FASCICULI MALATENSES 
6 3 
stick thrust beneath them. They passed through holes drilled in the false ribs, 
and, with the exception of the slips of bamboo on which the palm-stems were 
transfixed, were the only form of connexion used in the construction of the 
craft, nails and pegs being absent from it. In the hinder portion of the boat 
there was a platform of split bamboo that raised passengers or goods well 
above the surface of the bilge water, and a kitchen fireplace, of the kind used 
throughout the Peninsula, formed part of the movable furniture. The steers- 
man sat in the stern, on a framework raised above the platform and adorned 
with patterns carved on the back of a plank behind his seat. The patterns 
were emphasized by the use of black and white paint ; they were of a simple 
floral character, and centred in a circular piece of common looking-glass let 
into the wood. The mast was not quite straight ; it supported a single lug- 
sail of calico, rather large for the size of the boat, and bore on its top a wooden 
ornament resembling a pomegranate. The oars were about eight feet long, 
rather slender, and tapered suddenly to a point, in which respect they differed 
from those of the Samsam. They were lashed to rattan cords running between 
the tops of the false ribs and the side of the boat. When the sail was not in 
use, the mast was taken down, and, being rested at one end on the steersman’s 
seat and at the other on a forked stick, acted as the ridge-pole of a kind of 
cabin formed of kajang — rough mats of Pandanus leaf stitched together in 
strips. 
I was able to visit two Orang Laut cemeteries, both in the cliffs near the 
mouth of the Chau Mai River. One of them was situated in a magnificent lime- 
stone cave about a mile-and-a-half up the stream, and had probably been disused 
for many years, the cave having been exploited by Chinese pepper-planters, who 
collected bats’ dung to use as manure. A Samsam man told me that 
formerly it was sacred (kramat) in the eyes of Mahommedans and infidels 
alike, and that the former, whenever they had occasion to pass its entrance, 
were accustomed to call out : ‘ Tabek , Datoh ! ’ (‘ Pardon, Lord ! ’), but that it 
was no longer sacred since the Chinamen had come. In the darker part of 
this cave I found a number of coffins — rudely hollowed logs, with rough 
planks as covers. In one or two cases the covers were lozenge- shaped and 
were turned up at the ends, but, as a rule, they were flat and approximately 
rectangular. The bones had completely decayed, only fragments remaining, 
but there had evidently been cloth and wooden objects at one time in the 
coffins. The Samsams of Ban Pra Muang told me that in former days they 
used to obtain gold ornaments, knives, and other articles of value from 
the bodies placed in this cave. The only things of interest that remained 
were some curious imitation swords or daggers of palm-wood and bamboo 
