MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 5/ 



Sepoys and Malays apply various imaginary tests. Thus they 

 assert that if a true G-uliga he clasped in the closed fist, the hitter 

 taste of the concretion will be plainly susceptible to the tongue 

 when applied to the back of the hand, and even above the elbow if 

 the G-uliga be a good " Landak ;" and a Sepoy once assured me that 

 having accidentally broken one of the latter, he immediately was 

 sensible of a bitter taste in his mouth. 



Accounts vary very much among the natives as to the exact 

 position in which the G-uligas are found : some saying they may 

 occur in any part of the body ; others that they occur only in the 

 stomach and intestines ; whilst I have heard others declare that 

 they have taken them from the head and even the hand ! Bezoar- 

 stones are sold by weight, the gold scale being used, and the value 

 varies according to quality, and to the scarcity or abundance of the 

 commodity at the time of sale. The ordinary prices paid at Kejang 

 a few years ago were from $1.50 to £2 per amas for common 

 stones, and from $2.50 to $4 per amas for G-uliga Landak. I 

 have seen one of the latter which was valued at 8100 . It was 

 about the size of an average Tangiers' orange, and was perfectly 

 spherical. The surface, where not artificially abraded, was smooth, 

 shining, bronze-brown, studded with numerous irregularly -shaped 

 fragments of dark rich brown standing out slightly above the 

 general mass of the calculus. These fragments, in size and appear- 

 ance, bore a close resemblance to the crystals in a coarse grained 

 porphyritic rock. 



The common monkey-bezoars vary much in colou r and shape 

 I have seen them of the size of large filberts, curiously convoluted 

 and cordate in shape, with a smooth, shining surface of a pale 

 olive-green hue. Mr. A. R. Houghton once showed me one which 

 was an inch and-a-half Jong, and shaped like an Indian Club. It 

 was of a dirty greenish colour, perfectly smooth and cylindrical, 

 and it had become aggregated around a portion of a sumpitan dart, 

 which appears to have penetrated the animal's stomach, and being- 

 broken off short has subsequently served as the nucleus for the 

 formation of a calculus. The same gentleman had in his possession 

 two Landak stones, one of which bore a close resemblance to a 

 block in shape, and was of a bright green colour , and the second 

 was of a rich chocolate brown, and could best be likened in form 

 to a Constable's staff. One porcupine stone which was opened was 



