Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalof192018871889roya).pdf/340

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  • Loyang. "Brass" according to Favre. Perhaps the place is so called from the colour of the water.
  • Pasir Pělékat, i.e., Pasir Orang Pělékat. "Pělékat"=Pulicat, the place in India.
  • Pasir Ris. Perhaps this is a contraction for Pasir Iris ("iris"="to shred"). I have heard the word pronounced as Pasíris by an old resident.
  • Pinang Rawang. "Rawang" is a "swamp" or "quaking bog."
  • Pulan Ayer Chawan. Pulau Ayer Limau. Pulau Ayer Mĕrbau. These three islands are close together. "Chawan" is "a cup" or "basin;" "Merbau" is a tree (Afzelia palembanica).
  • Pulau Blakang Mati="dead-back island," so called from the sterility of the soil on the hills.
  • Pulau Brani. Properly="Pulau Ayer Brani," as it is still written on the charts. The island is so called from a well at the top of the hill, the water of which was supposed to have potent qualities. There used to be a "Kolam," or tank, formed out of the natural rock on the Tanjong Pagar side of the island which received the overflow from the well and in which people used to bathe. The remains of this tank can still be seen.
  • Pulau Bukum. "Bukum" is said to be the same as "Hukum," and there is a tradition that the Raja used to try cases in the island, hence the name, probably through the intermediate form "berhukum."
  • Pulau Damar Laut. "Damar Laut" is the tree "Valica russak." "Damar Laut," however, is the name also given to another tree (Canarium).
  • Pulau Jong. "Junk Island," a small island of a conical shape to the North of Pulau Sěking and Pulau Sěbárok. The story is that Malay pirates one night attacked a Chinese junk, which was anchored where the island now is, and just as the Malays got alongside, the Nakhodah of the junk awoke. On seeing the pirates, through terror, he uttered such a frightful yell that the sea-spirit turned the junk into an island much to the consterna-