Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VIII SAVAGE MALAYS OF SELANGOR 389
They are most energetic, and never sleep in the
middle of the day ; they go to bed early, and rise
early.
^
III.
—
Jakun.
Blandas.— The methods used by the Blandas of
Kuala Langat for manufacturing their bark-cloth are
similar to those of the Sakai, the bark of the Arto-
carpus being detached and pounded in the same way.
An interesting development of the wooden mallet
used for pounding the cloth is, however, to be found
among the Blandas, this mallet being furnished with
transverse ridges or teeth cut into its under surface.
These teeth facilitate the process of separating the
fibres, and render the material softer and more
flexible." As a rule the bark-cloth of the Blandas is
quite undecorated, though when made from the bark
of the Artocarpns it is stained by the sap of the tree
to a sort of deep reddish tinge. Their baskets are the
" sentong " or back-basket and the " kampah " ; their
wallet patterns are copied by the Malays.
Besisi.—Among the chief articles of mat-work made
by the Besisi women of Kuala Langat are sleeping-
mats (made of undyed material, but otherwise not
unlike the ordinary Malay type), small square mats
for sitting on,^ mat-work bags for holding rice and
other objects, and the small delicately woven pouches
of pandanus (or rush-work) which they continually
carry at their waists to hold their tobacco, their ilint
and steel, their apparatus for chewing the betel-leaf,
' J. A. G. Campbell, p. 243. and other non- Mohammedan tribes of
* This specimen is in the Museum the Malay Archipelago. Among the
at Cambridge ; t'. ante, p. 140. Peninsular tribes, however, they are
* These small square mats correspond never worn, but rolled up for carrying
to the sitting-mats worn by the Dayaks whenever necessary.