AND THE MALAY STATES 
73 
liquid that the white man is always yearning to make and which will 
turn anything into gold. The type of coolie in Malaysia is, however, 
far superior to that in Ceylon. They are better formed, stronger, and 
far more self respecting. Nor do they call the white man “master'*; 
to them he is “tuan” (sir). 
There are many tigers in the Malay peninsula and some in the 
island of Singapore. In the bit of jungle where we secured the latex 
of the Gutta-jelutong there often lurked a tigress who swam over 
from the main land and had her nest there. As a rule they are trouble- 
some only as they steal the Chinamen’s pigs, and while there is now 
and then one who gets to be a man eater, it is not European meat that 
they seek, but the flesh of the coolies. They are very clever and hide 
themselves so well that one may almost step on them in going through 
the jungle. Once they are discovered, however, they charge for the 
intruder, uttering a tremendous roar. If they are not wounded and 
the charge is avoided, they slip off into the jungle and are almost instantly 
lost to sight. There is a record of a large tigress with two cubs that 
terrorized twenty miles of well traveled road, killing on an average a 
coolie a day for months. She *was finally killed by a spring gun, but 
the cubs escaped. They did not turn out to be man eaters. The tigers 
are fond also of killing the water buffalo. To do this they hunt in 
pairs, one cutting the creature out of the herd, while the other lies in 
wait, and at the right moment springs on his victim, seizes it bv the 
neck, and, leaping high in the air, throws the whole weight of his body 
in such a way that the neck is instantly broken. Referring again to the 
man eaters, they kill their prey by a stroke on the neck, and in feeding 
eat only the coolie’s legs. 
The most vicious beast in Malaysia, and one that both Europeans 
and natives dread, is a bison, something like that of India, only larger. 
It is a huge animal, six feet high at the withers, short legged, and heavv 
bodied. It lives in the forests, feeds on fruits, and usually attacks man 
on sight. They are very hard to kill and are the dread of the foresters. 
It is easily the largest ox in the world, and by far the most dangerous. 
There are, of course, many snakes, and of them the cobra seems 
to be the best known. The Singapore cobra is a much more vicious 
appearing reptile than is its cousin of Ceylon, and with different habits. 
It is known as the black cobra and rarely bites, choosing rather to 
eject the poison at the eyes of its enemy, and at eight or ten feet distance 
it is a pretty fair shot. If the eve is not at once treated by some sort 
of alkali, or if the venom gets in an open wound, the results are quite 
