261 
THE BISUA OF JEOHORE. 
I f 
game anti fruits. During the tampui feast many matches are made, 
and as little negotiation and less ceremony is needed, it sometimes 
happens that a pair who had no thought of marriage in the morning, 
find themselves at night reposing side by side in the chains of wed¬ 
lock, while the dance and song are kept up beside them. 
Hitherto I have dwelt on the industry of the Binut as limited to 
the acquisition of the necessaries which his‘own land produces. But 
the Malays have taught him to covet things which he knows not how 
to procure save from them. These are cloth, articles of earthenware 
and iron, such as coarse plates, pots, pans, parangs and axes. Sugar, 
and coconuts are much prized. His supply of rice often fails. His 
tobacco is deficient in strength. Although he has both wild and culti¬ 
vated slid, he has neither gambier, betelnut nor lime. The Malays 
ascend in their canoes laden with a tempting variety of these articles, 
and the Binua, unable to resist the desire of calling some of them his 
own, needs little persuasion to become a debtor ot the Malay trader 
to any amount the latter chooses to impose upon him. 1 he Binua 
now finds himself in possession of a few of those things 'which bring 
him nearer the* Malay, and, at'the same time, under an obligation 
to collect rattans, kayu gharu, ehandan, camphor, dammar, wax, oi 
tab an for his creditor. These, with the exception of dammar of which 
he makes torches, are articles of no value in his own eyes, but in 
which his forests so abound that, if a more equitable system of ex¬ 
change were established between him and the Malays, he would not 
only find himself in possession of a large supply of all those articles 
which are now sparingly doled out to him, but of a growing capital. 
The collection of the above commodities does not form a constant or 
regular employment for any of the Binua. It is only when there is 
an unusual demand for any of them in Singapore that the Malays hurry 
to the interior, and induce the Binuas to engage lor a time in procuring 
a supply of what is in request. At the period of my visit nearly every 
man in the country was searching for tabfin (to which the name oi 
gitta.li percha, a gum yielded by a different tree, is erroneously ap¬ 
plied by Europeans*). This tree is one of the most common in the 
forest of Johore. It is not found in the alluvial districts ; but in un¬ 
dulating or hilly ground, such as that which occupies the centre oi 
the Peninsula between the Indau and Batu Pahat, it occurs frequent¬ 
ly, and in some places abundantly. Wherever I penetrated I found 
that taban collectors had preceded ono. I was much struck by the 
* It is time that an endeavour should be made to avoid these mistakes.. 
We might with as much truth and propriety called an apple a pear. 
