Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

I40 DRESS I'ART 11
Jakun, and indeed among other aboriginal tril^es with
Malayan affinities, e.g. among those of Sumatra and
Borneo. This question, therefore, must also await
further inquiry.
The ofirdle of bark-cloth is so well-known and so
widely spread throughout S. E. Asia, the Malay Archi-
pelago, and the Pacific Islands, that a very few words
about it should here suffice. The finest and bestknown
variety of this cloth is the " tapa " cloth of
Polynesia. The cloth made by the tribes of the
Malay Peninsula is, as a rule, more roughly manu-
factured, though some very good cloth, decorated with
zigzag patterns, is made in Perak. An interesting
point is that the grooving or toothing of the bark-cloth
mallet used by some of the Jakun runs longitudinally
instead of transversely as in specimens from Rotuma.^
Ligatures.
The bands or ligatures worn by the aborigines
round the upper part of the arm, the wrist, and just
below the knee, were doubtless originally employed,
as in other parts of the world, for a practical object,
viz. to strengthen the muscles and prevent strains,
the risk of which must be constantly present to the
mmd of a jungle people. It would appear just
possible that even the use of the girdle, more especially
that of coiled cane, may perhaps, in some cases, have
had an equally utilitarian origin. On the other hand,
this explanation can hardly apply to the necklace, or
to rings, so that one key will certainly not fit all the
locks. The necklaces worn by these Peninsular tribes,
and I think also the rings, are certainly worn for
' Cp. p. 389, infra. I have to thank Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner for pointing
this out.