2 A TRIP TO GUNONG BENOM. 
march towards the Mountain and had carried to it half of the 
trigonometrical beacon and eight tins of rice. I had had all 
the rice soldered down in clean kerosine tins. The plan 
answered admirably. Each rice-coolie made a frame work like - 
that of a knapsack on which to lash the tins and fitted it with 
straps of bark through which to pass his arms and carried in this 
way five and a half gantangs of rice (roughly the contents of 
a tin) rode comfortably, no time was wasted in packing and 
opening bundles, and most important of all—the rice kept 
perfectly without any of the usual trouble in preserving it from 
wet. . 
I was now ready to start and on arranging for my party 
found that the beacon (it was made of iron) needed a total of 
22 men to carry it; more men were of course needed to carry 
rice for the beacon-carriers ; I was very anxious to take sufficient 
food to last the whole party until the station had been cleared 
and the beacon fixed. J engaged therefore 32 coolies, all were 
Malays and but one or two were foreign Malays—Kelantan 
and Tringganu men. As they assured me that the mountain 
ues infested with peculiarly vicious ‘hantu’ I engaged a 
‘pawang’ one Wan Putih. He was recommended to me as a 
powerful exorcist who feared no ‘hantu’ whatever. In fact 
he was I was told perhaps a little too rough in the way he 
dealt with them. The ‘pawang’ whem Che Musa had taken 
with him had proved a ea failure. My five boatmen also 
went with me as well as a Malay boy anda Chinese cook. Che 
Musa completed a par eS of 42, 
We left Raub on the 31st and stopped the night at Wan 
Putih’s house in Ulu Gah. This though only two or three 
hours’ walk from Raub was the last kampong on the way to the 
Gunong and to it the other half of the beacon had previously 
been brought. The afternoon was spent in getting packs, etc., 
all ready for an early start the next morning. I passed the 
nigh under a waterproof sheet; most of the men were accom- 
modated by Wan Putih whose house was, if anything, even 
filthier than the usual Malay house. 
Next morning one man was sick with fever and had to be 
left behind. Two others were engaged in his place and the 
whole party with half a trigonometrical beacon, a theodolite, 
Jour. Straits Branch 
