“Takki Takki^167 are riddles and enigmas, to the propounding and solving of
which the females and educated classes of the people are much inclined.
“The games played by children are Tujoh Lobang,^168 Punting, Chimpli, Kechil
Krat, Kuboh, etc.”^169
Of all minor games, top-spinning and kite-flying are perhaps the most popular.
The kites are called layang-layang, which means a “swallow,” but are
sometimes of great size, one which was brought to me at Langat measuring some
six feet in height by about seven feet between the tips of the wings. The
peculiarity of the Malay kite is that it presents a convex, instead of a concave,
surface to the wind, and that no “tail” is required, the kite being steadied by
means of a beak which projects forward at the top of the framework. They are
also usually provided with a thin, horizontal slip of bamboo (dĕngong) stretched
tightly behind the beak, and which hums loudly in the wind. They are of a great
number of different but well-recognised patterns, such as the “Fighting Dragons”
(Naga bĕrjuang), the Crescent (Sahari bulan), the Eagle (Rajawali), the Bird of
Paradise (Chĕndrawasih), and so forth. A small kind of roughly-made kite is, as
is well known, used at Singapore for fishing purposes, but I have never yet met
with any instance of their being used ceremonially, though it is quite certain that
grown-ups will fly them with quite as much zest as children.
Top-spinning, again, is a favourite pastime among the Malays, and is played by
old and young of all ranks with the same eagerness.^170 The most usual form of
top is not unlike the English pegtop, but has a shorter peg. It is spun in the same
way and with the same object as our own pegtop, the object being to split the top
of one’s opponent.
Teetotums are also used, and I have seen in Selangor a species of bamboo
humming-top, but was told that it was copied from a humming-top used by the
Chinese.
“The game of chess, which has been introduced from Arabia,^171 is played in
almost precisely the same manner as among Europeans, but the queen, instead of
being placed upon her own colour, is stationed at the right hand of the king. In
the Malay game the king, if he has not been checked, can be castled, but over
one space only, not over two, as in the English game. The king may, also, before