38 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
shows them to be identical. It may be noted that the force with which the 
spear is launched is very considerable, and we have seen it driven through both 
sides of a strongly made wicker basket. The traps are set, in most cases, for 
deer or pig, but they are also used to protect the camps from undesirable 
visitors. When we were at Telom, the Sakais, having lately committed a murder 
among themselves, concluded that’ we were government officials sent to spy 
upon them, and, therefore, warned us not to come to their principal camp, 
because they had set traps round it. That this was quite true one of us learnt 
by practical demonstration, for the spear whizzed between his legs. As a rule 
the presence of a trap across the path is indicated by a bunch of leaves suspended 
on cross sticks a little distance from it on either side. 
The blowguns made in this part of Perak are essentially the same as the 
one procured from the Hami, for Bambusa Wrayi is apparently unknown to 
the Mai Darat. The necessary length of bamboo is obtained, however, in 
two ways, both of which may be used on the same blowgun. The one is 
that of splicing, the other that of removing the septum which divides two 
nodes of the same stem. The latter operation is performed by striking the 
septum with the midrib of a species of palm that is both slender enough 
to enter the bamboo and strong enough to sustain the necessary force. 
This instrument (Plate XI) is not sharpened to a point, but cut off almost 
square. After the septum has been removed, a bunch of coarse fibre, 
apparently also derived from a palm, is introduced at the end of a long 
stick (Plate XI) and rotated inside the cylinder, until the inner surface 
is of a uniform polish and the bore of the same diameter throughout 
its length. The outer tube is frequently ornamented in much the same 
way as that of the Hami specimen, but the incised patterns are less 
extensive and the use of dotted designs less frequent. The mouth- 
pieces are of wood, and are never conical. Though several accurate descrip- 
tions of the manner in which the blowgun is used by the Sakais have been 
already published elsewhere, it may be as well to add a few words on what 
we observed ourselves. The dart is first introduced at the breech, that is to 
say at the end marked by the mouthpiece. The aperture then loosely 
plugged with the ‘palm-scurf’ to which we have referred, it being a 
light and silky fibrous mass derived from the trunk of a palm, and always 
carried by the Sakais for use both as wadding and as tinder. The blowgun is 
kept loaded in this manner, and when a bird or beast presents itself, is 
immediately raised to the lips in such a way that the tube is directed upwards 
to a point above the object aimed at, with an inclination varying with the dis- 
tance. The dart is then projected with a sharp expiration. The aim is usually 
