168 MALAY POISONS AND CHAEM CUBES 



over the body of a man, the man will also feel very 

 severe itching. (This causes death sometime after.)** 

 This diabolical polypharmacy comes from Kelantan. 



LIKIR 



Likir is commonly found wild in Penang, Selangor, 

 Perak, Sumatra and elsewhere ; it is one of the agents 

 used by jungle tribes as a dart poison. It has been 

 described by Ridley : Like all the genus the tuber 

 throws up a single leaf at a time. The leaf stalk often 

 attains a great size nearly two inches through at the 

 base and tapering upwards, it is smooth and green 

 mottled with white and brown, the leaf blade is much 

 dissected, dark green in colour and is of large size. The 

 flower spike appears after the fall of the leaf and is 

 enclosed in a large funnel shaped primrose yellow spathe 

 shorter than the spadix and recui'ved above when fully 

 developed ; the lower part of the tube inside is of a deep 

 maroon colour. The male and female flowers are 

 separated on the spadix which is terminated by a large 

 primi'ose yellow cone-shaped process. The whole 

 inflorescence is about a foot high " (Ref. 18). 



A likir bulb was sent from Kelantan to Singapore ; 

 it flowered in the Botanic Gardens. Mr. Burkill 

 identified it as A. Rex, a neighbouring species of 

 A. Pranii. They are much alike, and it is improbable 

 that a village Malay would distinguish them by different 

 names. A. Rex is found in the Andaman Islands, 

 Perak, Penang, Sumatra and Java. It is a larger plant, 

 and more curious in its purplish brown sterile end to the 

 swollen spadix, and has a longer style. The flowers of 

 likir have an unpleasant smell : the expressed juice of 

 the tuber is used by the Negritos of Perak (Seraang) as 

 a dart poison. They mix it with the fresh juice of the 

 upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria), and it is said that a tenth 



