36 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vou IX, 1920.] 
either suppose, therefore, that the frequenters of the shelter 
brought it there as a curiosity or charm, having found it during 
their wanderings; or that iron was rare among them (which 
does not seem to have been the case from the number of iron 
objects found), and that they were still re some stone tools.! 
I incline towards the former suppositi 
point of interest with regard ne some of the specimens 
discovered was their excellent state of preservation. Fibres 
were found at a depth of two feet which were recognised by 
my coolies as being those of sugar-cane, while a small marine 
shell contained the complete skin of a hermit-crab. 
A large number of Melania shells, as well as many frag- 
ments of bone and a few of pottery, which we found under a 
large group of stalagtites depending from the rock above, were 
beautifully petrified, being so evenly coated with layers of 
lime as to still preserve all but the smallest features of their 
external structure. 
We did not come across any human bones, nor flakes, 
cores or other signs of stone implements having been manufac- 
tured on the site. 
Malay tradition asserts that Semang inhabited the Batu 
Kurau Parish until comparatively recent times, and there 
is still a Semang tribe at Ijok, about seventeen miles from 
Batu Kurau by road and bridle-path. The Semang seem to 
have quitted the neighbourhood of Batu Kurau owing to 
quarrels with the Malays, who were, at that time, just begin- 
ning to open up this part of the country, and to form settle- 
ments. One of my coolies, a man named Pandak Ismail, told 
me that his great-great-grandfather, Moyang Bola, who was the 
founder of Kampong Perak, had killed one or two of them on 
account of their having stolen some property, and that, on 
their leaving the district, he put a curse on any who should 
return. For this reason the Semang were afraid to come 
near Kampong Perak. Pandak’s story ise supported by 
other Malays to whom I talked about the matter. 
Seeing that the Semang of Lenggong still sometimes 
use, or inhabit, rock-shelters, and taking into consideration 
the apparently recent date of the objects which we obtained 
at Gunong Kurau, it seems likely that these people were the 
former occupants of the terrace which we explored. 
There seems to be some slight reason for thinking that a bronze or 
copper age may have succeeded that of stone in the Malay Peninsula, since 
three small copper or bronze celts have obtained at different times and 
are now in the collections of the Doierwied Malay States Museums 
