Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

204 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI,
Grik Semang gave me to understand that the word which they
used for people in general (homines) was Go6 and the following
examples showing its use.
Gob Semark.—One of themselves : i.e. a Negrito.
Gob Peletau.—A white man.
Semark Plek (or Pleh), however, is the name given to the
Hill Sakai, so, as I have stated above, Semark in their dialect
means any kind of aboriginal. A rather curious point is that
the word Gop or Gob seems to be used among some tribes of
aborigines to denote the Malays only, for instance the Sakai
of Sungkai call the Malays Gob or Mai Gob, the word they use
for men (homines) being Mai.
The Semang of Grik, like the Jehehr, whose custom in
this respect I describe below, use the blood-throwing ceremony
when frightened by a thunderstorm, and say to the
thunder spirit " Dayah hog di baling.'" This they told me
means " Take up the blood," but, if baling has the same
meaning as in Malay, I should guess that a more correct
translation would be, " Take up the blood that we throw you."
Children are forbidden to play about in the water, as it is supposed
that this would cause a thunderstorm.
At burials the Semang say to the spirit of the deceased
" Dh\ Du\ Yakl," which they told me means "Go! Go!
"
Hear
! Hear " i.e. " Go your way !
our command !
THE ORANG JEHEHR OF TEMENGOH.
(PI. XXXI Fig. 2, PI. XXXII Fig. i.)
This tribe, which speaks a Semang dialect, appears to be
of fairly pure Negrito blood. The hair of many individuals,
though not all, is typically woolly, and, with one exception,
the skin colour in all that I met, was extremely dark. The
type of features, however, varied to some extent, as did the
character of the hair, and while it was easy to pick out
individuals who in both respects were typically negritic, mixed
types were observable, some of whom had straight or wavy
hair, and other features which were decidedly not Negrito, but
Sakai. As on first acquaintance, and also to a less extent
later, they were inclined to be rather nervous, I thought it
better not to attempt to take any physical measurements, a
performance which was likely to be regarded with considerable
suspicion. A fair number of ethnographical specimens were
purchased for the Perak Museum; and for the smaller articles,
silver «ten cent pieces were in great demand. In the matter
of money the Jehehr are still very unsophisticated, and when
I had to pay more than a dollar for specimens, I had the
greatest difficulty in getting them to accept notes, their constant
request being for silver dollars, as they said that they did
not want, or understand, "tree leaves." One man to whom
I paid two dollars in ten cent, pieces was quite uncertain how
many he ought to receive. Needless to say, the local Malays