24 THREE MONTHS IN PAHANG 
which were made round most of the clearings* Tlie traps I 
refer to are scarcely traps inasmuch as they are not made 
for the purpose of catching or even destroyin<if the elephants, 
but only with the object of frighten inj^ them away. A round 
hole, roughly two feet ir^ diaineter, is exca\ated with the 
help of a piece of wood, which is sharpened wedge-shiiped, to 
a depth of abovit two feet in the centre of a game track. In 
the middle of this hole a sharpened stake is lixed with the 
business end upwards. The holes are sometimes covered up 
but generally left uncovered. They are not very conspicuous 
and an elephant might easily step into one, mistaking it for a 
natural hole. Anyway if he does he probably gets a severe 
wound in the sole of his foot, which no doubt considerably 
anno3*s him and may cause him to temporarily rehnquish his 
desij^ns, if lie iind iiny, on the Sakat's crops. In bunting near 
any large Sakai encampments it is always advisable to tnke a 
Sakai guide with you who will take good c;tre that you do not 
stumble on any of their traps. Frequently all the game tracks 
which pass near their clearings are guarded with many sorts 
of engines of pain to wild animals, and incidently to the 
human animal if he does not know of their whereabouts. 
The followinfj morning, the i7tli of July, we left camp at 
daylight intending to return to tlie spot where we had left the 
seladang of the previous day, but before we arrived there 
we picked up the fresh tracks of a big solitary bull which 
had been feeding In a clearing close to, and we thought 
it was the same bull. Tliere was no hlood on the track, 
but after so long a time it was not to be expected. We found 
tracking very slow work as soon as the spoor took us into 
the big jungle : there had been no rain for weeks and, 
when w'e came to places where there were many dead leaves 
on the ground, Yasin had to track with his back bent double 
and his face within about three feet of the ground. Vet 
he is a very fine tracker, the best I have ever seen. This 
seladang kept us going for several hours before he seemed 
inclined to stop. We had been tracking him on the north 
bank of the Krau and shortly before noon his tracks took 
us across the river. Here he had stopped to drink, and as be 
followed a well-defined path up the bank, I noticed that 
the track was still wet. We were close to him now; that was 
quite certain, so I stopped the coolies and only Yasin, myself, 
and a gun-bearer proceeded. The ground was so hard that it 
was impossible for Yasin to keep a look-out for the seladang 
and w^atch the track stifficiently closely to prevent him from 
losing it, so I told him not to bother about the seladang but 
just watch the track, I would do the looking-out part of the 
