HISTORY OF SANTUBONG OF SARAWAK. 3 
of Nipa leaf thatch: they have no definite arrangement in the 
village which has not even a proper main road. 
Formerly the only industry of the island was fishing and 
boat building, but of late the Sarawak Cutch Company has 
supplied work to the bulk of the inhabitants of Santubong 
and Bankissam. 
The customs of these natives are a mixture of Malay and 
Milano and though the language spoken is mainly Malay yet 
there are a few people who can only speak Milano. 
Much might be written about their superstitions, but we 
content ourselves in this paper with only a few examples 
which we hope will suffice to throw some light on the psy- 
chology of an ignorant oriental people whose only education 
has been a veneer of Islamism. 
An interesting Milano custom held at the commencement 
of the fishing season—when the fine monsoon appears—is 
known as the Nyemah. A fleet of fishing boats decorated 
with flags and manned by boys and girls carrying tomtoms 
passes to all points in the bay where they are proposing to 
fish and there the leader of the fleet throws out to the spirits 
in the sea offerings of coloured rice invoking the spirits in an 
obsolete language the while. 
At each promontory of the coast they fix up an © Anchak’ 
a festooned trophy gay with streamers, fashioned from the 
young leaves of the Nipah palm plaited according to custom: 
in this are receptacles for rice of many colours, eggs, bits of 
fish, tobacco and even opium—a little of everything edible in 
act, 
Afterwards the ceremony winds up in a free fight all 
- round, the people pelting each other with cakes and sweet- 
meats, pedada apples and Nipah fruits, and at this time 
former enemies take the opportunity of paying off old scores. 
The exact significance of the fight we cannot state. 
It is characteristic of Milanos to ascribe all the ills of 
mankind to the direct action of evil spirits, and their mode of 
healing the sick is by appeasing the offending spirit. If a 
person has a headache it simply means that an angry spirit 
has hit him on the head and the treatment must be the 
R. A. Soc., No. 51, 1908. 
