Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. IX NEGRITOS OF PERAK 421
case upon three considerations — (i) the Disease or
Diseases prevalent anywhere in the neighbourhood
at the time of choice ; (2) those Diseases which are
most dreaded at the time ;
and
(3) the presence or
otherwise of other women.
[To understand this last consideration it must
be remembered that according to Semang ideas
the winds bring Diseases with them as punishment
for any sins that Kari, the thunder-god, desires to
avenge by their means. The Wind-demon, who is
sent from Kari with this message, passes over the
head of the person and deposits the Disease upon his
(or her) forehead, from whence it spreads over the
rest of the body. But the god Pie (" Play") pacifies
Kari and turns aside the punishments decreed by him,
by giving the Semang a talisman that the winds dare
not approach. If, therefore, a woman is protected by
the correct form of magic comb, the Wind, on touching
her head, encounters the scent of the " was " (the first
or uppermost panel of the comb), and thereupon falls to
the ground until the wearer of the comb has passed.
If several women, each wearing a particular set of
combs, are sitting or walking together, and a Disease
comes in the name of Kari to punish one of them
who is not wearing the protective comb pattern, yet
so long as there is another woman close by who is
wearing it, the first panel pattern of the latter will
protect the former woman. Hence when several
women are walking together they wear different combs
for their mutual protection from different Diseases.]
[The winds do not bring every kind or any special
kind of Disease, though every Disease has a special
wind as its messenger, and hence comes the necessity
of varying first-panel (" was ") patterns. It is not as