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100
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(APRIL, 1906.
little vanities about the stern-head and stern-post of his small boats, and so greatly does he hold the " figare-head" in estimation, that a class of boat is often named after the form given to the stern-head. European influence may now be seen at work to a greater or less degree in almost every class of rig in the ports of the Peninsula, bat the Malay more than any other Oriental, has adopted the jib, or three-corned staysail. This essentially modern product of Western Europe, he has adopted not only in the large traders already referred to, but also in the kolek or "ses canoe" of Singapore, in which also the old Malay lag has been altogether discarded, especially for racing purposes, in favour of the spritsail. The staysail is recognised as the most convenient form of head sail, to prevent excessive griping, and does not involve the disadvantage of the weight of a mast right in the eyes of the ship. (Plate I., fig. 9.)
It will thus be seen that, from a variety of causes, with which the physical geography and the meteorology of the locality have much to do, the canoe shape, the canoe idea, predominates in most of the boats of the Malay Peninsula. It may, in fact, be said that the maritime enterprise of its inhabitants obviously commenced with the canve and continued with the canoe, and that its highest form of development has resulted in a craft of larger dimensions, which yet, in all essential particulars, still remains - & canoe. (Plate II., fig. 10.)
The nomenclature employed by the Malays for their boats appears to the traveller at first to be unnecessarily intrionte. Closer attention, however, soon shows that the name, as has indeed been already suggested, is very rarely derived from the rig, as is so much the case in Earope, but rather from distinctions, which often seern to the stranger to be comparatively insignificant, in the hulls or build. (Plate II., fig. 11.) Nearly every water-side settlement of any importance having developed its own ideas of ornamentation or of construction, it is not to be wondered at, that boats, which might well be classed under one head, as far as all essential particulars are concerned, yet come under the observation of the traveller under widely different names, differing often merely with the locality of their origin. (Plate II., fig. 12.) For instance, a number of otherwise very similar boats are named (a) simply after the form of figure-head, to the frequency of which reference has already been made, e.g., the Hornbill-boat, the Crocodile-boat7; or (6) from some peculiarity in construction, e.g., the Patani "Hall-decked " boat (literally, Boat with decked fore-part), or the "Ciret-fence" boat, which is nothing but a form of the type generally known as penjajap, to which a peculiarly ornamental balwark or rail is given.
A large number of boats, as might be expected, are distinguished by the use for which they are built; e.g., the "boat for going up-stream," 10 and various types of fishing boat.11 Others are of purely local significance; e... Banting (an Achinesa type]. While several appear to be derived from European names; e.g., skonar (schooner], and pinis (pinnace], and perhaps kichi (ketch], skuchi [scotchy), and katar (cutter].
It is noticeable that, in most of their larger built boats, the Malays have adopted the comparatively modern method of slinging the rudder by metal fastenings on the stern post, known afloat as "gudgeons" and "pintles."
In many of their dug-out canoes, in the kolek, and in some of the non-Europeanised types of fishing boats1% of Selangor and the East Coast, for instance, the rudder consists of the simple raddle held on the quarter, or a paddle-shaped rudder slung at the head on a stout upright, and held at the neck by a rattan lashing. This is the earliest and simplest form of rudder known to man. It was that used in the ships of the earliest navigators of the Mediterranean, of whom we have record, 13 and it remained, with slight modifications, as the usual steering contrivance of the Egyptians, of the Greeks and Ronians, and of the Danes and Saxons and Normans, down to Medieval times.
Prahu Buaya. Katop 'Luan.
Pagar Tonggdlong. 16 Prahu pemudik, from mudik, to go ap-stream.
11 Prahu ikan, or per-jkan, from kan, fish. 116.9., the Kakap Jeram. 13 We have records of oraft in Egypt Bo steered from the time of the Third Dynasty (about 6000 B. C.).
