POISONS THEIR HOBBY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2285, 19 February 1912, Page 7

POISONS THEIR HOBBY.

CURIOUS RACE IN MALAY FORESTS, Away among the deep forests in the heart of the Malay Peninsula there dwells a singular people, whose curious habits are only partially understood. An Italian explorer found them so interesting that he spent fifteen years in studying their habits and customs, and has some wonderful stories to relate about the Sacai. They liye in a barbarous state, spending most of their time in gathering poisons from plants, which they prepare according to secrets known only to themselves, for protection against their enemies and for bringing down their quarry in the chase. J • * * * They hunt game and birds and gather the fruit on which they subsist. Nature in particularly rich in her bounty, and abundance of berries and foodstuffs is found on the bushes and giant trees., among which flybirds of rare and gorgeous plumage. ! But what proves most attractive to the natives is the great variety of poisonous plants. They speak aboit I the different poisons as familiarly ! and as often as we speak about the j weather, and the discovery of a new kind or combination is hailed as an j event of the greatest importance. The reason for this is because the ' poison is used in killing game and catching fish, and for the preservation of their independence, the varij ous concoctions being mixed accord- ' ing to the resisting power of the object for which they are intended. Thus, for instance, the hunter would never think of wasting a strong poison on a small animal he considered unworthy of such an honourable distinction. Besides, he must study to bring down such game as j he afterwards uses for food with poi- | sons which will in no way affect him. ! Growing among the rank grasses I and on the trunks of the trees, and j mingling with creeping flowers, are Iso many poisonous plants that the traveller must be constantly on the look-out to avoid them. Some are so deadly that even the odour aris- ; ing from them is overpowering, I causing serious illness ; others cause j skin diseases and painful swellings of l the body if their leaves chance to touch ever so lightly the hands or other exposed parts. In spite of his extraordinary passion for concocting poisons, the Sacai is a thorough gentleman in the chaise and a worthy foeman to meet. He is a big-hearted fellow, having none of the barbarous methods of other inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula, whose greatest pleasure is to i torture a fallen foe. When he poisons an arrow his object is to cause death as quickly and as painlessly as possible. He seems to be particularly happy in his domestic affairs. Husband and wife live happily together, and quarreling or ill-treatment is particularly unknown among them. In the event of a mother-in-law upsetting the peace of the home by interfering with its arrangements, the young couple adopt the wise plan of pulling down their hut and building a new one at a respectable distance from the cause pf disturbance.-—" Chambore's Journal."