The Malay Rice Cycle. 



By ft. 0. WlNSTEDT 



In Kedah there is a phrase hertemu hop for the 'completion of 

 a cycle of years/ It is pretty certain that hop is derived through 

 the Siamese hab from the Pali kappa, which in turn is the Sanskrit 

 halpa. It is used by Hindus and Buddhists to express an aeon 

 during* which the physical universe is destroyed. In Malay, it is 

 applied to a cycle of a few years, generally to the 12 year cycle of 

 the rice pavang, the years of which are designated by animal names. 

 The cycle is common to Siamese, Cambodians, Chinese and 

 Japanese. But both the word hop and the Malay names for the 

 animals are from the Siamese and not from the Cambodian. The 

 Cambodian form is halba = halpa, and the Cambodian words for 

 the animals are more remote from the Malay words, while the 

 Siamese words are almost identical : — 



Malay 



Siamese 



Cambodian 



ch uat 



cliuot 



chut 



cluihi 



chain 



chhlou 



I' an 



Vh an 



hhal 



tau 



tlw 



th Oil 



mar on g 



niarong 



roung 



maseng 



maseng 



m esafi 



mamia 



mamia 



mo mi 



mam eh 



mama 



mome 



wauk 



wok 



woe 



rahu 



rahd 



rohd 



chaw 



cho 



elm 



hurt 



hun 



I' or 



The cycle is not known to the Mons. 



This settles the problem discussed by Mr. Shaw on p. 7 of his 

 paper on ' Eice Planting.' The linguistic evidence proves con- 

 clusively that the cycle was borrowed directly from the Siamese, 

 who in turn may have borrowed from the Cambodians. 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 75, 1917. 



