Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. Ill NEGRITOS OF KEDAH \ic)
in Kedah, where, side by side with the long "communal
shelter in which the tribe lived, stood a tiny granary
in which their scanty stores of rice were preserved.
This little granary stood on six thin posts, the floor
being raised about 4-5 ft. (1.2 m. to 1.5 m.) from the
ground, for the purpose of protecting its contents
from small marauders. It measured about 4
"
ft. in
length by about 3
was little more in fact than a large box on posts. Its
ft. (1.2 m. x.91 m.) in width, and
walls were made of tree-bark, and the roof was
thatched with the leaf of the " bertam " palm, and
it was entered by a tiny doorway to which access was
afforded by a long inclined pole. From the stage in
which these tiny huts were used solely for the pur-
poses of storage, to one in which they could be used
as dwellings, the transition would be as easy and as
natural as possible.
On the other hand, it must here be remarked that
although in this way they may sometimes come to
dwelling— in Malayan fashion—in a hut with raised
flooring, the Semang nevertheless appear to retain a
strong predilection for building their huts either
altogether aloft in trees, or else upon the level of the
ground itself.^
Perak Semang.— Direct evidence of huts with raised
flooring being inhabited by pure Semang is very scanty.
The Semang village mentioned by De Morgan prob-
ably belonged to this latter (more developed) class,
especially as he describes it as standing in the midst
' The huts built by the Pan^an seem carry alxjui with them when they move to
rather intended for the purpose of their next campint;-place. These huts
storing supplies {e.g. rice) than for are always set up in the thickest part of
regular occupation. Five or six of the jungle, and by way of further precau-
these huts are usually built in one place, tion thearlicles left behindare frequently
and the Pangan leave such articles of marked with special signs.—V.-St. iii.
property there as they do not wish to 102, 103.