4 
FASCICULI MALATENSES 
protuberant* though more so than that of most Malays and Siamese, and 
steatopygy was quite absent in both sexes. There was a wide separation 
between the hallux and the second toe. Malays claim to be able to distinguish 
the footprints of a Hami owing to this fact, and we thought that we could do 
so also. The skin was smooth, except where roughened by disease, and we 
could not detect any characteristic odour from it. Their person was fairly 
clean, except on the scalp, which was filthy. 
Their eyes were very bright, and had an expression at the same time 
timid and wild. Their movements were abrupt but graceful, and they walked 
in a manner which differed greatly from that of the civilized peoples of the 
Peninsula, but was eminently characteristic of all the jungle folk whom we 
met. The pace.was long, and the action was from the hip, the heel being 
raised high with a peculiar outward fling. In short, the gait was that of a 
man accustomed to step over low obstacles, as would be necessary in a path¬ 
less jungle strewn with fallen branches and tree-trunks. The Hami walked 
very rapidly, and were said by the Malays to cover great distances in the 
course of a day. When at rest they either squatted on their haunches, or sat 
with their legs stretched out straight in front of them upon the ground. 
When standing they often held their arms akimbo. 
One of the men who came down to see us was suffering from ague, and 
his temperature, observed an hour-and-a-half after food, was 103.8° Fahr . in 
the mouth ; while that of another man of the same tribe, who appeared to be 
in normal health, was 99.2 0 Fabr. y taken under the same conditions ; in a 
third case the temperature was 99.5 0 Fahr . The temperature of the air was- 
92.0° Fahr. The five persons whom we saw were all suffering, or had lately 
suffered, from a skin disease resembling Tinea versicolor , but not to the extent 
we afterwards found prevalent among the jungle people of Perak. They told 
us that what they feared, above all things, was * hot rain,’ i.e., warm, damp 
weather. When a slight shower fell, they rushed immediately to take shelter 
under a tree, and the same thing occurred when the sun shone out. 
The jungle people of Jalor have a great reputation, among the Malays 
and other races of the district, as herbalists, especially with regard to drugs 
used at child-birth, and to procure abortion. Our men begged them to bring 
certain roots used for the former purpose, and afterwards sold them in Patani, 
Most of their remedies, however, appeared to be empirical: the man suffering 
from fever had painted a white patch under his right jaw, and a short, white 
bar transversely across each dorsal vertebra, as a remedy. A string worn 
round the neck so tightly as to mark the skin was considered a prophylactic 
against the effects of * hot rain/ that is to say, fever. The peculiar belt of 
