120 THE ENDATJ AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



If a man dies in debt, his debts are paid to the extent of one half, 

 the creditor losing the other half, even though there be property 

 enough left to pay the whole ; the balance goes to the next of kin, 

 to the widow, if there be one, in preference to a grown-up son, 

 but a man can leave his property to any relation he pleases. 



A curious superstition prevails among the Madek people, which, 

 so long as children are unable to walk, prevents their parents from 

 using as food certain fish and animals ; as soon as the little ones 

 have acquired the use of their legs this restriction is removed, and 

 the parents are once more able to indulge in what has so long- 

 been pantang or "forbidden." Should this superstition not be 

 complied with, and any parent eat of any of the forbidden creatures 

 during the period of restriction, the children are supposed to be lia- 

 ble to an illness called bi(song,( x ) arising, according to the Malays, 

 from prut kumbong or swollen stomach. Protuberant bellies 

 seem to be the striking feature of most native children of whatever 

 race in these countries. The following is the list of fish and 

 animals Avhich are pantang under the above circumstances : — 

 Fish — nom, begdhak, sengdrat, tuiaan, and sebdraii; eggs, and fowls ; 

 beasts — the deer (both rusa and hijang) the pelandok (including 

 the ndpoli), thejokot, and bdbi, the bidwah (water lizard), geriang 

 (large water lizard), the ~knra-lcura (land- tortoise), bailing (variety 

 of the preceding, but larger, and shell flatter), biuku (like peniu 

 tuntong, a freshwater turtle, but long-necked, perches on dead wood 

 in the rivers), jaMIc, (a small tortoise.) 



The Jahms of Jolior though, as has been noticed, no longer pos- 

 sessing a distinct language of their own, and but few members of a 

 pure Jahun type, none the less consider themselves to be, and are 

 still held to be, a race apart and distinct. The Malays, of course, 

 look down upon them, and shew it by their treatment of them. I 

 am desirous of drawing public attention to this treatment of a sim- 

 ple, laborious, and inoffensive people in the hope of thereby secur- 

 ing an amelioration of their condition. 



Some few years back, the Jalcuns on the Endau, that is to say, the 

 findau, Sembrong, and their tributaries, were in comparatively 

 comfortable circumstances, procuring the produce of the jungle for 

 traders, and receiving the ordinary returns in kind, or planting 



( x ) A foaming yellow stool. 



