through the means of the young one above mentioned; he crying out that these were from the gentlemen. The women now began to laugh and to look at us,-before this they had looked away. Now each and all laid hold of the tobacco, and thrust it into their mouths, sucking the juice. After we had sat awhile looking at them, Captain Newbold asked me to sit down beside them, to write down their words, stories, and customs, while he was at dinner; so he and Mr. Westerhout went to dine, walking also about. Now only would they speak of themselves and laugh.

I had a small book prepared, filled up with words, like a vocabulary, of which the Malays have no name; so I asked the names of this and that, which they told me, in a mixture of Malay and Portuguese. We went on till I came to the name of God, whom they called Deus. This certainly was a sign that their origin had been from the Portuguese, at the time they took Malacca from the Malays; but how had they been scattered into the jungles? This occurred probably when Malacca was again conquered by the Dutch and Malays acting in concert; and there yet remains a Portuguese church at Pangallan Tampui, as well as a graveyard in the big forest in the interior of Malacca, with stones engraved with Portuguese letters, which are written like Malay or any other language. All this subject I have argued to exhaustion, and my conclusion is that the Jakuns are descended from the Portuguese; but God alone knows, whatever men of understanding may think of their origin.

To proceed. I commenced by inquiring into their customs at marriage, when they told me that in regard to the woman, the man constantly followed her, by way of showing his desire to have her. This was made known to her friends and neighbours. So they waited till the tampui fruit season, when all collected to gather it

from all parts of the wood. Of this they made spirits. They then searched for beasts, such as the monkey, pig, snake, and what else they could get, which they collected in an open space or on a hill. They now got wood together for burning, which they used in roasting the flesh with yams. The spirits were drunk while they consumed the above, and much noise and feasting went on. They now gave the bride spirits till she was drunk, dressing her at the same time. Now the clothes are stuck with thorns and hung from her neck, and she was decked on her body and neck with forest flowers and leaves. This done they seek a knoll. The people now all assent, when the bride runs round and round the knoll, the bridegroom following trying to catch her. She soon falls, owing to her being tipsy, when the bridegroom gets hold of her. The tribe now all raise a cry of delight, and then retire; the couple also retire to the depths of the forest. This is the marriage ceremony.

I now asked about their burials, when they told me that when a friend, father, mother, or wife died, they at once left the spot, running to another-the corpse resting at the place where it lay till it was rotten, or had been eaten by wild animals; nor would they go near it again, as the place had killed one of their friends.

I again asked about their births, when they told me that when a woman was about to be delivered, whether it be night or day, that they made large fires to make angun; and when they had burnt well, they pushed away the glowing embers, leaving the ash hot. On this they bear the child; and when it is born, they cut the navel string with a sharp edge of bamboo. They now cover the child with the hot, ash. The mother now takes the ash and daubs the body with it. She then encloses her child in leaves surrounded by bark, and putting it in a creel or basket, she takes it into the forest, and what

ever food is eaten by the mother she chews and gives to her child, as well as giving the milk of her breast; and when the child is two or three years old they begin to teach it to climb trees, then to drop leaves with expertness, and such like.

I again asked the Jakuns about their religion and their idols. But they declared they knew nothing of these, but only how to seek their daily food, and that yearly, in the tampui season, they made spirits (arak), when all brought beasts to roast and eat. This time was their feast days.

I now looked into the creels or baskets on their backs, when I saw roasted yams, two or three snakes in three parts, salt, rolls (?), and turmeric, a bag full of tobacco, four Bengal potatoes, limes and other fruits, young plantains, two lubel nuts,-all these were in their basket. Also each individual had a piece of bamboo, a span in length, which he had filled with pepper and salt which had been pounded. And all these eatables they dipped in the bamboo before putting them into their mouth.

I then asked them about the poison called ipoh—its power, the origin of its being made, and the beasts that it cannot kill. To this they replied, At the distance of one hundred feet, all brutes or men that we shoot, if wounded-be it but a needle's size, and we can see blood -death is certain. Only elephants are an exception to this. This is owing to the thickness of the skin, and the quantity of water in their bellies-owing to this the poison is slow in taking effect.' I then asked if Jakuns had ever been killed by tigers. They said such was the case, but very rarely, perhaps they were seldom met, as the tigers were afraid to remain in their vicinity, being afraid of their poisonous arrows. The name ipoh was from a certain tree; there is one to be seen at

Pangallan Balla, with broad leaves, bifurcating, of varying size of stem-some say to the size of a sapmalak (?), but what have been seen are less; other people say that at its fruit season birds and brutes avoid it, because of its poison. At first its gum is white in colour, and when the trunk rises, the bark becomes the thickness of one's thumb, when the gum oozes out slowly. The Jakuns now take the gum and mix it with various kinds of poisons, which are obtained from roots and grasses, but of which they would give no instructions. They also told me that they put the puppets in.

After this I asked them how many tribes of Jakuns there were; on which they told me there were a great many,firstly, Benua; secondly, Jakun; thirdly, Sakai; fourthly, Udai; fifthly, Akeek; sixthly, Ryat; moreover, that the Benua were the aboriginal inhabitants, but that they were overcome by other races and princes. They had fled from fear into the recesses of the forest, and thus in process of time their habits altered, together with their language and mode of dress, even to the condition of being afraid to see the sight of mankind; yet they are of the same form as we are. As to the Sakai, they live as we do, only their habitations are on the tops of trees, so when they see mankind they flee like brute beasts. The Udai are men also, but I have never seen them, so I can say nothing of them, further than that I conjecture they live in the deep forest, to be away from the rest of the world.

I then inquired as to their habitations, whether they were houses or fixed sites, and they told me that the original habitations of the Jakuns were under the buttress roots of big trees; but, wherever they wished to stop at night, they had only to cut down a few branches and leaves to cover the spot, and there they slept, and on the morrow they left to seek food. But in places where the wild beasts were numerous, they got up in the trees to

sleep, as many of their friends had been carried off by tigers while sleeping under the crevices of the buttress roots. But now many of the Jakuns knew how to build houses like little huts, in which they remained, but that these were not real Jakuns from the first. I now perceived that they were covered with cutaneous disease; so I asked them if they ever bathed, so as to clean themselves, when they told me that they were not guilty of such a thing with water, but that when rain fell, their bodies got washed; for they added, 'If we bathed with true water to cleanse our filth, we to a certainty would get sick, or it would be against one of our primitive customs.'

After this I made inquiries of them relative to rumours that I had heard of their great occult skill, such as in turning people mad, affecting people by the tuju (pointing of the finger) till they died, creating spite between one person and another, and such like. Now know all ye gentlemen that read my story, that I give not the slightest weight to these rumours, further than they are vile calumnies, lies, and deceits. They replied to my inquiries in the following manner: True, there are many people in our tribe who are versed in such practices, for they take care of the spirits, so that these do their behests; others are skilled in medicine in all kinds of diseases, all of which are derived from the roots of trees and leaves; further, that Malays frequently came to them to ask for the required medicines.

Just as I was asking and writing all these queries, Captain Newbold and Mr. Berchi Westerhout, came to call me, telling me that it was near evening, so that we must be going, in order to get to Allor Gaja; so I put up my pen, ink, and paper. After Captain Newbold had thus made friends with the Jakuns, we arrived in Malacca; and in about five or six days they sent him a blowpipe and a bamboo joint filled with ipoh poison and accompani