Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

420 DECORATIVE ART part ii
The Theories of Vaughan-Stevens.
comb patterns.
In the following pages the description of the
patterns employed by the Semang, although given in
the form of a summary of Vaughan-Stevens' own words
as reported by his German editor/ has been revised,
rearranged, and corrected where necessary.'
The magical bamboo back-combs of the Semang
women are worn throughout the entire Semang region,"^
though on the western side of the main mountain range
of the Peninsula, from Kedah to Perak, rather for orna-
mental than for any other reasons, the rules for composing
the patterns being now forgotten there. The
use of these combs (the name for which is "tin-leig" or
" tela' ") is to serve as a means of protecting women
against the diseases {e.g. fever, called "pong" in Semang)
against which the flowers referred to are of service.
For external injuries, such as those caused by a falling
tree in the jungle, or by the bite of a centipede, other
talismans are used, not combs. The Semang employ
no comb for the purpose of dressing their stubborn,
closely curled hair, yet the women often wear eight
back combs at a time, and sometimes even as many
as sixteen, which in this case form a double row,
the one behind the other. When eight combs are
worn, two are fixed side by side facing frontwards, two
backwards, and two towards each side, the teeth being
inserted right up to the solid part of the comb. The
choice of a comb or set of combs depends in each
^ Z./.£. XXV. 71-100(^0?. Griinwedel). enclosed in square brackets.
For list of comb patterns, v. App. •' Hair-combs were also seen by
'^ For the convenience of future Lapicque among the Semang of Ulu
investigators passages that contain Selama. — Tour du Monde, N.S., i.
statements requiring corroboration are (1895), 620.