4 
56 PAPERS ON MALAY SUByECTS. 
bieroglypliics. Of course tlie Sakai do not possess 
eitlier the necessary multiplicity of patteras or the 
ingenuitv to use them on the Egyptian plan, but the 
idea that they might do so — or did do so — suggested 
itself to the fertile iraagination of Vanghan-StevPTis 
as soon as hi:^ informants began "explaining" the 
panels on their combs* He found himself, as he 
conchided, face to face with the mother of all alphabets, 
the half-way house between the language of symbols 
such as flowers and the ideographic lettering of the 
Eg>T:tians and Chinese. It would indeed have been 
a stupendous discovery if it had rested on any basis 
of fact. But unfortunately it did not. Though the 
panels arc interesting as designs they are not used m 
hieroglyphics. To a Sakai they are things of beauty ; 
art for art's own sake, and with no vile utilitarian 
motives to sully pure art. 
In conclusion, it will not be out of place to supple- 
ment Signer Cerruti's account of the He of a Bakai 
from the cradle to the grave. The birth-customs call for 
no remark, except for the fact that the placenta and* 
umbilicus are buried under human habitation so that the 
rain may not beat on them, and turn them into the angry 
birth-spirits that Malays believe in. Twins are objected 
to. When of different sexes one of the pair is given 
away in adoptiou, and anything suggestive of twins 
(such as a double banana) is never eaten lest the evil of 
a double-birth should follow. The education of a Sakai 
child is a very simple matter, but he plays no games in 
the European sense and has to be satisfied with imitating 
the pursuits of his elders. Betiothals are aiTanged 
by the parents — often at a very early age — though the 
inclination of the parties is not forced if they object 
