Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

86 RACIAL AFFINITIES
thus directed backwards with open palms, and the legs are struck outwards at
each motion of the body, like those of a frog. The children swim as well as
adults, even before they can walk. The Orang Laut are also excellent divers. ^
Among the Jakuns, two children at a time will take the end of a rattan-rope
between the teeth and tug till one has conquered the other ; but they have not
the Malay tug-of-war.
It amused me very much to see how a small Jakun boy one day diverted
his comrades by sitting down in the well-known Indian fashion, with the soles
of his feet placed flat on the floor, his legs bent at the knees, and drawn up
close to the body, and his body depressed till it almost touched the ground.
While he was in this position a short stick of bamboo was placed through his
elbows behind his back. Thus handicapped, the fat, tubby little fellow had to
bend forward till he touched the ground with his forehead, without letting the
bamboo slip out of position. All made the attempt, but this little fellow was the
most expert and agile of all.^
Sleeping.
The Jakun, whether lying on one side or the other, usually rolls himself
together into a "ball" for sleeping. If the night is hot, he soon begins to
unroll himself a bit, but in the early or colder hours of the morning one
can be quite sure of finding both sexes with knees drawn up to the body.
The children sleep from earliest childhood on a mat which is laid upon the
ground. Their place is at their mother's breast, between her and the smouldering
fire, and enclosed more or less in her arms.^
As soon as signs of approaching puberty appear in their children, the Jakuns
arrange for them to sleep apart. On land, the boy slept in a separate part of the
hut, or in the front part of the boat if he was on water. In the covered
platforms on the coast the girls slept with the married people. In the temporary
huts with covered platforms used in former times, which the Jakuns %asited in
their well-known places of assembly on the coast, the bachelors, when they
passed the night there, always slept in huts which were separate from the married
people.*
Physical Endurance.
In illustration of the fortitude of the Jakun, Vaughan - Stevens tells of
one who had deep-seated ulcers. " I gave him sulphate of copper {Blaustein)
and zincoid, showed him how to use it, and expressly warned him to be careful.
But as I feared a misunderstanding, I followed him soon after he had left me,
and came upon my patient just as he had made use of the Blaustein. That
had been done very freely, as the earlier neglect of the ulcer prevented him
from feeling it at once, although the whole surface of about four square inches
was touched with it." The patient squatted on the ulcered leg, and Vaughan-
Stevens saw the muscles of the leg quiver and contract into knots in consequence
of the pain which the patient felt after a few minutes ; but not a
movement, not a sound, nor any other sign except a deep breathing was to be
observed. " He began to speak in firmly measured tones, and when I
remarked that that was called medicine (' ubat '), he calmly replied that the
doctor (' bomor ') had told him so. He had shown endurance with a vengeance,
but as there was no reason to put him to a further test, I gave him a morphia
injection, for which he was very grateful."-''
The question of the Jakun's sensitiveness to heat is difficult to answer, since
1 Z.f. E. xxix. 198. - lb. p. 20 1.
* lb. p. 190. ^ lb. pp. 205, 206.
•"
lb. 186.