10 A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER. 
But to return to the mines. When the furnace has been heated 
to the proper pitch, and every blast of the bellows is sending out 
flames from the charcoal piled high on the top and a sharp jet of 
fire from the small opening below, the head workman in the smelt- 
ing house takes a shovelful of ore from a box and after the proper 
incantations to propitiate evil spirits deposits it on the top of the 
furnace. Another and another follow; the men at the bellows pull 
the long piston with redoubled energy and send showers of sparks 
fiying about in all directions. Presently a thin stream, red and 
elowing like the fire within, commences to run from the hole at the 
foot of the furnace and one of the Chinese workmen, shading his 
eyes with his hand to protect them from the fierce glare, pokes 
away at the hole witha rod to assist the passage of the metal. 
More ore and more fuel are heaped on the furnace, the molten 
stream continues to pour, and the men-at the bellows to tramp up 
and down their beat, the hollow into which the liquid metal falls 
becomes full, it is poured into moulds made in a bed of sand close 
by and is cast in slabs in which shape it is taken to Penang for 
sale. 
In the East, as in the West, miners are the most superstitious of 
mortals. No iron implements or weapons may be taken into a 
Chinese sinelting house under pain of the displeasure of the spirits 
who preside over smelting operations and consequent loss to the 
miner. At the mines in Larut, visitors, if they wish to descend, 
must take off their shoes, the genius loci having an antipathy to 
leather! Umbrellas are also forbidden within the limits of the 
workings.* The rites and ceremonies which have to be gone 
through before a new mine can be opened with any chance of suc- 
cess would occupy pages in description. Among the Malays no 
such enterprise would be undertaken except under the auspices of 
a Pawang, or wise man, whose professional familiarity with demons 
and spirits procures him the deepest respect of his countrymen and 
is also the source of a comfortable income. . 
Cuz Appin Karim’s relations with his miners are peculiar. 
Within the district in which he claims the sole right of mining, he 
* The prejudices have, to a great extent, disappeared since British in- 
fluence has been ag at the mines in Larut, but a few years ago 
they were frequently the cause of quarrels and assaults. 
