IN BUliU. 403 



and by the women a short sarong, or petticoat, or a long loose 

 sniock-like roLe. 



In fields cleared out of tlie forest — wliich seem to belonsr 

 to the man who has cleared them, and his heirs, as long as 

 tliey do not return to wild forest — they cultivate tobacco, 

 corn, and the usual sweet tubers, species of Convolvulus and 

 Colocasia, which they eat to tlie juice of the boiled Saun 

 (Pandanns ceramicus) one of the most magnificent scarlet 

 fruits of their forests. Not much rice is grown, but it is 

 received in exchange from the Alefurus of the lower country 

 for tobacco aud tubers, tifas (or drums), and the strong woven 

 Coi or wallet, so universally carried. I was not permitted 

 to go into tlieir fields, as strangers and coast people are 

 tabooed, for fear of some evil befalling their poomalied seeds, 

 and cannot, therefore, speak of their mode of cultivation. 

 From the cotton {Gossi/jnum micranthum), which they cultivate 

 themselves, tliey make their own thread. 



The only baggage an Alefuru carries with him besides his 

 hau-turin or cudgel, and a spear, is the Coi, a strong satchel 

 slung on his buttocks by a cord round his waist, in which he 

 carries his tobacco and those prized comforts of his tribe — siri 

 leaves, betel-nut, and chalk often contained, in a slightly orna- 

 mented gourd. In former times the women in every village 

 in Burn could weave these cois ; now, however, the lower 

 country tribes, having acquired increased wealth by the 

 development of trade in the various products they so easily 

 gi-ow or rear, and with wealth laziness by their ability to supply 

 their wants without labouring, have quite forgotten or aban- 

 doned the art, and are dependent for their supply on the 

 mountaineers to whom the knowledge of their manufacture 

 is confined. The cloth, called by them hain fuha, of which 

 these satchels are made is a very strong almost indestructible 

 canvas, which tliey render perfectly waterproof by rubbing 

 into it the juice expressed from the bark of a tree, hulit rofu, 

 probably one of the Artocmyeai. To them is also confined the 

 art of hollowing out of Pinang and Nangka (Artocarpns) logs, 

 of the tifas or drums, which are so indispensable at all their 

 feasts and religious ceremonies, as well as of the manufacture 

 of their spears and knives, tlie art of iron working also beino- 

 forgotten by the dwellers nearer the coast. 



