XVI 
FASCICULI ALALATENSES 
commissionership of the ‘circle’ of which Trang forms a part. To the 
ethnologists and naturalist Kantang is not a place of any interest, except, 
perhaps, as regards the butterflies common in its vicinity, which struck me as 
being different from those seen elsewhere. The town consists chiefly of 
government offices and elegant villas, in which the officials live, and it is far more 
modern in all essentials than any place on the East Coast which we visited. I 
was obliged to wait at Kantang for some days to get a boat to take me to the 
coast, and again to catch the steamer for Penang, and during my stay was 
much indebted to the kind offices of Mr. A. Steffen, a German engineer in 
the employ of the Siamese Government, the native officials 1 being here sus- 
picious of me. From Mr. Steffen I procured some valuable ethnographical 
and antiquarian specimens. 
Ban Phra Muang. A large ‘ Malay,’ or, more accurately, Samsam, village 
at the mouth of the Trang River. I spent several days there in May, 1902, 
obtaining some ethnographical specimens and a series of anthropometrical 
data. The people, who call themselves Malays, are recognized as Samsams 
by their neighbours, that is to say, as being of mixed Malay and Siamese origin. 
They speak a dialect of Siamese mixed with Malay words and phrases, and 
resemble the Malays of Upper Perak in appearance. 
Pulau Mentia. A little island lying off the Trang coast. Part of it is 
high, and there edible birds’-nests are collected. The part facing the 
coast, however, is flat, with the most beautiful white sand, and is occupied for 
part of the year by a Samsam community which has its permanent village some 
distance up the Chau Mai River. A family of Orang Laut Kappir were also 
encamped on the island at the time of my visit. The fauna between tide- 
marks was very varied, owing to a plentiful growth of sea grass ( Zostera ), 
among which Holothurians, some of which were captured as trepang, were 
particularly numerous, while the ‘pearl oyster,’ Arenga magaritifera , or an allied 
species, was taken in great numbers from the sand, rather as an article of diet 
than for its pearls, a few of which were, however, collected. A Sipunculid 
worm, Pbymosoma japonicum in all probability, was dug out from the sand and 
eaten by the Samsams, as well as several bivalves and a lantern shell {Lingula). 
On Pulau Mentia, where I was only able to spend one night, I obtained two 
skulls, which I believe to be those of Samsams. 
Pulau Telibun. This island is partly the delta of the Trang River, but 
has also a limestone basis. It is densely wooded except along the coast opposite 
the mouth of the river, where it has a muddy shore, in which a variety of 
1 . The High Commissioner at Senggora had given me a letter of introduction, of course written in Siamese, to 
the Governor of Trang, and in this letter it was stated that 1 had come ‘to inspect knowledge,’ so that I was naturally 
regarded as some new kind of spy. 
