ETHNOLOGICAL EXCURSIONS IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. Jld 



He will never tear off or cut away a liana hanging in his 

 way, he prefers holding it in his hand and crawling under it; 

 and in spite of this constant stooping, creeping, picking his 

 way, and running zigzag, he advances with great rapidity. 

 In following, not without trouble, such a real "man of the 

 wood," I have often admired the skill and quickness of his 

 movements and his clever evasion of all obstructions, and I 

 had to confess, that in spite of my long experience and prac- 

 tice in these things I found my master in an Orang Utan of 

 15 years old. I have purposely described these details, as 

 in the life of the nomadic inhabitants of the jungle they 

 areb y no means a trifling feature. The way the Orang Utan 

 have of wandering through the woods was for myself per- 

 sonally the cause of much trouble, and of long days of fruit- 

 less searching for traces of them. 



their relations with the Malays. — If the Orang Sakai-jina 

 are somewhat dependent upon the Malays, the Orang liar 

 remain decidedly hostile to them, and never lose an opportu- 

 nity of taking revenge on these people who by continually 

 laying out new plantations diminish the territory of the origi- 

 nal inhabitants, get the produce of the jungle from them for 

 a mere trine, and if they can possibly do so, capture their chil- 

 dren in order to keep or to sell them as slaves. This man- 

 hunting, which sometimes occurs still, was formerly practised 

 on a larger scale, and in many districts where numerous 

 hordes of the original inhabitants used to live no traces of 

 them are now to be found. The Malays however in spites 

 of their superiority in all respects to the denizen of the 

 jungle are very much afraid of these Orang liar and do not 

 venture either alone, or in small parties into those parts of 

 the forest which they are known to frequent. 



Arms. — The weapon of the Orang liar, which is most 

 dreaded by the Malays, is the Blahan ( Blow Pipe ) with 

 poisoned arrows (13). The use of this weapon is widely 



13. The chief ingredient of this Poison is the juice of the well-known 

 Upas Free of the Javanese, the Antiaris Toxicaria. With this juice a great 

 many other substances are mixed, the number and nature of which depend 

 partly on chance, and partly on the science of the preparer. The poison- 

 fangs of different kinds of snakes, the juices of a number of trees and fruits, 

 even Arsenic which the Orang Utan jina get in exchange from the Malays 

 are mixed up together. It thus comes to pass that the arrow-poison not 

 only of every small tribe, but of every individual Orang Utan, is made of 

 different materials, and that in consequence of this the effects are very dif- 

 ferent. The effect on man is certainly very deadly and very rapid ; thoroughly 

 trustworthy Malays in different parts of the Peninsula told, me that they 

 knew from actual observation that a man who has been wounded is not able 

 even to finish his Siri but is seized, with violent cramps and severe vomitings 

 and so dies. In some experiments that I made upon animals the poison 

 had a very rapid effect, even when administered in very small doses. 



