470 THE WILD TRIBES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



consisting- of three or four uprights planted in the ground at an angle 

 of about 60' to YO'^, with palm leaves or branches lashed horizontally 

 across them. Other kinds consist of palm leaves planted in the 

 g-round in the form of a semicircle or circle, the leaves, which are 

 frequently a))out 6 feet long, drooping over toward the center, and 

 thus forming a shelter of the circulai- or beehive type. The most 

 developed form is a long communal leaf shelter in which all the mem- 

 bers of the tribe reside. 



The Malayizing tribes who come more into contact Avith civilization 

 insensibly adopt the Malay type of hut, but oven here some striking 

 departures from the normal Malay type are to be seen, e. g., in the 

 low or almost totally absent side walls and in the projection of one 

 side of the gable over the other, so as to allow the roof to remain 

 open at the top. These huts are generally liarricaded with fallen 

 trees. 



The tree huts or "human bird nests," as they have been called, are 

 built at a heig-ht of from 20 to 30 feet from the ground, chiefly as a 

 means of escape from wild elephants. 



ARTS AND CRAFTS. 



The craftsmanship of these wild tribes, though extremely primitive, 

 is excellent of its kind, and shows that they ])y no means lack inge- 

 nuity. 



The manufacture of the blowpipe, its darts and quiver, as already 

 described, forms an important industry of both Semang and Sakai. 

 The tree-bark cloth of the wilder tribes is made by hammering (with 

 a wooden mallet) the ])ark of a big jungle tree called Terap {^IrfocarjHis 

 Kunstlcrl, a species of wild breadfruit tree), the outer surface of which 

 is tir.st removed b\' scraping it with a knife. The mallet is frequently 

 improved hy transverse grooves or teeth, which assist in the separa- 

 tion of the ti))ers. 



A not less interesting type of cloth is manufactured from the cuticle 

 of the Upas tree {Ajitinrlx) itself, a tree which belongs, I believe, to 

 the same older as the Artocarpus. In this case a young sapling (of 

 the L'pas tiee) is felled and a ring cut round the ])ark a few feet from 

 the base. The Inirk is then scraped and pounded in situ with a 

 rounded wooden mallet or clul) for a space of al)out a foot below the 

 incision. The pounded part is then pull(»d away from the stem, sep- 

 arating at the point where the bark meets the wood, and is turned 

 down (not rolled) and skinned oil' like a stocking, the scraping and 

 pounding being continu(Hl at intiu'vals, as re(|uircd, until all the l)ark 

 is completely separated. 



As regards other forms of industry, mat work, basket work, and 

 netting, are all found among these tribes, but no kind of weaving or 

 pottery whatever. A high artistic sense is, however, shown (by the 



