It had opened, and revealed the nutmeg with its
dark brown shell showing through its crimson reticulated envelope of
mace, the whole lying in a bed of pure white, a beautiful object.
Each house in the kampong seemed to have all its inmates at home doing
nothing but chewing betel-nut. In their home deshabilles the men wear
only the sarong, and a handkerchief knotted round their heads, and I
think that the women also dispense with an upper garment, for I noticed
at the approach of two strange men they invariably huddled another
sarong over their shoulders, heads, and faces, holding it so as to
conceal all but their eyes. The young children, as usual, were only
clothed in silver ornaments. This neglige dress in the privacy of their
homes is merely a matter of custom and climate, for these people are no
more savages than we are. These glimpses of a native tropic life,
entirely uninfluenced by European civilization, are most interesting.
In these kampongs the people have music, singing, story-telling,
games, and religious ceremonies, perhaps the most important of all. I
have not heard that the Perak Malays differ in their religious
observances from the other Malays of the Peninsula. It seems that
before "a parish" can be formed there must be forty-four houses. The
kampong may then have a properly constituted mosque in which every
Friday the religious officer recites an oration in praise of God, the
Prophet, and his vicegerents, from the steps of a rostrum.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 358 of 437
Words from 98340 to 98599
of 120530
