Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. IX GENERAL REMARKS 399
Stevens for the fact, a strong-scented kind of Ixora,
and the " pawer " a similar flower with a somewhat
weaker scent.' It is therefore quite conceivable that
the two upper panels of the pattern of the particular
comb that he took for his type, or even of a set of
such combs, may represent, or at least in some way
possess an association with, two kinds of Ixora.
That this solution is more than merely possible is
shown by the names of the third and fourth panels,
whose names, as given by Vaughan- Stevens, are
partly Semang and partly Malay, and mean " rice-
fruit " (i.e. rice-grains) and " salak "-fruit - respectively.
This practice, in fact, of giving names to patterns or
parts of patterns, either from something that they
actually represent, or from something they are supposed
to resemble (or are associated with in use), is a very
usual and general practice in the Malay Peninsula, and
is so obvious a method of describing a pattern that we
must confess we see nothing very striking or original
in the idea. For an exact parallel, see the " cucumber-
seed " pattern described below. Hence the parts of the
pattern would represent different flowers or fruit ;—
very different thing from the elaborate theory stated
above, which is based 7ipo?t a botanical ana/ysis of the
coinponent parts of a si^igle flower— this latter being a
' The chief kinds of Ixora found species is the Ixora referred to as
indigenous to the Peninsula, according " Tetawar bindang," for the Malay
ioKidXny's Plant- List, ^TQ Ixora fulgens, word " padi '' means simply rice, or
Roxb., and other species (A'K/'/V7