In former days during this period it was "taboo" (pantang) for the father to cut the throat of a buffalo or even of a fowl; or, in fact, to take the life of any animal whatever--a trace no doubt of Indian influences. A Malay told me once that his son, soon after birth, was afflicted with a great obstruction of breathing, but that when the medicine-man (Pawang) declared (after "diagnosing" the case) that the child was suffering from a "fish-affection" (kenan ikan), he remembered that he had knocked on the head an extraordinary number of fish which he had caught on the very day that his son was born. He therefore, by the advice of the medicine-man, gave the child a potion made from pounded fish bones, and an immediate and permanent recovery was the result. Such affections as those described are classified by the Malays according to the kind of influence which is supposed to have produced them. Thus the unoffending victim may be either fish-struck (kenan ikan), as described above, ape-struck (kenan b'rok), dog-struck (kenan anjing), crab-struck (kenan ketam), and so forth, it being maintained that in every case the child either displays some physical deformity, causing a resemblance to the animal by which it was affected, or else (and more commonly) unconsciously imitates its actions or its "voice." Another interesting custom was that the father was stringently forbidden to cut his hair until after the birth of the child. The following passage bearing on the subject is taken from Sir W. E. Maxwell's article on the "Folklore of the Malays": [570]-- "In selecting timber for the uprights of a Malay house care must be taken to reject any log which is indented by the pressure of any parasitic creeper which may have wound round it when it was a living tree. A log so marked, if used in building a house, will exercise an unfavourable influence in childbirth, protracting delivery and endangering the lives of mother and child. Many precautions must be taken to guard against evil influence of a similar kind, when one of the inmates of a house is expecting to become a mother. No one may 'divide the house' (belah rumah), that is, go in at the front door and out at the back, or vice versâ, nor may any guest or stranger be entertained in the house for one night only; he must be detained for a second night to complete an even period. If an eclipse occurs, the woman on whose account these observances are necessary must be taken into the penangga (kitchen), and placed beneath the shelf or platform (para) on which the domestic utensils are kept. A spoon is put into her hand. If these precautions are not taken, the child when born will be deformed." Sir W. E. Maxwell in the above is speaking of Perak Malays. The passage just quoted applies to a great extent to Selangor, but with a few discrepancies. Thus a house-post indented by a creeper is generally avoided in Selangor for a different reason, viz. that it is supposed to bring snakes into the house.