A JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER.. ois 
the Sumpitan river .far below. the workings, After. leaving Sum- 
pitan, cultivation ceased, and the rest of the day’s journey was 
performed through forest. Ayer Labu, Bukit Sirai, Ayer Ninring 
and Siro Talak are the names of localities which we successively pass- 
ed, the jast-named being a kind of “salt-lick’”’ much resorted to, ac- 
cording to the guides, by wild animals, a fact to which abundant foot- 
prints bore testimony. The attraction seemed to be earth of a low 
mound which was scratched up or otherwise disturbed in several. . 
places, Elephant tracks were numerous. In the afternoon we. . 
camped at a stream called Ayer Membalik. My hammock was 
slung between two trees, andabove it a water-proof sheet. stretched 
over a line and tied down to pegs in the ground formed an excellent 
substitute for a hut. The stream was dammed up to make a bath, 
and while some of the men rapidly improvised a hut of sticks and 
branches, others lit fires and commenced cooking operations. The 
only drawback to enjoyment was the persistent assault of a small 
kind of bee called by the Malays peningat, “the stinger,” or apit- 
apit, a nest of them haying been disturbed incautiously just after. 
we had made ourselves comfortable. - r 
The regular camping ground for travellers between Perak and .. 
Patani used to be, the guides informed me, at Ayer Bah, a little 
further on, but this place has a bad name, owing to a tragedy which 
occurred there a few years ago. A Malay and his wife and child, 
who stopped there one night, were surprised by a tiger which sprang - 
in among them as they sat round their camp-fire and carried off the 
woman. The man ran away, and the child, left to itself, wandered 
into the forest in search of its parents. In the morning, when the © 
father returned with assistance, the child was nowhere to be found 
and was never recovered. The spot is now shunned, and no one 
ever camps there. 
‘This and other stories served to pass an hour or two after darkness 
had set in. The stillness in the forest was intense, the only sounds 
being the occasional call of an argus pheasant or the cry of the 
wah-wah ape. 
April 4th.—This day’s march began and ended in the forest, and 
we did not see av inhabited house or meet a human being all day. 
The main route between Perak and Patani is nothing but a track , 
