Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

1916.] I. H. N. Evans: Upper Perak Aborigines. 207
on the Temengoh River, and some five or six miles below
Temengoh village, I paid a visit to a shelter, or rather assemblage
of shelters, which was much more typically Negrito.
This camp consisted of eight screens of attaps placed roughly
in a circle, and arranged so that the "roofs" nearly met in the
centre, a\ hile enclosed within the circle were the boles of two
fairly large trees. One or more bamboo sleeping-platforms
was to be seen under every shelter, and a fire, at which the
Jehehr not only cook their food, but warm themselves at night,
was smouldering close to each platform. This type of habitation
was exactly similar to those I 'had seen on a former
occasion among the Semang of Lenggong.
In reaching the settlement just described, I had to pass
through t\NO clearings of considerable size. The first of these
was deserted, but the second, although the padi crop had been
reaped, still afforded the Jehehr some bananas, some brinjals
and other vegetables. In this second clearing was a small
watcher's hut, built in a commanding position, and raised
on very high posts. On one side of the clearing and not far
from the jungle, was a house built on posts in the usual
Malay (or Sakai) fashion, but this had been abandoned, after
the harvest, in favour of the ground shelters already described,
which were in the jungle.
As far as I could gather, the Jehehr have practically
no religious beliefs. Souls after death, according to their
statement, went to dwell by the edge of the sea, and they seem
to be afraid that the spirits of the dead may linger near
the huts of their relatives and trouble them, since they told me,
that when a corpse is being buried they say "Bail Dun\
Dunl Diinl Di-prak\" \\hich they said meant "Dig! Leave!
Go !
" I was also told that offerings of food were placed on the
graves. Two kinds of grave-ghosts, not, it seems, spirits
of the dead, are much feared, these being named Kemoid and
Sara. I could obtain no evidence that there was any belief in
a Supreme Being, though the Jehehr, are certainly, exceedingly
afraid of thunder {hare), as are most of the aboriginal tribes,
but though thunder, according to Vaughan Stevens, is the
Semang supreme god I could find nothing to show that it was
so regarded by the Jehehr, yet it is certainly thought to
be caused by a powerful spirit, who may be appeased by an
offering of blood.
The Jehehr said, that when a thunderstorm came on, they
cut the outside of the calf of the right leg near the shin-bone
with a knife, and taking a few drops of blood from the wound
on the knife blade, and putting them into the palm of the left
hand, threw them up into the air saying, "Haroidl Saidthl"
(Throw it away! Sleep! (?)). Various actions are tabu, as
they are supposed to bring on thunderstorms, which may
involve the death by lightning (cJiilou) of others, as well as of
the transgressor. For instance it is tabu for anj^one to kill a
millipede, to shoot an owl with blow-pipe, or to flash a