IN SUMATRA, 245 



face, the flat foreliead, o\ving to absence of all glabellar aiuT 

 superciliary ridges, the slight sub-glabellar nasal depressions, 

 and tlie nomadic life thejr lead, are all highly characteristic of 

 the ]\ron;>;olian race. 



"The frizzle in the hair seen in the drawings on images 231 

 and 24 i is probably to be accounted for by their having at 

 some remote period intermingled sliglitly with the A'cgritu 

 people, possibly during their migrati<m southward. TIi'To is, 

 however, evidence that they have for a long period been iso- 

 lated from the other surronndiu;? inhabitants of the island, 

 and that by absence of infusion of fresh blond lliey have ctnne 



to resemble one another so closely that they now possess 



certain definite characteristics of a more or less stable nature/' 



From the prison the Magistrate brought a thief who was 



wviiting to be sentenced, on whom on his apprehension there 



had been found a bag with the chief paraphernalia of his trade, 



in order that he might explain to me their use. In it was a 



.bunch of keys of various sizes, a little sack with rice-grains for 



^alluring fowls; a package of arsenic for more subtle bipeds; a 



tube of soporific powxler, whose recipe he was confiding enoTigh 



to give me : Take of the Gadang (a species of Arum whose un- 



.cookcd roots induce a sort of intoxication) a few scrapings of 



the skin where the stem joins the tuber ; of white Kntjnhmg 



(Datura) the seeds of seven fruits ; the excreta of seven mice ; 



of arsenic a sufficient quantity. AYhen dried, pounded, and 



sifted through a cloth, to be tlirown on the rice, or into the 



cigarette of the victim, or to be blown towards him as occasion 



offers. The thief admitted that he had tried its effects and 



produced sleep on two men, and stolen from them many cloths 



and gold dust to the value of several hundred rupees. In 



addition to tlie somniferous compound there were two otht-r 



tubes of "medicine,'* one for curing pain in the stomach, the 



other a bright scarlet substance like vermilion which \v;^s a 



deadly poison, he said, producing vomiting of blood, followed 



by a terrible and incurable cough, if death did not at once 



supervene. Its comjiosition he did not know; he had bouglit 



it in the Djambi country. In order, however, that its virtue 



should not be lost it required to be set near the heart of a 



buffalo or of a fowl at frequent intervals. It had besides the 



valuable characteristic of preventing any harm from poison to 



