FASCICULI MALATENSES 
xxxv iii 
dealings, every ten cents being placed by itself in a little heap, and the different 
heaps being again combined in tens to form dollars. An interesting feature 
of their culture was the fact that they displayed a far greater tendency, 
possibly inherited from Semang ancestors, to decorate bamboo articles with 
engraved patterns than their Malayo-Siamese neighbours, though their patterns 
were of a more regular and elaborate character than those common among the 
wild tribes of the Peninsula. Their cloth, on the other hand, was very 
coarse, only three kinds of dye — the bark of the jack-fruit tree (. Artocarpus 
integrifolia ), the wood of a species of acacia and an indigo — being at all 
commonly employed, and checks being the only type of pattern as a rule 
attempted. Unlike most of the Malayo-Siamese, however, they grew a 
proportion of the cotton they used, and many of their spindles and other 
implements were finely carved, while the stands of their cotton-winders were 
often ornamented in a very tasteful way with a combination of carving and 
painting in simple colours. The everyday language of Mahommedans, as 
well as Buddhists, was a dialect of Siamese, but all the older Mahommedan 
men, and most of the younger ones, could also speak Malay. 
The country round Sai Kau is not particularly interesting, except towards 
the mountain, and the greater part of our work there was anthropological. We 
obtained large ethnographical collections during the two visits we paid, one in 
May, when we stayed for about a week, and one in September, when our sojourn 
was rather longer. A number of people were measured, photographs were taken 
and two skeletons of murdered persons were procured, for it is not very 
difficult to carry off the remains of those whose violent death has caused 
their ghosts, which follow the remains, to be a menace to the neighbours. 
Jhering 
The state of Jhering lies between Patani and Telubin, which we did not 
visit, and the most direct route from the interior of Rhaman to the coast 
runs through it. Although its area is considerably larger than that of Patani, 
the proportion inhabited is very much smaller, for the interior of the country, 
according to all accounts, consists chiefly of swamps and morasses, in which 
the Jambu River, which appears to have been at one time connected 
with the Patani, now loses itself. The population is chiefly Malay, being 
almost entirely occupied in fishing and salting fish, but we heard persistent 
rumours of the existence of a large Siamese village, peopled by the descendants 
of former invaders, and the rajas of the state are of true Siamese origin, 
though now Mahommedans. 
