FASCICULI MALATENSES 
XXIX 
inferior size, but still gigantic, have been set up round it, and the cave is 
regarded as being sacred by Malays and Siamese alike. 
We paid several visits to Bayu to measure the people, who were of the 
Siamese type normal in Jalor, many of them having wavy hair. From the 
lake we obtained specimens of a freshwater sponge and a freshwater Polyzoon. 
Bendang Slab. An important village, partly Chinese and partly Siamese, 
a full day’s journey, going down stream, above Biserat. Its importance lies 
in the fact that it is the point of embarkation of the tin from the Jalor mines, 
with which it is in constant communication by means of elephants and pack 
buffaloes, which we did not see elsewhere in the Patani States. We made no 
collections at this place, but spent a very uncomfortable night, tormented by 
minute Acari, in a Chinese house in the village, on our way from Tanjong 
Luar to Biserat. 
Kampong Jalor. This village, which is marked as Raja Jalor on some 
maps, was until recently the most important in the state, being the residence ot 
the raja at a date when the Siamese rule was merely nominal. It is still a 
considerable Malay centre, and its most important feature is the raja’s com- 
pound, in which there is a large balei, or audience hall, built of flimsy materials 
and now much dilapidated, and reported to have been constructed at the cost of 
$40. It contains the raja’s insignia, which consist of a large drum, made of 
a hollow palm-trunk, and a huge wickerwork torch-holder. The village itself 
is dirty and crowded, and its inhabitants, very few of whom are Siamese, are 
mostly opium-smokers, many of them being employed in connexion with the 
raja’s elephants, and all elephant mahouts, it is commonly said, being addicted 
to this habit. Few, however, indulge to excess, the majority merely taking a 
pipe in the morning and another at night ; it appears to do them little harm 
so long as they can get their two pipes a day, but if this is impossible for a 
single day they become very weak and miserable. The opium monopoly in 
the village was held at the time of our visit by a Chinaman who had married 
a Siamese woman notorious as a witch who kept familiar spirits. She had 
originally been married to a member of the raja’s family, being the daughter 
of a Bangkok noble, but several husbands had divorced her in succession, 
because of her reputation in respect of black magic. 
The country round Kampong Jalor resembles that round Biserat, from 
which it is some five miles distant, but the limestone hills are rather higher and 
occur in close proximity to granite outcrops, on which vegetation is extremely 
scanty. The mammalian fauna is richer, owing to the neighbourhood of 
extensive tracts of jungle, and a number of species were brought us by the 
Malays, who appeared to be rather better jungle men than in some parts of the 
