54 DAMMAR. 



factured from a climbing plant which grew in the 

 neighbourhood of Bintulu : it is perhaps the same as 

 the ' chitik/ of Java the botanical name of which is 

 not yet ascertained. This was called upas by the 

 natives of Borneo, but I think, with other authors, 

 that upas is a name for vegetable poisons in general. 



Dammar is a resinous gum produced by many kinds 

 of trees quite different in their character and habit 

 from the Dammara orientalis figured in Marsden's 

 1 History of Sumatra/ The dammar is of several 

 kinds : the white, which is used for the same purposes 

 as gum copal, is called ' dammar mata kuching,' or 

 the cat's eye dammar ; it is the least common, and 

 most valuable, being beautifully transparent. The 

 ' dammar daging,' or flesh-like dammar, takes its name 

 from its veined appearance, which causes it to resemble 

 some kinds of agate ; it is not set apart, but used 

 with the common kinds for paying the seams of boats 

 and prows ; for which purpose it is pounded and boiled 

 with wood oil until it becomes of a pitchy consistence. 



The various kinds of dammar form an article of 

 considerable trade between different places in the 

 Archipelago, and are exported to India and China from 

 Singapore, at a very low price : they exude sponta- 

 neously, and are collected after having fallen to the 

 ground. The Dyaks and Malays form torches of this 

 inflammable substance, by filling the interior of small 

 bamboo canes with it, which have been previously 

 dried for the purpose ; such torches are used only by 

 the poorer classes of Malays, those in better circum- 

 stances preferring the more expensive oil of the cocoa- 



