476 THE WILD TRIBES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



this being believed to render the voice of the wearer irresistible. This 

 custom, however, led, it was said, to such abuses that formerly in some 

 parts of the peninsula the possession of any portion of the *'Huluh 

 Perindu'' was punished with the death penalty. 



The chinduai or chingkuai is a small fragrant plant with minute 

 inflorescences (sometimes it is descril)ed as a small white iive-petaled 

 blossom) which is believed to ))e one of the rarest and most fragrant 

 flowers in the world. 



The story goes that it formerly grew undernt^ath a ledge of over- 

 hanging rock on one of the crags of the Ulu Klang mountains. 

 Although the exac-t spot where it grew could be seen from the ledge, 

 it was nevertheless inaccessible, and it was said that the wild man who 

 wanted it had to ascend the mountain and there keep his fast possibly 

 for weeks or months upon the summit of this ledge until a kite, which 

 used the chinduai as niedicine for its young, should drop a piece in 

 flying over him. Whatever may be the facts, this particular charm 

 is well known in coimection with the Klang country, and is alluded to 

 in the local quatrain which says, "Set not your foot upon the Klang 

 mountains; if j^ou do you will suffer from their charm." 



Both Semang and Sakai are great adepts at the exorcism of demons; 

 and on one occasion I saw an apparently Avonderful cure effected b}" 

 this simple means, the patient being a woman belonging to one of the 

 tribes of Semangs in Kedah. We were all sitting and talking quietly 

 in the long communal leaf-shelter in which the tribe lived, when one 

 of the Avomen, who suffered at intervals from agonizing pains in the 

 limbs, was seized with a sudden paroxysm (which made her scream 

 with pain) and presently leaped to her feet and fled into the jungle. 

 The remainder of her companions, who declared that she had gone 

 into the jungle to die there, slipped out one by one after her, and 1 

 decided to follow them to see whether an3'thing could l)e done. When 

 I arrived I found the woman seated on the ground, whil(>, the chief, 

 in his capacity of medicine man to the tribe, was digging away for 

 dear life with a pointed stick to try and unearth the stump of a small 

 sapling which grew near the spot. This he presently succeeded in 

 doing, and on examining the root found what he pronounced to be 

 clear evidence of the demon's recent presence in the curious pinching 

 in of i)art of the root. He next took (Mirth out of the hole and rubl)ed 

 it over the i)atient's stomach and back, muttering charms as he did so, 

 in order to induce the demon to return to the spot whence he had come. 

 In a few minutes the woman began to get better, })ut as the demons 

 were not yet quite done with, the chief proceeded to dig up the stump 

 of another tree, this time a creepcn-, whose root proved in shape to bear 

 some resem})lance to a mandrak<\ He then repeated the former pro- 

 cess, and chanted his incantations more xigorously than (ner, at the 



