38 & JOURNEY ON FOOT TO THE PATANI FRONTIER, 
the assistance of the first British Resident was asked. I shall 
return to this subject again when describing the Intan mines.* 
We descended Bukit Naksa on the Patani side and camped 
about eleven o’clock beside a stream called Ayer Kulim. We 
were getting short of rice, and the men were on half-rations on this 
day. By pushing on we could have reached the first Patani kam- 
pongs easily, but it was important to us to obtain information, if 
possible, regarding the object of the expedition before our presence 
in the neighbourhood became known. So I sent Eram and two 
other men on to obtain information and to buy a few gantangs of 
rice. <A shorter march than usual and a longer rest were not un- 
acceptable. At Ayer Kulim we were overtaken, in the course of 
the day, by Kutup Monamep and his party, who brought me some 
deer’s-meat. They had been more fortunate than we had been in fall. 
ing with game. Penghulu Douan produced another addition to jun- 
gle farein the shape of a basket of fish which he had caught among the 
boulders in the little river, much as trout are tickled ina stream on 
Dartmoor. He also eclipsed all his previous performances as a racon- 
teur after dinner, and told story after story, traditions of early kings, 
and legends which would have rejoiced the hearts of lovers of 
folk-lore. 
April 6th—Eram arrived early in the morning reporting Maha- 
raja Lena to be at Kwala Kendrong with thirty men. We ac- 
cordingly set out, as soon as breakfast had been despatched and 
baggage repacked, for Bétang, the first Patani village beyond the 
frontier. We passed some hot wells called Seah Kulim, which, 
under any other circumstances, I should have liked to have ex- 
amined. The water was uncomfortably warm to the hand when 
plunged into it. Crossing an open clearing (Padang Kuniet) and 
then a streamlet (Ayer Bétang), we came in sight of a few houses 
and buffalo pens and were guided to the house of Lesspy Kasim, 
the headman of the place. He was suffering from severe injuries 
received in an endeavour to escape from an enraged elephant, one 
of Sultan Ismatu’s herd. He had guided the Perak Raja in the 
* Since the period of my visit to the frontier, two Siamese Officials have 
been sent there by orders from Bangkok) and have surveyed the Bukit 
Naksa and Jeram Panjang line, which was pointed out to them by the 
Raja of Reman’s people. A copy of their map has been sent to Singapore, 
Sp ee” te ee 
