126 MY TRIP TO BELUM. 



uncommon. Its yellow band is lighter than the orange of the 

 hornet. Its wing is more gauzy and browner than the tebmcan's 

 wing. Its bite is said to produce fever, and quinine is always 

 asked for if a white man is near by. It is reputed that six will 

 kill a man, from ten to twenty a buffalo, while quite a few will 

 make an elephant do what we did — i.e., run. It is said that 

 for a radius of four feet round their nest all vegetation is killed. 

 I am a lucky person to have had two settle on me and yet not 

 have been stung. Simmons' neck continued to bleed, but, soon 

 after he was stung, we overtook Wan Husein on an elephant. 

 He produced a bottle of Siamese medicine, menthol and pepper- 

 mint, with a odour of snuff, which gave great relief. Wan 

 Husein's gembala was stung under the left eye and the poor 

 man's face was terribly swollen. Later, w T hen our elephants 

 came in, we heard that five or six men had been stung. Ber- 

 keley escaped by making his elephant walk at a funeral pace, 

 a rate of progression to which the panahliang is quite un- 

 accustomed. 



We got a good view of Ateng, a fine hill about five miles 

 off. We then went down to the river bank and goat-walked 

 for about a mile. It was not till 1.10 p.m., after four hours' 

 hard w r alking, that we reached Lembu — the first village in 

 Belum. The water of young cocoanuts was greedily drunk. 

 There are only 13 people in the village. One hundred yards 

 further on is Kubong Eengit (the pond of the sandfly) with 

 eight inhabitants. A quarter of a mile along the padi-fields we 

 came to an ideal camping ground on a high bank over the 

 Perak river, with short grass shaded by angsana (pterocarpus) 

 trees. We all camped there on Tuesday and decided to stay 

 till Friday morning, so as to rest our elephants and see the 

 people of the eight villages. The elephants had travelled on 

 an average for seven hours a day, which is as much as can be 

 expected of them. At 5 p.m., I took my gun out and got a 

 right and left at jungle fowl, bagging both. There is a clear- 

 ing at Tandok close to our camp, one house with two people. 



On the 4th August, at 5.30., I was up for coffee and went 

 out with my gun. I had tw 7 o shots at jungle fowl but only 



Jour. Straits Branch 



