76 



Note on the Ja:oo7is 



Note on the Jacoons. 

 [A late lamented clergyman of the Church of England on the 

 Madras Establishment, furnished me with the following extract from 

 his note-book, containing interesting mention of the Jacoons, spok- 

 en of in the text at p. 63. — Editor.] 



Late in 1S35, I took a ramble to the southern At/er Panas* and 

 Reihni. The well at Ayer Panas is not quite hot enough to fix an egg ; 

 I used it as a bath, letting the water cool in vessels before throwing it 

 overme, and at last could just jump into the well and out again, it 

 being only knee deep. The heat may be about 130° ; it is impregnated 

 with sulphur, bat I think not with iron. A good government bungalow 

 in the middle of cleared ground of a few hundred yards — the rest dense 

 forest. The foot marks and other signs of elephants, tigers and deer, 

 were frequent, and at night in bed I heard the wild hog, with their 

 squeaking young ones, and the sough or heavy sigh of the tiger from 

 the deep forest; which I felt to be the most dismal sound that ever 

 met my ear — the loud roar is nothing to it. The natives say it is 

 generally towards morning when he approaches his den, after prowling 

 all night, that the tiger emits this singultus, by which he seems as if 

 relieving his great lungs. There is a melancholy in it, W'hich im- 

 pressed me with a sense of desolation. The last night of my stay we 

 were roused by a cry resembling that of a pig in the hands of a butcher 

 —it was a wild hog seized by a tiger, they said. Every one was up, 

 shouting and making as much noise as possible tu scare the free- 

 booter ; but of c(^urse nobody stirred out; and I fancy no Malay would 

 have left his hut at such a time, had the ti-er's prey been his ow^n 

 father. Although the Malays so dread the tiger when they actually 

 hear him or his doings, yet they are reckless enough, when they do not 

 positively know him to be near, and they traverse the forest in quest 

 of fruit or to cut timber in the day time. They pointed out to me 

 one place v.-hich they superstitiously avoided; several people, they told 

 me, had gone in that quarter to cut wood, but never returned, having 

 been seized by spirits {datoo). ISo doubt they had been carried off by 

 wild beasts. 



The forest supplied abundance of fruit, indeed the people cultivate 

 scarcely any thing— a little paddy, but not enough for their own con- 

 sumption—their supplies of rice, tobacco, cloth, &:c. they get from Ma- 

 lacca in exchange for fruit ; although with little labor they might fur- 



* Malay, hot-water. 



