254 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



When, many weeks later in the privacy of my house, 

 he confided the words of this charm to me (for no 

 one could catch the rapid mutter in which they were 

 uttered), all that he could tell me of the first two 

 lines was that they were in the language of the Jins. 

 With the exception of jimd t which is the Jin's word 

 for tuba, the third line is Malay, and means, " Let all 

 that is poisonous in this tuba arise." 



He also told me that this charm so increased the 

 efficacy of the poison that one boat-load of the root 

 was, if thus charmed, the equivalent of two boat-loads 

 of uncharmed root. After a few minutes' silence, 

 during which we waited for the poison of the root 

 to assert itself, Pawang Duhamat splashed some of 

 the liquid into the river, and then gave the word 

 for the contents of eight dug-outs to be thrown over- 

 board. The tuba juice in the remaining two boats 

 was reserved for later use. 



With one accord the multitude raised the ringing 

 Malay war-cry, and amid shouting and excitement 

 the liquid was flung into the river. The milky juice 

 soon lost itself, and for a space we all kept our 

 positions, while the vessels that had held the poison 

 were washed and cleansed. Then Pawang Duhamat 

 led the way down the stream. For a few hundred 

 yards there was not a sign of a fish ; everything had 

 sped away from the first taste of the poisoned water. 

 Then in a little eddy by the side of the river we saw 

 a dazed fish swimming slowly in circles on the water's 

 surface. It had had one taste of the poisoned water, 

 and instead of fleeing down-stream on and on as the 

 other fish had done, it had turned into some hiding- 



