FASCICULI MALATENSES 
57 
Oysters, among other species a pearl-bearing form, * 1 are an important 
item, fresh or dried, in the food of the Trang Samsams. They are collected 
from the sand at low tide, chiefly by women and children, and are opened by 
means of a wedge-shaped piece of iron that is driven through a wooden handle 
and secured in position by bending back its base. The animals are immediately 
scooped from the shells, boiled in water with a little salt, and, if not consumed 
at once, spread out in the sun on Pandanus - leaf mats or bamboo winnowing 
trays. The shells form large heaps behind the houses, being not worth the 
trouble of removing. Occasionally they are burnt to form lime, which is 
consumed with betel ; but this is not often done, as there is plenty of limestone 
in the district. The pearls are only sought for incidentally, and are small 
and badly coloured. 
The Holothurians, known as trepang , are also obtained in considerable 
numbers on some of the islands, being speared with pointed sticks as they lie 
on the sand in shallow water. This method is adopted, though it would be 
just as easy to pick them up like the oysters, in order to make them eviscerate 
themselves. They are buried in the ground for a night, the outer skin is 
then rubbed off", and they are dried slowly over wood fires. The trepang 
are not eaten by the Samsams themselves, but are sold to Chinese traders, 
who occupy themselves in collecting mangrove bark along the coast. 
Bivalve molluscs of several species, Brachiopods, or lantern shells, and 
Sipunculid 2 worms, are obtained in considerable numbers by the women and 
children, who dig them out, partly with their hands and partly with pointed 
sticks, from the sand at low tide. The molluscs and Brachiopods are eaten 
fresh, but the worms are cleaned and hung up on racks to dry ; when prepared 
they have much the appearance of fine isinglass, they are generally made into 
soup. 
Edible birds’ nests are gathered in the caves on several of the islands off 
the coast of Trang, but the majority of the Samsams are not allowed to 
remain on these islands during the nesting season. The Siamese Government 
claims the right to farm out the nesting caves ; but in popular estimation it 
appertains to the Sultan of Kedah, and some of the farmers pay dues 
to Malays who claim to be His Highness’s agents, without the knowledge of 
the Siamese authorities, who rarely trouble to visit the remoter islands. It is 
remarkable that on the Trang coast the nest farmers are sometimes Siamese, 
not invariably Chinamen as on the islands of the East Coast and the Inland 
Sea (Taleh Sap). The actual collectors are mostly, if not entirely, Samsams. 
i. Apparently Margaritifera -vulgaris , not, strictly speaking, an oyster. Professor Herdman has kindly 
examined a shell. 
z. Probably Phymosoma japonicum. This species is eaten by the Selungs (Anderson, The Selungs of the Alergui 
Archipelago , p. 22. London, 1890). 
I 
18/2/05 
