102 Journal ^ the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI, 



being only four fully grown men left at home. These were all 

 brothers, and sons of a very old woman, who said that she had 

 thirteen children, of whom six males and, two females still 

 survived. The clearing in which the houses stood was planted 

 with tapioca and keladi, but neither of these were sufficiently 

 advanced to be used as food. Until the crop ripened the 

 Jakuns were living by cutting rattans in the jungle and selling 

 them to the Chinese storekeepers at Pertang, supplementing 

 the rice which they were thus enabled to purchase with 

 whatever animals they could shoot with their blow pipes. 

 The four brothers mentioned above all possessed titles, being 

 respectively Batin, Mentri, Toh Kampong and Penghulu. 

 The following list of tribal officers was given, and they were 

 •said to have precedence as enumerated. If this information 

 is correct, and the natives insisted that it was, the order is 

 distinctly unusual ; since the Batin, Jinang and Jukrah are the 

 chief officers among most southern tribes. 



(i) Batin. 



(2) Penghulu dalam. 



(3) Toh Kampong. 



(4) Mentri. 



(5) Jukrah. 



(6) Jinang. 



According to these Jakuns' own account their place of 

 origin was the Klau River * and there are said to be more of 

 the tribe at Jeram.t 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER. 



Of the four adult males seen, three were distinctly hand- 

 some and well built, especially the youngest of them, Bongsu. 

 The fourth man, who was suffering from a bad foot, and was 

 covered with kurap (Tinea circinata), so that he had not a veiy 

 prepossessing appearance. One of the younger women who 

 had given birth to a male child the night before the writer's 

 first visit, was also good-looking. She seemed to be suffering 

 very little from her recent trials and insisted on coming to the 

 door of the hut to be photographed, although she was told to 

 keep quiet inside. The hair of all the people was either straight 

 or very slightly wavy, while their skin colour was as light as 

 that of the local Malays. Thoujj^h accused by the Malays of 

 being lazy, a failing from which the latter are not unknown 

 themselves to suffer, they seemed to be a pleasant, well 

 mannered, and contented people. 



WEAPONS. 



The blow-pipe is of the usual Negri Sembilan type and 

 calls for no special remark. The outer tube is decorated with 

 incised patterns reaching from above the mouth-piece to the 



* A tributary of the Semantan River, Pahang. 

 t On the Bentong River, not far from the Klau. 



