Cards
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Skeat, Walter William
“Cards are called Kĕrtas sakopong. The Malays are fond of card games, but few Europeans have taken the trouble to understand or describe them. The late Sir W. E. Maxwell contributed the following description of daun tiga ’lei to the Notes and Queries of the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society. It refers to the game in question as played in Perak:—
“Hearts,
Lĕkoh.
King,
Raja.
Diamonds,
Retin.
Queen,
Bandahara
Clubs,
Kalalawar.
Knave,
Pekah.
Spades,
Sakopong.
Ace,
Sat.
To shuffle,
Kiyat, mengiyat.
To deal,
Membawa.
To cut,
Kĕrat.
To sweep the board, make everyone pay,
Mengĕlong.
“Three cards are dealt out to each player. The highest hand counting by pips is that which contains the greatest number of pips after the tens are deducted. Thus a knave, ten, and nine is a good hand.
“The best hand is three aces, Sat tiga.
“The next best is three court-cards, Kuda; naik kuda.
“The next is nine.
“The next is eight.
“All these four hands are known as tĕrus. A hand of three threes is really a good hand, being nine, but it is considered a propitiation of good luck to throw it down (without exposing it), and announce that one is buta, in the hopes of getting good luck afterwards.
“Each player makes two stakes—kapala and ekor. They may be of equal value, or the ekor may be of greater value than the kapala.
“The kapala must not be of greater value than the ekor; that is called tual ka ujong (tual = bĕrat).
“Or there may be a single stake only, which is called podul.
“Betting between players is called sorong, or tuwi, or sorong tuwi.
“A pool, tuwi tengah.
“The ekor stake is only paid to the dealer if he holds one of the hands called tĕrus, and if a smaller hand is held by a player, then the dealer takes both kapala and ekor (mengĕlong).
“A player who holds thirty exactly (except when he has three court-cards, kuda) is said to be out (buta).
“Any one except the player on the right of the dealer may cut. The player who cuts looks at the bottom card of those that he lifts, and if he thinks it is a lucky cut he accepts it and puts down the card he has lifted (pengĕrat).
“The dealer then puts the rest of the pack on top of the cut, and in his turn lifts a portion of the pack (pengangkat), and looks at the bottom card.