362 
S O O L O O. 
in order to obtain the articles they need, will work assiduously. Many 
of them are employed in collecting gold-dust, and some in the diamond 
mines; and they will at times be found procuring gums, rattans, &c., 
from their native forests for barter. They are a people of great energy 
of character, and perseverance in the attainment of their object, par¬ 
ticularly when on war-parties, or engaged in hunting. 
Their food consists of rice, hogs, rats, snakes, monkeys, and many 
kinds of vermin, with which this country abounds. 
Their chief weapon is the parang or heavy knife, somewhat like 
the kris. It is manufactured of native iron and steel, with which the 
coast of the country is said to abound. They have a method of work¬ 
ing it which renders it unnecessary for them to look to a foreign 
supply; the only articles of foreign hardware that they are said to 
desire, are razors, out of which to make their cockspurs. One thing 
seems strange: although asserted upon good authority, that the iron 
and steel of the coast are thought to be superior by foreigners, they 
are not to be compared with that which is found in the interior, and 
manufactured by the Dyacks. All the best krises used by the Malay 
rajahs and chiefs, are obtained from the interior. Some of these are 
exquisitely manufactured, and so hard that, without turning the edge, 
they cut ordinary wrought iron and steel. 
Among their other weapons is the sumpit, a hollow tube, through 
which they blow poisoned arrows. The latter are of various kinds, 
and those used in war are dipped in the sap of what the natives term 
the “ upo.” The effect of this poison is almost instantaneous, and 
destroys life in four or five'minutes. Those who have seen a wound 
given accidentally, describe the changes that the poison occasions as 
plainly perceptible in its progress. Before using the arrow, its poisoned 
point is dipped in lime-juice to quicken it. The range of the sumpit 
is from fifty to sixty yards. Although the arrows are poisoned, yet 
it is said they sometimes eat the game they kill with them, parboiling 
it before it is roasted, which is thought to extract the poison. Fire¬ 
arms, respecting which they have much fear, have not yet been intro¬ 
duced among them ; indeed, it is said that so easily are they intimi¬ 
dated by such weapons, that on hearing a report of a gun they 
invariably run away. Each individual in a host would be impressed 
with the belief that he was the one that was to be shot. 
They address their prayers to the maker of the world, whom they 
call Dewatta, and this is all the religion they have. There are many 
animals and birds held by them in high veneration, and they are close 
observers of the flight of birds, from which they draw prognostics. 
There is in particular a white-headed eagle or kite, upon whose flight 
