TO LOWER SI AM. 53 



After a chase I caught a small lizard with a long slender tail. 

 (Tachydromus sexlineatas) running througli the grass. 



In the afternoon we started across the heath and as a 

 shower came on took refuge in a house belonging to a 

 Siamese doctor or herbalist. He could speak no Malay but a 

 small Malay boy appeared who could talk Siamese, so we 

 were able to communicate. He presented us with a bunch 

 of bananas, which were fairly good ones. Probably owing to 

 the dryness and heat and the sandiness of the country the 

 Setul bananas are very poor and dry, as a rule. The old man 

 suffered from lumbago, but did not know the virtues of the 

 Gelam tree, of which on our return I brought him a bunch 

 and tried to explain how to use.it, and also gave him a note 

 to the local doctor who he said did not understand Siamese. 

 The small boy told us that all" the village children were assured 

 in their minds that we were collecting children's heads, with 

 the aid of our hook which we used for pulling down branches 

 of trees and the bag in which we put the tubers of amorpho- 

 phallus and other plants. This accounted for the flight with 

 shrieks of some of the smaller ones when w T e appeared, and 

 the curious awe with which the bolder ones surveyed the bag 

 when full of tubers. After the rain ceased we pushed on to 

 Batu Kajah Wang through the swamp and climbed till we got 

 to near the top of the rocks. Here we found a yellow flowered 

 Saccolabium and a pink CirrhojJetalum in flower. 



A number of K'rah monkeys^ Macacus cynomolgus, and 

 lotongs (Semnopithecus) frequent this hill. In the evening a 

 solitary teal {Denclrocygna) passed over the house, and a 

 number of Pteropus were seen. 



The following day we crossed the swamp lying between 

 Batu Berjonkong and Batu Eaja Wang, to the river and went 

 first to the foot of the former hill, at the base of which was a 

 curious mud swamp covered with a forest of Barringtonias. 

 It was impossible to ascend the cliffs here or to get round the 

 hill as the river runs close to it, so we turned across to Batu 

 Kaja Wang and went along its edge on the river bank. The 

 river is too deep for wading but it is possible with a little 



R. A. Soc, No. 59. I9H. 



