Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

430 DECORATIVE ART part ii
fact (say the Pangan) that the women are not able
to go far enough alone into the jungle, to seek any
particular flower, when the Disease finds them without
the appropriate comb. In such cases the woman looks
for " was " or " pawer " flowers like those depicted on
the comb, and takes the nearest match she can get.
These, however, must not be the same as those for the
quiver and charm-tube patterns, but may correspond
to the third, fourth, and fifth panel of the comb.
These plants, which are akin to those of the precise
species desired, the woman deposits in a bamboo tube
filled with water, and stirs them round to some extent
in the water, and if she can likewise obtain the
special " was " and " pawer " flowers, she adds these
also and drinks the infusion. She then rubs the wet
flowers on the affected part of her body before
throwing them away.]
In course of time certain flowers came to be
looked on as having more healing power than others,
and in consequence the patterns derived from them
were preferred for wearing on the combs. This,
however, is a matter of individual taste.
[The fact is, that although the actually specified
flowers would (it is believed) have effected an
immediate cure, yet even the flowers most nearly
related to them will eventually, though much more
slowly, produce the desired result. If then, in panels
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, for which no strict rules exist, a special
sign is found, it is taken to indicate that the Sna-hut
should be summoned in case the Disease should get
too strong a footing. In former times, according to
tradition, it was the special duty of the Sna-hut to
see that the incised figures were correct, and from
this Vaughan-Stevens concludes that the choice of