ON MINES AND MINERS IN KINTA, PERAK. 300 
The pawang being a person who claims to have powers of 
divination and other imperfectly understood attributes, endea- 
vours to shroud his whole profession in more or less of mystery. 
In his vocabulary, as in that of the gutta-hunters, special terms 
are used to signify particular objects, the use of the ordiaary 
words being dropped ; this is called “ bahdsa pantang.”’ 
-The following are some of the special terms alluded to :— 
Ber-olak tinggi, instead of gajah—elephant. The elephant 
is not allowed on the mine, or must not be brought on to the 
actual works, for fear of damage to the numerous races and 
dams; to name him, therefore, would displease the spirits 
(hantu ). 
Ber-olak ddpor, instead of kuching—cat. Cats are not 
allowed on mines, nor may the name be mentioned. 
A tiger of enormous size called Der-olak is said to haunt 
Kinta. The legend about him is as follows :—A long time ago, 
in the pre-Muhammadan days, a man caught a tiger kitten 
and took it home; it grew up quite tame and lived with the 
man until he died, when it returned to the jungle and grew to 
an enormous size, nine cubits ( hasta) long, it is still there, 
though nobody ever sees it, it does no harm, but sometimes 
very large tracks are seen and men hear its roar, which is so 
loud that it can be heard from Chémor to Batu Gajah ; when 
heard in the dry season, it is a sure prognostication of rain in 
fifteen days’ time. 
Szal, insteaa of kerbauw—water-buttalo. The buffalo is not 
allowed on the mine for the same reason as the elephant. 
Salah nama, instead of imau nipis—lime (fruit). If limes 
are brought on to a mine, the hantw (spirits) are said to 
be offended, the particular feature of the fruit which is 
distasteful appears to be its acidity. It is peculiar that. 
Chinese have this superstition concerning limes as well as 
Malays; not very long ago a Chinese fowkay of a mine com- 
plained that the men of a rival kongyst had brought limes and 
squeezed the juice into his head race, and furthermore had 
rubbed their bodies with the juice mixed with water out of his 
head race, and he said they had committed a very grave 
offence, and asked that they might be punished for it. 
