[44] Others are titah (commands); patek (slave); mĕrka or murka (wrath); karnia or kurnia (favour); and nĕgrah or anugrah (permission); the penalty of uttering any of which, except in addressing the sovereign, is death, i.e. should the offender be a royal slave; should he be any other individual, he is struck on the mouth.—Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 233–234; vide also Malay Sketches, p. 218, where the same list of linguistic taboos appears to be used in Perak. [↑]
[45] Marhum, one who has found mercy, i.e. the deceased. It is the custom of Malays to discontinue after the death of a king the use of the title which he bore during his life. A new title is invented for the deceased monarch, by which he is ever afterwards known. The existence of a similar custom among other Indo-Chinese races has been noticed by Colonel Yule: “There is also a custom of dropping or concealing the proper name of the king. This exists in Burma and (according to La Loubère) in Siam. The various kings of those countries are generally distinguished by some nickname derived from facts in their reign or personal relations, and applied to them after their decease. Thus we hear among the Burmese kings of ‘the king dethroned by foreigners,’ ‘the king who fled from the Chinese,’ ‘the grandfather king,’ and even ‘the king thrown into the water.’ Now this has a close parallel in the Archipelago. Among the kings of Macassar, we find one king known only as the ‘Throat-cutter’; another as ‘He who ran amuck’; a third, ‘The beheaded’; a fourth, ‘He who was beaten to death on his own stair-case.’” Colonel Yule ascribes the origin of this custom to Ancient India. [Journal Anthrop. Institute.] J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 98. [↑]
[46] Newbold, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 288, note. [↑]
[47] The bakong is a kind of lily; the sirih is the Malay betel-vine. [↑]
[48] J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 17, p. 93. [↑]
[49] Touching hands is done with both hands together. If you touch hands with a man who is somewhat your superior in rank, it is proper, in drawing back your hands, to bring them at least as high as your chest; and if the other is decidedly your superior, even as high as your forehead, bending forward somewhat while doing so. [↑]
[50] Cliff., Stud. in Brown Humanity, p. 175. [↑]
[51] Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 113, and compare the following:—“Visitors to Jugra may often in the evening see a party of some 30 or 40 men coming along the road with His Highness” [the late Sultan ʿAbdulsamad of Selangor] “walking a few paces ahead of them. Should a native meet the little procession he will squat down at the side of the road until the Sultan has passed, for according to Malay ideas it shows a want of respect in a subject to remain standing in the presence of his Raja” ... “on replying to His Highness natives place the palms of their hands together and so raise them to their forehead, by way of obeisance, and this is done even by his own children.”—Selangor Journal, vol. i. No. 1, p. 5. [↑]
[52] This dressing up of the buffaloes, when taken in conjunction with the suspension of the breast-ornament about their necks, suggests the survival of anthropomorphic ideas about the sacrificial buffalo. [↑]
[53] Among the Malays the use of the naubat is confined to the reigning Rajas of a few States, and the privilege is one of the most valuable insignia of royalty. In Perak the office of musician used to be an hereditary one, the performers were called Orang Kalau, and a special tax was levied for their support (J.R.A.S., S.B., No. 9, p. 104). [↑]