58 
A JOURNEY IN JOHORE. 
We had pretty good roads and weather, until about 2 
o'clock p.m. when a heavy thunderstorm burst over us. The 
Jakuns told me that it was impossible to go further for that 
day, and at once disappeared; I was anxious as to this, when 
I perceived them coming back, each bearing a large bundle of 
chucho leaves, by means of which a sort of shed was in a 
few minutes erected. We kindled a fire, to dry our clothes ; 
and the rain continuing until dark, we huddled ourselves 
there together to pass the night, though as uncomfortably 
as possible. About nine o'clock we received the visit of a 
tiger, which did not harm us ; he passed close beside me 
and the Portuguese boy, and continued his way quietly ,• we 
heard his roar in the neighbourhood, but we did not see any 
thing more of him. The next day, the Portuguese boy told 
me that he had been so much frightened by the sight of the 
tiger, that he could not sleep the whole night. 
On the 15th we walked all the day, and nothing happened 
worthy of remark \ We stopped in a desert place and slept as 
on the preceding night. 
On the 16th at about two o’clock p. m. we arrived at a 
place named kampong Banut, where formerly there had been 
a village inhabited by Jakuns: their number had probably 
been considerable, since a large piece of ground had been 
cleared and cultivated. My guides told me that the insalu¬ 
brity of the place had forced the inhabitants to abandon it 
several years ago; the jungle is already grown up, and a few 
years more the place will be scarcely distinguishable from 
the thickest forest. At sunset we arrived at the place where 
the Jakuns of Banut live at present. The population of the 
place amounts to eighty persons who are governed by a 
chief termed Panghulu. The whole of them inhabit con- 
fortable houses, and they cultivate much rice; this grain 
with kladees, and a quantity of fish they catch in the river 
Banut, compose almost the whole of their daily food. I was 
received by the chief in the most kind and polite manner, 
nnd at his earnest request, I passed two nights in his house. 
I intended to go from there to the extremity of the river of 
Batu Pahdt (the Rio Formosa of the Portuguese) and I had 
already agreed for a guide and coolies, when my Portuguese 
boy and my Chinaman declared that they were unable to 
continue the journey by land Their feet were in a dreadful 
state; this was the effect of the bite of a kind of leech call¬ 
ed by the Malays Puchat. As I have not yet seen this 
inconvenience noticed in any writing X will mention it here. 
These leeches are of a peculiar kind, small in size but very 
