Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

46o DECORATIVE ART
BURIAL BAMBOOS/
[The " penitah " or burial bamboo is a bamboo
tube covered with incised patterns which is buried
with the deceased, whose soul is supposed to take it
to the judgment throne of Kari. If the dead person
has been very wicked in life, his tribal chief or Sna-
hut, who alone is in a position to cut the patterns on
the burial bamboo, refuses to do so, and the soul
which, when interrogated by Kari, cannot produce
its own burial bamboo is condemned. The power
that the chief (Sna-hut) exercises in consequence of
this belief is boundless.
The engraved patterns differ for these chiefs (Sna-
hut) ^ according to the sex and age of the deceased ;
that of the Sna-hut himself differing from those of the
other members of the tribe. The Puttos or greater
chiefs, too, had their own " penitah " pattern, but this
is no longer known to any one. Vaughan- Stevens
failed to obtain a detailed explanation of these patterns,
and all he could make out was that the pattern
assigned to the chiefs or Sna-hut had reference to
their functions as medicine-men, and that it had been
assigned to them by Pie and the greater chiefs or
Puttos.
The burial bamboo of the men is always a larger
and longer tube than that of the women. Formerly
it always bore a name-mark ("chor"), but now it is
usually made without any such distinction.^
The very different patterns which are in use for
A, in order that the space may be filled —Vaughan-Stevens, iii. 1 16.
out." All this may be true, but see, ' Vaughan-Stevens, iii. 1 19-123.
however, remarks on p. 404 as to the ^ See illustrations {ib. p. 119).
essential irregularity of these patterns. ^ Ib. p. 1 20. Cf.Am the illustrations.