of tlie arch. A U-sliaped framework of rotan, with transverse lash- 

 ings of the same material, is then placed partly under the arch, and 

 the portion of the U where the limbs join is raised from the ground 

 until it is supported by the shai^pened end of the peg. When this has 

 been done the noose is aiTanged over the rotan framework and the 

 trap is thus set. Any animal putting its foot into the noose and 

 treading on the framework underlying it causes the latter to fall. 

 This releases the small peg oi- trigger from under the arch and the 

 tension on the I'otan cord being thus relaxed the bamboo springs 

 back to a moi'e perpendicular position, at the same time tightening 

 the noose around the animal's leg. 



[Both these traps are almost uni^•ersally in use from Nepal and 

 Assam, eastwards throughout Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula 

 and all over the Greater Sunda Islands and are used by all the i-aces 

 inliabiting this area indiffei-ently. A good tigui'e of the second form 

 described above is given by Ling Roth (The Natives of Sarawak and 

 British North Borneo, i., pp. 480, 431, figs. 1896).] 



7. PATTERNS ON BLOWPIPES. 

 Whatever the pattei-ns on the Besisi blowpipe may have been in 

 former times, they are at the present very degenerate, con.sisting as 

 a rule of meaningless roughly engraved circles running round the 

 stem. The spaces between these are sometimes filled up with rude 

 slanting lines running from circle to circle. On one blowpipe there 

 were a few di-awings Avhich I was told represented spiders (Bes. 

 janiany). The men said that the circle and the mai'ks between them 

 had no meaning but wei'e simply decorations. 



8. FIRE-MAKING. 



Besides the univei'sal Swedish or Japanese match and the flint 

 and steel, two methods of fire-making are known to the Besisi, which, 

 however, are now only survivals — the rotan saw and the drill- — the 

 former being called gesek saona <ihong, Malay, gesek sama tali, the 

 lattei- gesek sama tee, Malay, gesek sama taiigan. 



In the first method a piece of soft diy wood (mahang) twelve or 

 eighteen inches in length is obtained. In this an oval boat-shaped 

 hole is made which is about three inches in length and reaches right 

 thx'ough the wood, having only a small opening on the loAver 

 surface. 



In producing fire, a strip of rotan about two feet long, to the ends 

 of which two cross pieces of wood are tied to serve as handle.s, is 

 passed under the piece of soft wood which rests on the ground with 

 the smaller orifice of the hole directed downwards. When the rotan 

 has been adjusted so that it covers the smaller hole (a groove is often 

 cut to receive it) the ends of the piece of wood ai'e held down, each 

 by one of the fire-maker's feet. The handles of the rotan cord are 

 then grasped in tlie hands and the x'otan is slowlj' saAved backwax'ds 

 and forwards over the hole in the under sui'face of the wood. The 

 pace of the motion is gx^adually increased until the rotau has eaten 



