58
For the ideas referred to in this and the preceding paragraph, cp. Frazer, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 187–
- Cp. also for the abstention from hair-cutting at childbirth, Clifford’s Studies in Brown
Humanity, p. 48. The idea of long hair is found even in animistic conceptions of natural
objects. Thus the wind (Angin) is begged in a wind-charm “to let down its long and flowing
locks.” ↑
59
Raja Bĕrma, son of Raja Jaman of Bandar (Wan Bong). Cp. also Clifford, In Court and
Kampong, p. 114, “He wore his fine black hair long, so that it hung about his waist.”
The old custom in Selangor is said to have been for men to wear their hair down to the
shoulders (rambut panjang jijak bahu), but they would frequently wear it below the waist
(rambut sa-pĕrhĕmpasan), in which case it appears to have been commonly shorn at puberty or
marriage. When worn full length by men it was usually, for convenience, coiled up inside the
head-cloth or turban (saputangan or tanjak), or was made up into rolls or chignons (sanggul
dan siput) like that of the women. It was not infrequently used as a place of concealment for
one of the small Malay poniards called “Pepper-crushers” (tumbok lada), not only by men but
by women. ↑
60
Frazer, op. cit. vol. i. p. 193. ↑
61
Vide infra, Chap. VI. p. 569, seqq., etc. ↑
62
Vide infra, Chap. VI. pp. 353–355, Adolescence. ↑
63
“Ces danseurs et ces danseuses ont tous des ongles faux, et fort longs, de cuivre jaune.”—La
Loubère, Royaume de Siam, tome i. pp. 148–150 (quoted by Crawf., Hist. Indian Arch. i. p.
131). Cp. “They have a custom to wear their thumb-nails very long, especially that on their left
thumb, for they do never cut it, but scrape it often.”—Dampier’s Voyages, vol. i. pp. 325,
- ↑
64
Vide infra, Chap. VI. pp. 355–360. ↑
65
Or Sumangat. The derivation of the word is unknown: possibly it may be connected with
sangat, “excessive,” or bangat, “sudden, quick.” The meaning covers both “soul“and “life”
(i.e. not the state of being alive, but the cause thereof or “vital principle”). ↑