Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

igi5.1 I. H. N. Evans: Sakai of the Uln Sungkai. 93
VARIOUS BELIEFS AND TABUS.
Most of the following tabus are I believe not in force
among the people of the settlement near Sungkai, and are less
rigidly adhered to at Jeram Kawan than" among the up-country
Senoi.
(i) Women and children may not eat, cook, or touch
deer's flesh, or go near the body of a dead deer.*
(ii) They are also prohibited from eating the flesh of the
following animals.
The Seladang (Bos gaurus)
The Brok Monkey (Macaca nemestrina)
The Krah Monkey (Mac^aca fascicularis)
The Menturun Raya or Benturong (Arctictis binturong)
(iii) The flesh of elephants may not be eaten by the
Senoi of Sungkai under any circumstances. It was said that
anyone who broke the tabu would fall ill and die.
(iv) Some people consider it tabu to tell their own
names.
(v) It is tabu to strike a parang (working knife) into an
old tree stump in a clearing and leave it sticking there. This
action would disturb the earth spirit and cause plagues of rats
or insects.
(vi) If a man drops a piece of food and says " Peninah,"
which is a curse, he considers that the food is tabu to him and
will not pick it up and eat it. To do so would be to court
dysentery.
The existence of one rather interesting tabu, which I
believe is also kept by local Malays, I found out in the following
way. Yok Dalam, the headman of the Jeram Kawan
people, had the misfortune to fall from a tree and bruise
himself very badly. It appears that a message was sent to
the settlement near Sungkai asking that any women, who were
skilled in medicine should come to Jeram Kawan to treat him.
On the day after the accident I was sitting outside the hut in
which I was staying, when three Sakai women and two youths
went by, evidently on their way to Jeram Kawan, walking
quickly in single file. As I was acquainted with two of the
party I called out and asked them if they were going to treat
Yok Dalam, but was rather surprised to get no answer. On
thinking for a minute I concluded that there was probably a
tabu against speaking binding on persons going to treat a sick
man, and on subsequent enquiry I found my surmise to be
correct.
Another rather curious little observance came to light
owing to the same accident. One of the Sakai, after telling
me how Yok Dalam had fallen down, said that his companions
* The infringement of any of these tabus is said to bring convulsions on
the head of the guilty party.