210 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



marauders. The spears showed that a tiger-drive 

 was contemplated, for across each, some eighteen 

 inches below the point, a little piece of wood was 

 lashed on at right angles to the shaft. This cross- 

 bar is intended to prevent a wounded tiger from 

 clawing its way up the spear-head that transfixes 

 it, to the man that holds the spear. Such men as 

 owned, or had been able to borrow, a small dagger 

 of a peculiar shape known as a golok rembau, ex- 

 hibited their weapons with complacency and pride ; 

 for these daggers are supposed by the Malays to 

 possess such extraordinary, even magical, properties 

 that a tiger is powerless against them. 



When the local chief announced that everything 

 was ready, an old pawang stepped forward with a 

 bunch of twigs of a tree for which a tiger is thought 

 to have a peculiar dread. Holding this small bundle 

 in both hands, he repeated over it the charm known 

 as "that which closes the tiger's mouth," and then, 

 after another incantation which was intended to 

 prevent the tiger from winding us, proceeded to 

 break the twigs into short fragments, which he 

 distributed first among the shooters, and then 

 among the beaters. The ceremony did not take 

 long, but by the time it was over, and the final 

 words of advice, exhortation, and command had 

 been said on every side, the sun was strong 

 enough to make the shade welcome ; and without 

 further delay the old chief led his picturesque 

 throng of beaters down one path, while we set 

 off along a track that took us into another part of 

 the forest. 



