FASCICULI MALAY RINSES 
*3 
procured them from the hill Sakais ; but recently old 1 Tower * muskets have 
been coming into their hands. Their blowguns differ from that given us by the 
Hami chief, in that they are made of the bamboo, Bambusa Wrayi , which has 
extraordinarily long nodes, often reaching the length of six or even seven feet 
between the partitions. This obviates the necessity for splicing two pieces to¬ 
gether or breaking through the septum dividing two nodes. The colour of 
the rind of this bamboo, which is of a warm brown shade, is also admired by 
the Semdn, who do not like to spoil it by incised ornamentation. Occasional 
circles are scratched round it, probably in order to indicate the position of bands 
of plaited rattan that the owner intends to add at his leisure to prevent splitting ; 
but the outer tube is not otherwise marked, though the inner tube, which is 
generally formed of a piece of lighter colour, has simple geometrical patterns, 
resembling those used more or less by all tribes of the Peninsula, scratched 
upon it. Very often a short length of it projects between the mouthpiece and 
the commencement of the outer tube, and this is nearly always decorated in 
this way. The mouthpiece is composed either of wood or of some resinous 
compound. In shape it is generally a little less distinctly annular than in the 
case of the Hami specimen, being often bowl-shaped and sometimes almost 
conical. The bamboo out of which the Semdn make their blowguns is obtained 
by barter with the hill Sakais, as the species Is a mountain one of very limited 
distribution. Very probably the majority of these weapons are even made by 
the hill Sakais, and only obtained in a finished condition by the Semin. 
The darts are made in the same fashion as those of the Hami, by splitting 
stems of some hard grass or sedge and fastening to one end a conical piece of 
the light spongy wood of a palm. The other extremity is sharpened and 
poisoned with a resinous substance of a dark brown colour. A notch is cut 
in the shaft of the dart just below the poison, so that the tip may break off in 
the wound. The poison being of two qualities, the darts provided with the 
more potent kind are distinguished from the others by a black mark made on 
the base of the cone of light wood. As the darts are packed in the quiver 
with the points downwards, these marks are seen as soon as the quiver is un¬ 
stoppered. The practice of indicating the quality of the poison on the darts 
in this manner is widely spread among the jungle tribes of the peninsula. 
Only two active ingredients appear to be used in making dart-poison by 
the Semdn, and, indeed, by the other jungle folk of ^ie Peninsula, though other 
substances may be added for superstitious reasons. These two ingredients 
are the sap of the Upas tree (Anttaris toxic arid), and that of a creeper belonging 
to, or closely related to, the genus Strycbnos , The former is the less potent of 
the two, and is often used alone on darts for killing small birds and mammals ; 
