Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

[918 [.H.N.Evans: Beliefs of the Behrattg-Valley Senoi. 201
own benefit — he was suffering from a bad cough—told me,
however, that he could not claim to be a true Halak, since he
did not possess a Gunik (Familiar Spirit), but that he merely
followed ancient custom in " playing " .
a little to try and cure
his complaint. The rites had been carried out in a small oneroomed
house, pecially built foi the purpose. The walls oi
this only reached half way up to the thatch, and a doorway at
the back opened on to a small boat-shaped platform (Balm
lendut), about eight feet long, and on a level with the floor of
the house. This was supported on three trestles, made of six
small trees felled at the roots and crossed in pairs below
it. Their lower branches had been trimmed away, but
their upper parts, still bearing branches, projected above the
platform to a height of about seven or eight feet on either
side. Two rails had been lashed to the trunks of the trees
about three and a half feet above the flooring while a rattan
cord girdled the trees near their tops, each extremity of it
being attached to the end wall of the house. The branches of
the trees, when the -tincture was first erected, had been
covered with leaves, but, at the time of my visit the foliage
had withered and fallen. A number of long water bamboos of
ornamented with wavy double lines running
longitudinally, wen- placed at the far end of the platform,
leaning against the rattan cord. Katil pointed out that one of
the-'- was longer than the others, having seven internodes, as
compared with six. This long bamboo was used by the chief
performer for ceremonial bathing; the others by the rest of the
people. The bases of these bamboos were slightly ornamented
with carving.
Hanging on the rails of the Balai lendut, and suspended fiom
the roof within the house, were various ceremonial ornaments.
Some of these were made from palm-leaves plaited into fanciful
shapes, among them being decorations for which the Sakai
gave me the following Malay names, gelang giring, gelang
rantai, burong denak, tali dendan, tali Hong, and tali savnit.
Other decorations of the same class for which I obtained Sakai
names were layang-layang hut 1" ascending swallows "); layang
1
layang chiloh ["descending swallows"); tuk keh-ep (" centi-
\emrong tumpi (?), and plekjeh-or (" fruit of the
cocoanut "). Two small pyramidal structures, made of bertam
pith, and oi slightly different types were suspended inside the
house. These, each of which had a doorway and model steps
leading up to it, were railed balai sagi ; and balai krauk (krauk
is equivalent to kerawang in Malay). The balai sagi was the
most ornamental of the two and was crowned by a figure of a
bird (chiap cheralah), model tampoi and rambai fruits (pleh
tampoi and pick rami) and decorations called sarak lute (i.e.
bees' in- -1 1. Othei ceremonial objects were shaved sticks
(chendrok), tin- shavings standing out from the stems in circles
at short but regular intervals; hanging decorations called
patong salting, made of two small pieces of thin board intersecting
at right-angles: patong gimbar, hanging ornaments