Points of the Compass in Kedah. 
By A. -W. HAmIiToN. 
Amongst the inland Malays of Kedah more especially in those 
districts where the Siamese language is still prevalent the usual 
Malay terms for expressing the points of the compass (utara, séla- 
tan, timor, barat), are not in use except as designations for the 
direction of the wind and the:seasons dependant on them (te. 
angin barat a west wind or musim timor the N. E. monsoon). 
The current terms in use in daily life to express the relative 
positions of objects or the direction of a road, etc. are as under :— 
North. Kaki tidor. 
South. épala tidor. 
Hast. Mata hari naik. 
West. Mata hari jatoh. 
A man will thus describe his house as being sabélah kepala 
tidor or South of somebody else’s abode; and if asked where he 
was sitting with reference to another person might reply “ dia 
dudok di sini, dan saya dudok di sabélah kaki tidor nya” 7.e. he 
was sitting here and I was sitting on the north side of him. 
The expressions mata hari naik and mata hari jatoh are of 
course common to the whole peninsula and the sentence dia sudah 
péregi sebélah mata hari naik. He has gone Hast would be under- 
stood anywhere. 
The curious local expressions képala tidor and kaki tidor ap- 
pear to have arisen from the invariable orientation of Siamese 
houses which are built with their axis East and West, the entrance 
facing the rising sun. 
The occupants when lying down for the night in their rather 
narrow dwellings are thus constrained to le across the house with 
heads to the wall and feet to the centre so that all the heads in a 
village will be pointing one way, képala tidor or South, and all the 
feet another, kaki tidor or North. 
R, A. Soc., No. 86 1922. 
