Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAPTER I.
Birth-Customs and Beliefs.
By far the most important and interesting contribu-
tion hitherto made to our knowledge of the birth-
customs of the three wild races dealt with in these
volumes, whether Negrito, Sakai, or Savage Malayans,
is contained in the remarks of H. Vaughan-Stevens
upon the means by which (according to the Semang)
the body of the living but unborn child is provided
with a soul. The word "living" is used in order to
distinguish between the "spirit of life" ("jiwa") and
the soul (" semangat"), which latter (it may be helpful
to say at the outset) is used throughout this book (as
throughout Malay Magic) in the cultural sense of
Tylor's definition (which agrees far more closely with
our own mediaeval ideas of the soul than with its
modern conception as transfigured by the ideas of
Christianity). Although Vaughan-Stevens' account
still awaits corroboration from explorers among the
Semang (and is therefore printed in small type), it
is none the less eminently credible, for the idea of
comparing the soul to a bird, or of identifying
it in some way with a bird, is of world-wide distribution,^
and is well known to the Malays, who
call the soul the " pingai " bird, and in their magical
^ For references, see Rev. de PHist. des Religions, xxxvii. 385.
VOL. II
B