My Trip to Belum. 



By E. W. Birch, c.m.g. 



We started from Grit for Belum on Monday, the 26th 

 July. Hubert Berkeley, J. W. Simmons, the Datoh Sri Adika 

 Raja, I.S.O., the hereditary Chief of Upper Perak, and I. 



We had 21 elephants, one of which is probably the tallest 

 in Perak. He is named Bogek and stands 9 ft. 4j ins. at the 

 shoulder. His master, the Datoh Wan Man — the headman of 

 the district for which we were bound — had come down to Grit 

 to meet me and was our guide to Belum. 



We began our journey by walking eight miles to Bersiah, 

 where we camped. The elephants took over seven hours to 

 make the journey. They can go two miles an hour when the 

 going is good, but deep mud, hills, river fords and fallen trees 

 delay them. At i past 12 we reached Kuala Rui and saw how 

 it empties its muddy water, full of mining silt, into the beautiful 

 Perak river. 



We passed through bamboo country and crossed some fair- 

 sized streams. 



Bersiah is a village with 64 people of all ages, who live in 

 miserable bamboo huts and have but little cultivation of a 

 permanent nature. The evil of opium smoking is very evident 

 amongst the Patani Malays here and elsewhere and destroys 

 their usefulness as agriculturists. There is some padi land, 

 and some more will be irrigated next year at Banderiang, on 

 the Grit side of Bersiah. 



The people suffer a great deal from goitre (bencjok), and 

 this was more noticeable the further we went up country. 

 The Datoh Sri Adika Eaja tells me that goitre is a peculiarity 

 of the interior of all the surrounding Malayan countries as one 

 nears the mountains : and that the Malays attribute it to the 

 water the people drink. They believe that the water is infect- 

 ed by some unknown akar (root or creeper). 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 54, I9C9- 



