6 



Mawa<:, they are seldom to to be met with divest- 

 ed of the chopper which k requisite either to 

 clear a narrow pathway through the jungle, or 

 construct a rude and temporary dwelling either 

 amidst the emboweriLig branches of the giants of 

 the forest, or on the giddy verge of some beetling 

 precipice. The sunipit is a long narrow tube, 

 nine or ten feet long, and, as the reed is very 

 alight and unable to sustain its own weight, it is 

 enclo^ied in a hollow bamboo of the same length* 

 The bamboo, or case, is rudely ornamented with 

 iDlersectiog lines cut upon it, and the Semangs 

 use this weapon with astonishing facility and 

 dexterity* They blow either arrows or clay pellets 

 through it witb great force and accuracy of aim ; 

 the former are generally poisoned with Ipoh, a 

 deadly vegetable juice extracted from various 

 trees, and 'with the latter a Jacooo, who was at 

 Malacca in 1833, asserted that he had killed a 

 man at the distance of forty yards. 



Their eye sight, naturally quick, is rendered 

 acute in the extreme, from their finding their 

 subsistence entirely amongst the wild denizens of 

 the forest, and the productions of inanimate 

 nature, whilst their vigilance is ever required in or- 

 der to guard against their stumbling on the lair of 

 the tyger, or disturbing the numerous snakes lurk- 

 ing in the luxuriant brushwood. The latter, the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, monkey, rats, and the 

 numerous feathered race, furnish them with their 

 an imal food, and they ascend the trees either in pur- 

 suit of tiiese, or in avoidance of their enemies, with 

 all the agility of monkies. Unfettered as their 

 limbg are by the use of garment^, tJieir sole 



