Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. IX GENERAL REMARKS 411
Bamboo Stampers.
We now come to the Sakai " tuntong " (more
correctly " tuang-tuang ") or " kovvet-niss," to which
recourse was had in every emergency of Hfe. These
bamboos always consisted of a pair of tubes, one of
which was somewhat smaller than the other, so that
quite different tones were produced by them when
struck. These tubes were closed at the lower end
by the natural node ; but they were left open at the
top, so that the closed end, when struck upon the
ground, emitted a distinct musical note.^
The illustrations will be treated in fuller detail
below. The first is 48 cm. high, the second 56 cm.
high.'-
There are also " tuang-tuangs " in secular use.
These, however, are neither provided with incised
patterns nor painted, but serve merely to give a signal
for calling home the inhabitants of a house or
village, since they can be heard at a great distance
through the jungle. These undecorated tubes are
common among tribes who live in the neighbourhood
ot the Malays. They serve in this case, however,
only as instruments of music.''
The patterns of the other objects classified call for
no special remark, being mostly confined to ring-lines
and plain geometrical patterns, with the exception of
those employed for decorating the person, which will
be fully treated in another chapter.
• Z. f. E. xxvi. 140. Vaughan- ^^ z^f^E. xxvi. 14S. V. Stevens
Stevens remarks that these "tuntonp;s" has here evidently confused the "tuang-
(as he calls ihom) are never struck upon luang" of these ]\itterns, which is a
wood. This refers, perhaps, to the mere "stamper," producing a note when
Sakai customs, as I myself have more struck against the ground, with an inthan
once seen and heard them struck strument hearing the same name which
upon the wooden tloor- limbers of has a mouth-hole al one side, and is
Jakun huts. really used as a species of "conch."