52
This dressing up of the buffaloes, when taken in conjunction with the suspension of the breast-
ornament about their necks, suggests the survival of anthropomorphic ideas about the
sacrificial buffalo. ↑
53
Among the Malays the use of the naubat is confined to the reigning Rajas of a few States, and
the privilege is one of the most valuable insignia of royalty. In Perak the office of musician
used to be an hereditary one, the performers were called Orang Kalau, and a special tax was
levied for their support (J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 104). ↑
54
I was told that these dangerous genii or spirits resided in the naubat or Big State Drum, the two
gĕndang or Small State Drums, the two langkara or State Kettle Drums, the lĕmpiri or State
Trumpet, the sĕrunei or State Flute, and the k’ris or State Dagger, called (in Selangor) b’rok
bĕrayun, or the “Swaying Baboon,” which latter is said to have slain “a hundred men less one”
since it was first used. [I learnt this from H.H. the late Sultan himself, and here record it,
because it has sometimes been asserted that H.H. the Sultan claimed to have slain these ninety-
nine men with his own hand, which H.H. assured me was not the case.] The sanctity of the
remaining pieces of the regalia appears to be less marked. They are the payong ubor-ubor or
State Umbrella, the State Trident, and the State Lances or tombak bandangan. Of the Selangor
State Trumpet I was told that any one who “brushed hastily past it” (siapa-siapa mĕlintas-nya)
would be fined one dollar, even if he were the Sultan himself (walo’ Sultan-pun kĕna juga). ↑
55
But in Malay Sketches (p. 215) we read that in Perak the royal instruments accompany the
royal water-parties, and that “the royal bugler sits on the extreme end of the prow, and from
time to time blows a call on the antique silver trumpet of the regalia.” ↑
56
The Malay headman (Haji Brahim), the priest of the local mosque, the Bilal (an inferior
attendant at the mosque), and some thirty Malays belonging to the village, took part in this
ceremony. A goat had been killed for the occasion, and the party who were paying the vow
brought its flesh with them, together with a great heap of rice stained with saffron (turmeric).
The men assembled at the tomb, incense was burned, and Arabic prayers read, after which a
white cloth, five cubits long, was laid on the saint’s grave. A banquet followed, in which we all
took part. ↑
57
Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. i. p. 189. ↑