258 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



the barbarous exhibition is vividly depicted in their animated 

 looks and gestures. 



The Malays who are not slaves go always armed ; they 

 would think themselves disgraced if they went abroad with- 

 out their crees or poniards, which, to render them more 

 formidable, are often steeped in poison. These weapons, 

 which thus afford them the ready means for avenging an 

 affront, are probably the chief cause which renders their 

 outward deportment to each other remarkably punctilious and 

 courteous, but they sometimes become highly dangerous in the 

 hands of a people whose nervous temperament is liable to 

 sudden explosions of frantic rage. Like the old Berserks of 

 the heroic ages of Scandinavia, a Malay is capable of so far 

 working himself into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous 

 impulse, or of so far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become 

 totally regardless of what danger he exposes himself to. In 

 this state, which is called ' running a-muck,' he rushes forth as 

 an infuriated animal and attacks all who fall in his way, until 

 he is either struck down like a wild beast, or having expended 

 his morbid rage he falls down exhausted. 



The Malays are bad agriculturists and artisans but 

 excellent sportsmen. From the small birds which they entangle 

 in their snares to the large animals of the forest, which they 

 shoot or entrap in pit -falls, or destroy by spring-guns, nothing 

 worth catching escapes their attention. Such is their delight 

 in fishing, that even women and children may be seen in 

 numbers during the rains angling in the swampy rice grounds. 

 Spearing excursions against the swordfish are undertaken 

 during the dark of the moon by the light of torches. A good 

 eye, a steady hand are necessary, and a perfect knowledge of 

 ^he places where the fish are to be found. Each canoe carries 

 a steersman, a man with a long pole to propel the vessel, and 

 a spearsman, who, armed with a long slender javelin having a 

 head composed of the sharpened spikes of the Mbong palm, 

 and holding in his left hand a large blazing torch, takes his 

 station at the stern of the canoe. They thus glide slowly and 

 noiselessly over the still surface of the clear water, till the rays 

 of the flambeau either attract the prey to the surface or discover 

 it lying seemingly asleep at a little depth below. The sudden 

 splash of the swiftly descending spear is heard, and the fish is 

 the next moment seen glittering in the air, either transfixed 



