FASCICULI MALATENSES 
xix 
are chiefly of the * Siamese’ breed 1 2 ; but zebu blood has been lately introduced, 
and many buffaloes are kept. 
The journey from the Perak border to Betong took me three days on 
foot, but could have easily been accomplished in two, had it not been for the 
state of the track between Grit and Krunei—a regular slough of despond, churned 
into mud, and rendered filthy beyond description by the passage of cattle from 
the Patani States to Perak, and of elephants in both directions. It appeared 
to swarm with a parasite (possibly a Nematode allied to Strongyloides intestinalis *), 
which penetrated the skin of the feet, especially between the toes, and caused 
extreme irritation and discomfort. We had experienced the same pest in places 
on Bukit Besar where elephants had been, and the Malays say, probably with 
truth, that it originates in elephants’ dung. I found the only way to obtain 
even comparative immunity from it was to walk barefoot and to wash my feet 
very carefully at every stream we crossed, as footgear of any kind, which, at 
any rate, the tenacity of the mud rendered irksome, appeared to harbour 
the parasite, which it was difficult to eliminate, 
Jarum. A smaller Malay village, some six miles north-west of Betong, 
and probably at one time a more important place than at present. It still 
contains a residence of the Raja of Rhaman—a miserably dark and dirty old 
house, swarming with parasitic Acari, which are said to come from the goats 
stabled under it, sand flies and mosquitoes, especially Anopheles , which breed 
in enormous numbers in puddles of filth in the village, and which are the 
probable cause of the great prevalence of malaria in the neighbourhood. I 
stayed here for some days in April, 1902, waiting for an elephant to carry my 
luggage to the Patani River, and obtained a few butterflies and ethnographical 
specimens, but only caught a glimpse of the Semang tribe whose Malay master 
is the headman of the village. 
Krunei, A straggling village, wholly Malay, close to the Perak border, 
which is here marked by a small cairn of stones standing at the edge of a pool 
called Lubong Gajah Puteh, or the pool of the white elephant. The 
chief of the Semang tribe whose Malay master lives at Krunei has 
obtained the right from a former raja to call himself Penglima Sakai ; he 
and his followers acted as my porters for a short distance, and I did not 
stay at Krunei because he told me that he owed five dollars to a Malay and 
was afraid to enter the village. I spent the night at Kampong Jong (not the 
one marked on the map), a mile or two distant; it was evidently a place of 
recent foundation, as the fruit trees were just beginning to bear for the first 
1. Faith. Malay. — Zoology^ voL j, p. 44, 
2. See Dr. Paul Van Durme'i Xmbryont de Sirongytotdti inUirinaht t University Press of Liverpool, 1903 
