The following description of birth-taboos in Pahang, taken from Mr. H. Clifford's Studies in Brown Humanity, will give a good general idea of this part of the subject:-- "When Umat has placed the sîrih leaves he has done all he can for Selema, and he resigns himself to endure the anxiety of the next few months with the patience of which he has so much command. The pantang ber-ânak, or birth-taboos, hem a husband in almost as rigidly as they do his wife, and Umat, who is as superstitious as are all the Malays of the lower classes, is filled with fear lest he should unwittingly transgress any law, the breach of which might cost Selema her life. He no longer shaves his head periodically, as he loves to do, for a naked scalp is very cool and comfortable; he does not even cut his hair, and a thick black shock stands five inches high upon his head, and tumbles raggedly about his neck and ears. Selema is his first wife, and never before has she borne children, wherefore no hair of her husband's must be trimmed until her days are accomplished. Umat will not kill the fowls for the cook now, nor even drive a stray dog from the compound with violence, lest he should chance to maim it, for he must shed no blood, and must do no hurt to any living thing during all this time. One day he is sent on an errand up-river and is absent until the third day. On inquiry it appears that he passed the night in a friend's house, and on the morrow found that the wife of his host was shortly expecting to become a mother. Therefore he had to remain at least two nights in the village. Why? Because if he failed to do so, Selema would die. Why would she die? God alone knows, but such is the teaching of the men of old, the wise ones of ancient days. But Umat's chief privation is that he is forbidden to sit in the doorway of his house. To understand what this means to a Malay, you must realise that the seat in the doorway, at the head of the stair-ladder that reaches to the ground, is to him much what the fireside is to the English peasant. It is here that he sits and looks out patiently at life, as the European gazes into the heart of the fire. It is here that his neighbours come to gossip with him, and it is in the doorway of his own or his friend's house that the echo of the world is borne to his ears. But, while Selema is ill, Umat may not block the doorway, or dreadful consequences will ensue, and though he appreciates this and makes the sacrifice readily for his wife's sake, it takes much of the comfort out of his life.