the information, and those of the outer circle his enemy. The counting is carried
out in precisely the same manner as before, and the headless figure in each case
represents the man who will lose. In the case of a drawn battle neither party, of
course, loses his head.
In the case of an absconder, a single circle of figures is used, the figures pointing
towards the centre signifying that the absconding party will return or be caught,
and those pointing away from the centre signifying the opposite. In one case (Pl.
25, Fig. 2) there are fourteen human figures arranged in two opposing rows of
seven, every alternate figure being headless. In this case you start the counting at
the right-hand figure of the bottom row, and count towards the left. Yet another
form of divination in which the human figure is made use of, is shown in Pl. 25,
Fig. 1; a number of small red circles (which should be alternately dark and light)
are drawn at the salient points of the figure, and counted down to the left in
order, beginning at the head. All I have yet been able to discover about the
villainous-looking individual here portrayed is the fact that he is said to represent
one “Unggas Tĕlang,” who was described to me as an “old war-chief”
(hulubalang tua) of the Sea-gypsies (Orang Laut) and the Malay pirates.