Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

422
DECORATIVE ART
a rule the case that a " was " should especially avail
against more than one particular kind of Disease,
though many of these patterns to a lesser extent
may avail against other Diseases as well. It does not
therefore often happen (though it may sometimes do
so) that a Semang cuts a first-panel pattern on a comb
for any other than its specific purpose. It is said that
the profusion of first-panel patterns which exists has
arisen occasionally through their being changed by
the magicians, who excused themselves on the above
grounds whenever it happened.] On the whole, a
Semang woman possesses as a rule from twenty to
thirty magic combs, so that in an encampment in which
there are several women a great number of patterns
are present. The women lend each other their combs
or omit to wear them as the case may be, especially
when, e.g., several of them are together, and one may
be protected by the combs worn by the others. In
the huts or shelters the combs are taken out of the
hair and inserted between the slats of the roof.
At night the combs are not worn. When a woman
is buried all her combs are buried with her, so that
the Diseases which have been warded off from her
body during her lifetime may not hurt her soul when
dead. The idea appears to be that the soul of the
deceased should have the same protection secured to
it that the living has possessed.
In the ways above described, the encampment is
sufficiently protected, as long as the Semang do not
leave the place they are in.
[Concerning the origin of the custom, the invariable
explanation of the Semang is that the patterns of the
magic comb were the invention of their god Pie,
and that the patterns employed were not borrowed