Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. Ill SAKAl OF PAHANG 185
to a connection between the two races was that they
kept large fires burning in the centre of their houses
during the night, and that it was only during the first
part of the night that they slept, after that they sat up
round the fire and talked till morning.'
Ihit Furniture— PiUoivs.
Perak Sakai.— It appears that pillows were much
more generally used by the Sakai than by the Semang.
The pillow of the Central Sakai (Senoi) men was
always an internode of bamboo, through each extremity
of which four small round pegs were driven. The
pillows of the women were the same, but they were
usually fitted with a pair of pegs or " feet " pointed at
both ends, so that by a blow they could be driven into
the hole at the end or taken out. For this purpose part
of the node was cut away, in order to allow the inside of
the tube to be reached. Small objects that the women
used for their toilet or for other purposes were kept in
the interior of these bamboo pillows ;
and by means of
the " feet " they were prevented from falling out again.
These pillows were of various patterns, which
differed with the tribe. The Central Sakai (Senoi),
who always appear to have had a somewhat more
artistic feeling than the other Sakai (Blandas), say
that their bamboo pillows were formerly ornamented
with incised lines or " painted " emblems.' but that
these are all now forgotten, and the form of pillow
now universally employed is a kind of stuff-bag or
pillow filled with cotton. This new form of pillow,
however, could only be used when the tribe became
more settled. So long as they remained entirely
' Wray in /. R. A. S., S. B., No. "^ Z. f. E. xxix. (V.-St.) 186.
21, p. 162. 3 In origin.il, " jtainted totems"!
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