12 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
string is attached to a neck cut in the end of the tang, its other end being 
fastened to a stick nearly four feet long. This specimen was made by a 
Patani boatman-—the same man who made two specimens for Mr, W. W. 
Skcat, one of which is figured by Professor A. C. Had don (Study of Matt> 
Fig. 40, No. 7). 
‘The native name given by Mr. Skeat applies to the spear-head shaped 
torm only, the name berbaling being that applied to the instrument in general.' 
C. Stringed Instruments 
33. Fiddle. Malay name, rebat d Patani town (PI. XXI, Fig. 17). 
Length, thirty-three inches. Body made from a large cocoanut shell, 
cup-shaped, widely oval at the rim, overlaid with membrane. A rod of 
palm-wood passes through the shell, and over this is slid the neck of bamboo, 
to the upper end of which is fixed a head of carved wood, having three 
tuning-pegs. A f foot * of bamboo passes over the palm-wood rod, below the 
resonator. Three strings are attached to the ‘foot' and to the tuning-pegs, 
passing over an arched bridge on the membrane. The strings are bound 
against the neck, high up, with a whipping of string, their tension keeping the 
parts together. Bow of wood, twenty-four and five-eighths inches Jong, 
arched ; proximal end discoidal with groove for the index-finger to lie in ; 
distal end carved, flat, and pointed ; bunch of strings of vegetable fibre* 
very loose. These are tautened by the fingers of the right hand in 
playing. This form of fiddle is common to Siam proper and to Java, though 
minor modifications are observable locally. 
£ In the Patani States such fiddles are generally used either in theatrical 
performances or in magical incantations. In either case they are regarded as 
sacred (kramat), all dramatic entertainments being of a semi-magical nature.' 
34. Fiddle. Samsam name, rebat . Pulau Telibun, Trang (PL XXI, 
Fig. 18). 
Similar to No, 33, but of superior make. Length, thirty-six inches ; 
body of cocoanut shell, nearly circular, seven and a quarter inches across, 
covered with fine membrane. ‘ Foot ’ and ‘neck' of ornamentally turned wood. 
Head large and carved ; turned tuning-pegs. Three strings of twisted cord, 
arranged as in No. 33. Bow as in No. 33, twenty-four and three-quarters 
inches long, the proximal end in a separate piece, with small perforated 
flange for attachment ot strings. This instrument was probably made in 
Kedah {cf No. 29). 
i. Mr. W. W. Skcat has been kind enough to send me the following note regarding this word :—‘The word 
rebat is merely a loose pronunciation of rein—more strictly vela —which is the Patani-Kclantan form of rebut or 
hurebab, the Malay fiddle. Certain filial consonants, "h/"* p," “ k*" etc, are broken down into s mere “dick ” 
in the Patani-Kclantan dialect, and rebat is merely a loose pronunciation of this, — rehab .* The word is not Maiay, 
but Arabic j probably having come, originally, from North Africa or Turkey,—Eo. 
