3G2 S O O L O O. 



in order to obtain the articles they need, will work assiduously. Many 

 of them are employed in collecting gold-dust, and some in the diamond 

 mines ; and they will at times be found procuring gums, rattans, &c, 

 from their native forests for barter. They are a people of great energy 

 of character, and perseverance in the attainment of their object, par- 

 ticularly when on war-parties, or engaged in hunting. 



Their food consists of rice, hogs, rats, snakes, monkeys, and many 

 kinds of vermin, with which this country abounds. 



Their chief weapon is the parang or heivy knife, somewhat like 

 the kris. It is manufactured of native iron and steel, with which the 

 coast of the country is said to abound. They have a method of work- 

 ing it which renders it unnecessary for them to look to a foreign 

 supply; the only articles of foreign hardware that they are said to 

 desire, are razors, out of which to make their cockspurs. One thing 

 seems strange : although asserted upon good authority, that the iron 

 and steel of the coast are thought to be superior by foreigners, they 

 are not to be compared with that which is found in the interior, and 

 manufactured by the Dyacks. All the best krises used by the Malay 

 rajahs and chiefs, are obtained from the interior. Some of these are 

 exquisitely manufactured, and so hard that, without turning the edge, 

 they cut ordinary wrought iron and steel. 



Among their other weapons is the sumpit, a hollow tube, through 

 which they blow poisoned arrows. The latter are of various kinds, 

 and those used in war are dipped in the sap of what the natives term 

 the " upo." The effect of this poison is almost instantaneous, and 

 destroys life in four or five minutes. Those who have seen a wound 

 given accidentally, describe the changes that the poison occasions as 

 plainly perceptible in its progress. Before using the arrow, its poisoned 

 point is dipped in lime-juice to quicken it. The range of the sumpit 

 is from fifty to sixty yards. Although the arrows are poisoned, yet 

 it is said they sometimes eat the game they kill with them, parboiling 

 it before it is roasted, which is thought to extract the poison. Fire- 

 arms, respecting which they have much fear, have not yet been intro- 

 duced among them ; indeed, it is said that so easily are they intimi- 

 dated by such weapons, that on hearing a report of a gun they 

 invariably run away. Each individual in a host would be impressed 

 with the belief that he was the one that was to be shot. 



They address their prayers to the maker of the world, whom they 

 call Dewatta, and this is all the religion they have. There are many 

 animals and birds held by them in high veneration, and they are close 

 observers of the flight of birds, from which they draw prognostics. 

 There is in particular a white-headed eagle or kite, upon whose flight 



