POISONS FROM JUNGLE PLANTS 179 



a little of it under the finger-nails may caBse death. 

 Hose, however, refers to the possibility of an acquired 

 immunity by constant handling, especially among 

 natives of Borneo (Punans) , who use the poison of the 

 ipoh tree as a medicine (Ref. 15, Vol 11. , p, 208). 

 L, Wray, jun., has also described the use of gadong as a 

 dart poison. 



Id the Malay Peninsula arrows are poisoned by smear- 

 ing layers of ipoh poison on the blade so as to form a 

 rather thick, hard cake ; it is also smeared on the shaft 

 of the arrow for about 2 or more inches. The arrows 

 are made from the stem of the heriam palm (Eugeissoma 

 tristis, Grifl^.) ; they are either wholly of wood, spear- 

 shaped, vdth a blade of 4 inches and length of shaft 

 of about 3 feet, or with a blade made of a rough piece 

 of barbed iron. It is said by Pahang Malays that 

 wounds caused by five arrows from a bow at close 

 quarters are sufficient to kill an elephant. Ipok poison 

 is applied in the same way to darts used with the blow- 

 pipe ; these are about 10 inches in length — i.e.j often 

 the breast to breast " measurement of the maker^ — and 

 made from the small palm Cyrtostachys Lakka, Becc. 

 Each dart is nicked near the point, and, as they are 

 only j^g: inch in diameter, the poisoned part breaks 

 off readily and remains embedded in the flesh of 

 the objective. The blowpipe is a narrow bamboo 

 tube about & feet long. The method of shooting 

 consists in gripping the pipe close to the mouth with 

 both hands,- swaying the weapon up and down until it 

 has been sighted, and then blomng fiercely. In 

 Kelantan it is said that an elephant shot in the morning 

 with two ipoh gadong darts will collapse before nightfall, 

 and that a monkey will fall dead ahnost immediately. 



The poisonous effects of these darts on man can be 

 realised from an account of an accident in Perak given 



12—3 



