576 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
rabok, is usually the fluffy substance obtained from the leaf bases of 
the tukas palm (Caryota grifithiz), though occasionally it is ob- 
tained from other kinds of palm, or from rattan. Mr. Skeat tells 
me that the fire piston occurs throughout the interior of the old Malay 
state of Patani, or in other words, the subdistricts of Jala, Ligeh, 
Biserat, and Rhaman, and he also mentions that there is a probable 
extension northward and eastward into more distinctly Siamese ter- 
ritory. His specimens are practically identical with those obtained 
by Messrs. Annandale and Robinson in Nawnchik. 
Mr. Annandale procured for the Pitt-Rivers Museum an example 
from the Samsam (i. e., Siamesing-Malay) village of Ban Phra 
Muang in Trang, on the west coast, c. 7° 25’ N., 99° 30’ EK. This 
is the most northerly district in the peninsula from which I have 
definite record of a fire piston. This specimen (fig. 30) has a cylin- 
der of light-colored horn, pointed and ringed below, as usual in 
the peninsula, the upper half roughly bound round with string coated 
with black wax. The piston is of black horn with rounded, carved 
knob, which is hollowed out as a receptacle for holding the supply 
of tinder. The depth of bore is 5.5 cm. 
There are specimens in the Taiping Museum from the province 
of Perak, on the western side of the peninsula, but their exact locality 
is not specified, and I have no descriptions of them as yet. 
An interesting aberrant type (fig. 31), now in the British Museum, 
was sent to Mr. F. W. Rudler in 1893 by Mr. Henry Louis. It was 
obtained by the latter in 1890 when in camp on a little stream known 
as Ayer Katiah, a tributary to the Teluban River. Presumably this 
is the Telubin River in the Siamese states of Saiburi or Telubin, the 
next river down the coast after the Patani River. In this the cyl- 
inder is of wood, 6.4 cm. long, neatly bound round with bands of 
plaited cane. The lower end is rounded off, instead of terminating 
in the point so characteristic of the peninsula. The piston, of hard 
wood, is very short, and has a large, roughly-carved head. The pack- 
ing is of pale vegetable fiber. A large bean shell serves as a tinder 
box: it appears to be an entada bean (fig. 31 a). Mr. Louis related 
that a party of Malays came down from some neighboring am- 
pongs (i. e., villages), and squatting down in camp, began to smoke, 
when one of the party, a young man, in the most matter-of-fact way, 
took out his fire piston and lit his cigarette. The particulars were 
kindly sent to me by Mr. Rudler. . 
Tt will be seen that the distribution of the fire piston is a very 
wide one in the Malay Peninsula, where it is found in the hands 
of both Malay and Siamese people, as well as among the mixed 
Siamese-Malays. The question arises whether the instrument is 
originally Malayan or Siamese. I have consulted Mr. Annandale 
and Mr. Skeat upon this point, and both are inclined to regard it as 
