52 JOURNAL, NATURAL. HIST. SOCIETY OF SIAM. Vol. I. 
neck situated in the mid-line in front and about half way down. The 
actual sore was round, about an inch and a half in diameter, and the 
skin around it devoid of hair, which had apparently been rubbed off 
over an area about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide in adult animals, 
the sore being in the middle of this bare patch. The sore seemed to be 
merely a superficial affection of the skin, and did not extend deeply, 
or indeed penetrate the skin or affect the flesh at all, but it seemed to 
be accompanied by considerable itching. The hair round the sore 
appeared to be worn off by rabbing to allay the irritation. Animals 
of all ages and both sexes suffered from this sore. 
Mr. A. J. Irwin, of the Survey Department, has also observed 
the same affection in Sambar shot by him in the present year, and 
has given me the following information. : 
The disease is called ** Khi ruen kwang” or “ the leprosy of the 
Sambar” by the Siamese, and the ‘“‘ Ma-kawk season sore” by the 
Kariangs. A Siamese hunter who has lived for years on the edge 
of the jungle, and has killed many Sambar, considered it a disease 
to which Sambar were subject permanently, being born with it, 
and he was much surprised to hear that they did not suffer from 
it everywhere. An old Kariang informed him that the Sambar 
suffered trom it only during the * Ma-kawk ” season, when even 
the young in the womb bore the mark, and not during the rest 
of the year. The Ma-kawk tree is a kind of wild plum tree, bear- 
ing fruit having a sourish sweet taste. It is generally called in 
aD) nelish the * Wild Olive,” but the fruit is about three times the 
size of a large olive, and the taste is different. The fruit ripens, 
according to the class of jungle and country, at different times through 
the dry season. Deer are very fond of this fruit. The Kariang gave 
Mr. Irwin the following legendary account of the origin of the sore. 
Phra Sian (Buddha) gave the Sambar the fruit of the Ma-kawk tree 
to eat. The Sambar tasted it, and then refused it, saying it was sour. 
Phra Sian said, ‘ Very well, then the Ma-kawk fruit shall not be 
considered food for the Sambar.” Afterwards the Sambar again 
tasted the fruit, and finding it sweet on this occasion, came to Phra: 
Sian and begged permission to eat it in future. Phra Sian granted per- 
mission, but as a punishment for fickleness condemned all Sambar to 
suffer trom the sore on the neck during the Ma-kawk season. 
1 have shot Sambar further south than the district referred to, 
in the Ma-kawk season, and so has Mr. Irwin, and neither of us 
has noticed any sore on the animals there. It does not seem to 
affect the Sambar in the Pitsanulok jungles, or in the Siamese 
portion of the Malay Peninsula, where I have also shot Sambar, and 
where the Ma-kawk fruit is eaten by them. Where they suffer 
from the disease, the animals may be only affected during the Ma- 
kawk season, but I do not think that eating that fruit causes the 
sore. The district in which I have noticed+them suffering from it, 
is one abounding in mineral springs, called “ Pong Nam ” in Siamese, 
Animals frequent these to drink the water. This water may _ possibly 
cause the sore in Sambar, bat not in other animals. It will be inter- 
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