Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

438 DECORATIVE ART part ii
a smaller bore. To make it more portable, the tube
(" ga' ") was of small diameter, and several tubes were
often carried at the same time, one fitting into the
other. They served at the same time to contain the
flowers and herbs that were required for warding off
Diseases.^
The quivers ("go'"), which are closely related to
the charm-holders ("ga' "), were cut and carried in the
same way, only the charm -tube was usually carried
in the quiver, which latter was the larger of the two.
When they adopted the blowpipe of the Sakai,
the Semang kept their darts in the " go'," ^ instead of
adopting the highly specialised Sakai quiver— the
Semang still retain a strong dislike to carrying anything
slung around the hips,^ This is the reason why
the darts are so much shorter than the quiver* con-
taining them, i.e. because it was once used for another
purpose. The Sakai quiver had a soft wooden bed
at the bottom to receive the dart-points, and for this (in
the "go' ") the magic leaves and flowers were substi-
tuted. The Sakai quivers had a cap to protect the
contents from rain ; but
the Semang were prevented
from covering the orifice, [because the effect of the
magic flowers would in that case have been nei'',ralised.
But on the introduction of the blowpipe, the patterns,
which (up to that time) had been incised upon the
charm-holders, were transferred to the shorter portion
(" yoh ") of the inner tube of the blowpipe. But
although the lower part of the pattern (corresponding
to the " chenel-us " or charred end of the charm-tube)
^ Cf. Vaughan-Stevens, iii. 131. " Quivers for blowpipe arrows."
2 The proper name for the quiver is ^ Cf. Z.f. E. xxv. 75.
"go'," or "goh," which latter is l)e * I.e. 28 to 30 cm. against the 35
Morgan's word for quiver ("carquois"); 1045 cm. of the quivers (without the
cp. Vaughan-Stevens, iii. 171, under knot).