450 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



The Maiwas, according to the Malays of the Siamese States, 

 is a hrok (their name for the cocoa-nut monkey, Macacus 

 nemestrinus) which eats men and is as big as a rhinoceros. 

 Its forearm is sharpened like a jungle knife, and formed of 

 the finest steel : with it the beast cuts its way through the 

 jungle. A magician of Patani assured me that on Gunong 

 Tahan, a *great and somewhat mysterious mountain on the 

 borders of Pahaug and Kelantan, the Maiwas stands on 

 guard between two cooking-pots, containing respectively the 

 "parent of silver"^ and the "parent of gold."^ The tale 

 has an Arabic flavour ; but all Malays, though many declare 

 that the Maiiuds is a hantu or spirit, are agreed that it inhabits 

 the unexplored jungles of the interior of the peninsula — as 

 possibly it may. Confusion often arises, however, between 

 the Maiwas and the Md-wa or Wd-wd — the gibbon Hylo- 

 hates lar. 



The legend of the steel forearm arises from the great 

 strength of this part of the body in the orang-utang, and in 

 its action as the beast forces its way through matted jungle; 

 for, whether there is or is not a great anthropoid ape at 

 present living in the interior of the Malay Peninsula, con- 

 stant intercourse has existed, ever since the Malays became 

 a wandering race, between the people of the mainland and 

 those of the archipelago. It is, moreover, a fact that some 

 of the best kris blades are made from the iron of ''tuldng 

 maiwas" ox "Maiwas bones," which are in reality the mining 

 implements of some civilised race who sought for tin at one 

 period in the Malay Peninsula. Their workings, in which 

 the tuldng maiwas are found, are attributed by the Malays to 

 Siamese of the olden times; and little clay tablets,^ impressed 

 with the image of Buddha, which are often found in caves 

 near these workings, appear to be either Siamese or Burmese 

 in design; but the modern Siamese themselves disclaim 

 all knowledge of these tablets, and it has recently been 

 pointed out that they have no knowledge of mining except 

 what they have gained in late years from white men. One 



1 Hibu peraTc. ^ Hlhu mas. 



3 These are associated in popular legend with the orang Pdrai or Peris. 



