IN SUMATRA. 235 



difficulty succeeded in getting a few families in several 

 districts to assume in some degree a settled residence in 

 villages made for themselves. It was owing to these partially 

 civilised comnnmities that I am indebted for a sight of the 

 people I met at Surulaiigun. 



In tlieir wild state they live in the deep forest, making 

 temporary dwellings, if their rude shelters can be called such, in 

 "which they st;iy for a few days at a time, where food is obtain- 

 able, or for the purpose of collecting beeswax, danunar, and 

 gutta-percha. Their dw^ellings are a few simple branches 

 erected over a low platform to keep them from the ground, and 

 thatched with banana- or palm-leaves. They are so timorous 

 and shy that it is a rare circumstance for any one io see them, 

 and of course an extremely rare one for any white man. In 

 fact, I doubt if any white man has ever seen the uninfluenced 

 Ivubu, save as one sees the hind-quarters of a startled deer. In 

 the small trade carried on betv\ een them and the Malay traders 

 of the Palembang and Jarabi Ilesidencics, the transactions are 

 performed without the one party seeing the other. The Malay 

 trader, ascending to one of their places of rendezvous, beats a 

 gong in a particular way to give notice of his arrival. On 

 hearing the signal, the Kubus, bringing out what forest produce 

 they may have collected, and depositing it on the ground at 

 this place, hastily retire into close hiding, beating a gong as a 

 signal that all is ready. The trader then slowly and cautiously 

 approaches, lays dowii on the ground the cloth, knives, and 

 other articles of barter he has brought, to the amount which 

 he considers an equivalent exchange, beats a gong and in like 

 manner disappears. The Kubus proceed then to examine the 

 barter offered; if they think the bargain satisfoctory they 

 remove the goods, beat their gong and go away; while the 

 trader packs up the produce he finds left lying on the ground. 

 If the bargain is not considered by them sufficiently advan- 

 tageous, they set on one side a portion of their produce, to 

 reduce it to what they consider the value of the barter ofifered ; 

 and thus the afiViir see-saws till finally adjusted or abandoned. 

 They are so afraid of seeing any one not of their own race that, 

 if suddenly met or come up with in the forest, they will drop 

 everything and flee away. They cultivate nothing for them- 

 selves, but live entirely on the products of the forest— snakes, 



