umbrella was confined to his family.”^38
A number of other particulars bearing on this subject will be found in other parts
of the text, and in the Appendix references are given to other works for
additional details, which are too numerous to be recorded here.
“At funerals, whether the deceased has been a great or insignificant person, if he
be a subject, the use of the Payong (umbrella) and the Puwadi is interdicted, as
also the distribution of alms, unless by royal permission; otherwise the articles
thus forbidden will be confiscated.” “Puwadi is the ceremony of spreading a
cloth, generally a white one, for funeral and other processions to walk upon.
Should the deceased be of high rank, the cloth extends from the house where the
corpse is deposited, to the burial-ground.”^39
Similar prohibitions are still in force at the courts of the Malay Sultans in the
Peninsula, though a yellow umbrella is now generally substituted for the white,
at least in Selangor.
A distinction is also now drawn between manufactured yellow cloth and cloth
which has been dyed yellow with saffron, the wrongful use of the latter (the
genuine article) being regarded as the more especially heinous act.
In addition to the royal monopoly of such objects as have been mentioned, Sir
W. E. Maxwell mentions three royal perquisites (larangan raja), i.e. river turtles
(tuntong) (by which he no doubt means their eggs); elephants (by which he
doubtless means elephants’ tusks);^40 and the fruit of the “kĕtiar” from which oil
is made by the Perak Malays. He adds, “It used to be a capital offence to give
false information to the Raja about any of these. The ‘kĕtiar’ tree is said to affect
certain localities, and is found in groves not mixed with other trees. In former
days, when the fruit was ripe, the whole of the Raja’s household would turn out
to gather it. It is said to yield a very large percentage of oil.”^41
The only tree in Ridley’s list^42 whose name at all resembles the “kĕtiar” is the
katiak, which is identified as Acronychia Porteri, Wall (Rutaceæ).
A description of the gathering of the eggs of river turtles by the royal party in
Perak will be found in Malay Sketches.^43