242 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



is a term of opprobrium which I have often heard applied by- 

 one native to another with whom he had quarrelled. The 

 village people consider them little other than beasts. In no 

 case will a Malay touch or interfere with a dead body of one 

 of his people ; yet I was able to obtain their assistance in dis- 

 interring the body of the Kubu from which I made the skeleton 

 that I obtained. The Kubus possess no personal property of 

 any kind beyond what they can carry about with them. Their 

 food, which consists for the most part of wild fruits or small 

 animals, which they prefer, I am told, in a semi-putrid condition, 

 they eat as they come by it, with little or no cooking. When 

 traversing the forest, if one of them, on finding a bee-infested 

 or a dammar-yielding tree, clear the brush around it, make one 

 or two hacks in the bark, and repeat a form of spell, it is 

 recognised by the others as his possession, which will be un- 

 disputed. This is the only property, if such it may be called, 

 that they possess. 



They are extremely fond of tobacco. Before one of them, 

 who had seated himself on the edge of the verandah, I pro- 

 duced some of the coveted weed. It was a study to see how 

 his face gleamed over, and his eyes followed the parcel with 

 the eagerness of a dog's after a bone with which he is tempted. 

 To try him, a handful of very poor quality was offered him, 

 which he snatched at, but, after smelling and tasting it, he 

 rejected it with a sneer just as a monkey might have done, 

 fixing his eyes eagerly once more on the bundle first produced. 

 Some of this was handed to him, the whole of which, after 

 smelling, he rolled into a thick cigarette in a leaf, and smoked 

 with prodigious mouthfuls in perfect and delighted silence. 

 When he saw or was offered anything which he liked par- 

 ticularly, his eyes sparkled, and he expressed his eagerness 

 by the continued repetition of a peculiar sound, " S-s-ho-o ! 

 8-s-hd-d ! " Some fruit and a large plateful of rice, offered 

 to him, were devoured more in the ravenous manner of a beast 

 than of a man. When he had finished it he rubbed his stomach, 

 to judge by its rotundity if he had had sufficient. 



Their intelligence is not, however, to be called of a low order. 

 They evince considerable dexterity in the use of their spears, 

 and are wonderfully accurate marksmen with stones. They 

 post themselves behind some tree, in front of which is another 



