126 HUMAN TEEE-DWELLERS 



unromantic one that many combs they believe to be 

 disease preventive. 



Both men and women decorate their faces, and 

 sometimes their bodies, mostly in red, yellow or 

 black, with flower and line or zigzag patterns. 

 Sometimes they stripe themselves after the manner 

 of zebra markings ; again in spots like the leopard. 

 They seek to make their appearance as terrifying 

 as possible to embolden them on their journeys 

 against the wind, to which they attribute every ill 

 that befalls them. Lightning, thunder, rainbows 

 —all such heavenly phenomena are regarded as the 

 messengers of the " bad ghost " of the wind, from 

 whom they tremblingly implore deliverance. They 

 are excessively superstitious, and on occasions of 

 fright the women offer lighted coals and bundles 

 of their children's hair, while the men shoot poi- 

 soned darts from their blow-guns in the general 

 endeavor to propitiate the evil gods. As a rule 

 they are honest in word and deed, and a moral 

 people in their own way. 



Here, deep in the jungle of Malay, did I, at last 

 in the Far East, find a people for whom the legend 

 " Made in Germany " had no significance ; all their 

 articles of ornament (save the necklace, which is 

 composed of seeds and animals' teeth) and utility 

 are constructed entirely of the ubiquitous bamboo, 

 as is the blow-gun, called sumpitan. This " gun " 



