teeth, the ears, and the nails, all of which I will take in their order.
The head, in the first place, is undoubtedly still considered by the Malays to
possess some modified degree of sanctity. A proof of this is the custom (ʿadat)
which regulates the extent of the sacrifice to be offered in a case of assault or
battery by the party committing the injury. If any part of the head is injured,
nothing less than a goat will suffice (the animal being killed and both parties
bathed in the blood); if the upper part of the body, the slaughter of a cock (to be
disposed of in a similar way) will be held to be sufficient reparation, and so on,
the sacrifice becoming of less value in proportion as the injured part is farther
from the head. So, too, Mr. Frazer writes: “The ... superstition (of the sanctity of
the head) exists among the Malays; for an early traveller reports that in Java
people ‘wear nothing on their heads, and say that nothing must be on their heads,
... and if any person were to put his hand upon their head they would kill him;
and they do not build houses with stories in order that they may not walk over
each other’s heads.’ It is also found in full force throughout Polynesia.”^57
From the principle of the sanctity of the head flows, no doubt, the necessity of
using the greatest circumspection during the process of cutting the hair.^58
Sometimes throughout the whole life of the wearer, and frequently during
special periods, the hair is left uncut. Thus I was told that in former days Malay
men usually wore their hair long, and I myself have seen an instance of this at
Jugra in Selangor in the person of a Malay^59 of the old school, who was locally
famous on this account. So, too, during the forty days which must elapse before
the purification of a woman after the birth of her child, the father of the child is
forbidden to cut his hair, and a similar abstention is said to have been formerly
incumbent upon all persons either prosecuting a journey or engaging in war.
Often a boy’s head is entirely shaven shortly after birth with the exception of a
single lock in the centre of the head, and so maintained until the boy begins to
grow up, but frequently the operation is postponed (generally, it is said, in
consequence of a vow made by the child’s parents) until the period of puberty or
marriage. Great care, too, must be exercised in disposing of the clippings of hair
(more especially the first clippings), as the Malay profoundly believes that “the
sympathetic connection which exists between himself and every part of his body
continues to exist even after the physical connection has been severed, and that
therefore he will suffer from any harm that may befall the severed parts of his
body, such as the clippings of his hair or the parings of his nails. Accordingly he