MY TRIP TO BKLUM 12 5 



seven respectable streams, so it is not to be wondered at that 

 the Perak river carries down from its ulu a fine body of water 

 and that heavy rains easily create floods. The first part of our 

 walk was along an excellent path and in open bamboo country,* 

 and we strode on in good spirits. Mine were presently damped, 

 for I did not see an overhanging tree above the path, and a 

 very solid one at that. I walked straight into it with my head 

 and was almost stunned. Then we began to climb a hill and, 

 at the worst point, I heard an exclamation from behind and 

 saw Simmons clap his left-hand to his left ear apparently. I 

 said " hornets " to the old Datoh and we did an excellent sprint 

 up the hill followed by Simmons, the cook who had been stung 

 in the hand, and the boy who was apparently in as much pain 

 as if he too had been stung. We ran up into some lalang, and 

 as I saw a patch of jungle on the right where there was shade, 

 I urged the Datoh to run into it and we all followed. We 

 hoped that the hornets would go on up the path and that we 

 should escape. We were breathless and wanted a rest. When 

 Simmons came in, I saw he was bleeding freely behind the ear. 

 I was just going to suggest whisky as a remedy applied locally 

 (I had a flask), when he said : " There is one of them on you." 

 We all immediately bolted into the lalang and down the path. 

 Some 200 yards further on we entered jungle and Simmons 

 saw one sitting on my leather belt. He crushed it with a 

 walking stick. We picked it up off the ground and beheaded 

 it on a log. Then only did I see that it was not an ordinary 

 hornet (tebmuan), but a panahliang.1 This fearsome hornet, 

 the worst of all stinging insects in Malaya, is fortunately 



*W. G. Maxwell, in his delightful book "In Malay Forests/' 

 makes too much, if I may say so, of the gloom or impenetrable dark- 

 ness of the forest. In belukar, where elephants chiefly feed and in 

 swampy places which the rhinoceros haunts, I grant that his descrip- 

 tion is correct. But in old forest one can not only see for some little 

 distance, but can make one's way. 



t From panah — an arrow, and liang — a hole in the ground. This 

 species of hornet makes its nest in a hole in the ground. If you tread 

 on or disturb its nest, it darts at you like an arrow out of the hole. 



R. A. Soc, No. 54. 1909, 



