154 MALAY POISONS A^W CHABM CUBES 



rimau; Glycine hispida, Maxim —Leguminosae). An 

 attempt seems to have been made to poison or to 

 incapacitate for a while (pending a law suit) a 

 cousin of the late Sultan of Kelantan. The Tgngku 

 Woh herself did not happen to eat any of the 

 poisoned meal, but three of her women who partook of 

 the meal -were attacked with vomiting, diarrhoea, and 

 general prostration, with violent itching of the skin in 

 one case. They all recovered quickly with treatment 

 by castor oil and a bismuth mixture. In February, 

 1920, the Kota Bharu police sent a small glass bottle 

 containing eoeo-niit oil and many vegetable hairs which 

 they thought were those of kachang bulu rimau, but 

 under the microscope these hairs were clearly recognised 

 as bamboo hairs. A Malay had given the oil to a 

 woman inside a dark house to rub over her body and so 

 annoy her by causing great irritation of the skin. 



Kachang bulu rimuu is an annual vegetable plant 

 gi'owing to a height of from IJ to 2 feet ; the stem is 

 densely clothed with fine ferruginous hairs. The pods 

 are short, densely pubescent, and contain from two to 

 four edible seeds, which vary in colour from white to 

 3''ellow and black, according to the variety. The best 

 kno^vn is the soy or soya bean of commerce (Glycine 

 Soja, Sieb and Zucc. ; Soja Hispida, Moench.). 



A ^^ild inedible bean called the " tiger bean " by 

 Malays {kachang rimau; Mucuna gigantea, D.C.— 

 Leguminosae), which is also well known in India for its 

 urticating properties, is a much more serious poison if 

 administered internally. The botany of Mucuna 

 gigantea is described by Kirtikar and Basu : A large 

 woody climber, with slender, glabrous branches. Stem 

 thin, but sometimes 250 feet long. Leaflets ovate, 

 acute, glabrous when matm-e ; flowers on long slender 

 pedicels, almost umbellate, at end of long peduncles. 



