62 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. iv. 



pipe or " sunrpitan," in the use of which some of the 

 Muruts and Kadyans are especially expert. Even large 

 game was formerly obtained in this way, poisoned arrows 

 being used, in which case the harmless-looking blow- 

 pipe becomes one of the most subtle and deadly of 

 weapons. The slightest puncture with one of these 

 poisoned darts is as certain to terminate fatally as is the 

 bite of the cobra ; and this, added to the possibility of 

 the arrow being propelled on its journey with lightning- 

 like speed, without the least sound being heard, will give 

 an idea of its deadly power in the skilful hands of savages, 

 to whose ambition the death of an enemy and the pos- 

 session of his bleached skull for the decoration of their 

 dwellings on feast days, was the all-important feature of 

 their social existence. 



I have seen a Murut strike fish after fish with unerring 

 certainty with arrows from a sumpitan, even at more than 

 a foot below the surface of the stream ; a much more diffi- 

 cult thing to do than one might suppose, since allowance 

 has to be made for the deviation from a right line which 

 the arrow takes on touching the water. The springes in 

 which pheasants are caught are set in artificial fences 

 half a mile or more in length, and are simply nooses of 

 rattan, although rarely thin brass wire is used. A bent 

 sapling is attached to the noose in such a manner that 

 when the bird runs against a twig in passing through the 

 opening in the fence it becomes disengaged, and flying 

 upwards, draws the noose tightly around the creature's 

 neck. 



A device similar in principle, but much more dangerous, 

 is used by the Muruts for capturing the wild pigs. In 

 this case a stout spear of bamboo is made to pass through 

 guiding loops of rattan attached to trees or stakes, so 

 that by the aid of a stout sapling drawn back to its fullest 



