250 
INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, KNOWLEDGE-' 
are almost without assistance, and the sickness is ordinarily abandon* 
ed to the ordinary course of nature: notwithstanding the Malays consi¬ 
der them as clever physicians, and in their stupidity they believe them¬ 
selves very fortunate when with money or by giving them cloths they 
succeed in obtaining from these poor people some medical prescrip¬ 
tions. The following is a specimen of such recipes, probably purloined 
with great devotion by some superstitious Malay ; it is cited by 
Lieut. Newbold. “ A person with sore eyes must use a collyrium 
of the infusion of Niet-Niet leaves for four days. For diarrhoea, 
the decoction of the root of kayu-yet, and kayu- panamas; for sciati¬ 
ca powdered sabtal-wood in water, rubbed on the loins : for sores, 
the wood kumbing. If the head be affected, it must be washed with 
a decoction of Lawang-wood ; if the chest, the patient should drink 
a decoction of kavu-ticar leaves,” Some of the Jakuns, but few, 
and only those who are styled Pawangs, pretend to some knowledge 
in physic, as well as in the secrets of nature; but their pretensions on 
that point are not so great as it is ordinarily reported ; and in 
fact they are very little more clever than the others.* The Jakuns 
have some knowledge of music, they have several songs which they 
received from their ancestors, or which they make themselves, only 
according to the agreement of the ear, for they have not the slight¬ 
est idea of the musical notation ; their songs are generally rude, and 
agree perfectly with the austere aspect of their habitation; I have 
heard them too singing in a melancholy tone, chiefly during the 
night. Their songs though rude are not altogether disagreeable to 
European ears, provided they be not too delicate. I was much sur¬ 
prised to remark that though they are entirely ignorant of our Eu¬ 
ropean music, winch they have never heard, yet in great part of their 
songs, they proceed by thirds and by fifths assuredly without being 
aware of it, but only guided by their ear; which confirms the opi¬ 
nion of our European musicians who affirm that the third, the fifth 
and the octave are found in nature itself; and what I myself have 
many times observed in any sound, principally in that of a bell, that 
* See vol. i. p. 277. 
