and 

 therefore suited to the special weaving done at Tanjong Kling. 

 The latter is of a very distinctive and uncommon character 

 and is called the " Anyam Gila," or mad weaving. It is very 

 intricate to learn and quite calculated to drive a beginner mad. 

 The mengkuang requires a good deal of preparation before 

 it is fit for use, and the old women are generally employed in 

 this work. They cut the long prickly leaves down with a 

 native knife, or parang, ( plate 4. fig A ) and carry it home 

 in large bundles on their heads. Then they dry or " layor " it 

 slightly over a fire of sticks, and cut off the thorns which grow 

 down the spine of the leaf. This divides the leaf into two 

 wide strips and for this purpose they use a smaller knife 



Jour. Shafts Branch 



