FIVE DAYS IN NANING. 
404 
sward covered the ground between the trees and the large 
open tract above the Kampong. On the left lay the paddy 
plain, and over it rose the steep and high face of Bukit Pan* 
chur covered with great forest trees. The women as usual 
were busy gathering the rice. Here, as well as at all other 
places which I visited in Naning, the tui alone was used. It 
would appear that the sabet has not yet reached so far into 
the intern ui\* We waited the arrival of the matamata at 
his house for a few minutes which I employed in examining 
the horns and jaw bones of deer and feet of wild fowl dis¬ 
played on the side of the verandah. The rock is here lateri- 
tic, but in the middle of the rice flat there are some broad 
granitic blocks. The matamata soon joined us and at once 
consented to accompany us to Bukit Panohur. His manner 
was a contrast to that of Abdulrahman,—grave, saturnine 
and apparently inconversable, but withal willing to oblige and 
give information. At Malacca Pinda, according to him, 
there are seventy houses, each with two to six occupants. 
Under the matamata’s guidance we crossed the rice valley 
and ascended the elevated ground on the opposite side. As 
we proceeded, the country, open at first, gradually shewed less 
signs of cultivation, brushwood more and more abounded, 
till at last all trace of cultivation ceased and the path was 
nearly choked. We continued to press along it, and after 
walking some distance the brushwood began to be intermixed 
with plantains in a half wild state; pineapples were soon 
added, but the thicket made by these with the plantains and 
strong lalang, was more dense than that of the brushwood. 
Extricating ourselves at length from this deserted garden, 
we stood on the margin of a recently felled forest and at the 
foot of the steep face of Panchur. The trees and branches 
lay all around so as to render our further progress very diffi¬ 
cult. Plantains, klede and a few papayas were planted in 
the open spots amongst them. As we approached this place, 
our ears had been saluted by the most varied and melodious 
tones proceeding from some bulu ptSrindus invisible to us, but 
apparently attached to one of the trees high up the face of 
the hill above us, and exposed to the wind blowing fresly 
there though unfelt by us. I strained my eyes to catch a 
first glimpse of the houses of the wild denizens of the moun¬ 
tains, of whom I had heard and read so often, but with such 
imperfect results that the interest naturally excited by a race 
so singular in their habits and so mysterious in their origin, 
•f The sabet is a sickle, the tui a small instrument which aids the hand in 
cropping the heads only of the paddy. 
