Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

1916.J I. H. N. Evans: Upper Perak Aborigines, 215
bottom of the receptacle, a piece of the next internode,
sharpened to a spike for planting the quiver in the ground,
being left adhering to the node. The arrows were prevented
from rattling in the quiver, or from falling out by a plug of
leaves pushed down into its mouth between the arrow-shafts,
which projected from it to the extent of rather less than half
their length. Both the quivers made by the Hill Sakai, which
I obtained, were partially ornamented with scratched-in patterns,
but one had some of the patterns made more prominent
by removing poitions of the outer skin of the bamboo and
rubbing in brown colouring matter, after the manner of the
Negrito tribes.
The Hill Sakai, as I have already stated, have some little
skill in forging iron. Outside the communal house there was
standing a small thatched shelter, and under this was a Sakai
blacksmith's forge. The anvil, or anvils, on which the iron
was hammered out were a couple of small boulders with rather
concave faces; and the hammer used was an iron spike with a
flattened head, hafted to a short handle after the fashion of
a native adze (beliong). The bellows or apparatus for blowing
up the fire consisted of a couple of vertical bamboo cylinders,
from the open tops of which projected two slight wooden
piston rods. The piston-heads were made by binding a mass
of feathers to the end of each rod. The cylinders were lashed
to a stake driven into the ground, and further steadied by
spikes of bamboo projecting into the ground from the node
which formed the base of each. The air was delivered from
the cylinders to the hearth by two bamboo tubes issuing
from their base. The apparatus was exactly similar to one
in the Perak Museum collected by Mr. L. Wray in the Piah
Valley, and is of a type found throughout the Indo-Malayan
region. Two or three half-completed spear-heads, which had
cracked in forging and had been thrown aside as useless, were
lying about near the forge. Iron for making spear and arrowheads
is, of course, obtained from Chinese or Malay traders.
Fish-spear heads are also made by Sakai blacksmiths and one
kind of which I purchased a specimen, deserves description in
detail. This implement, 18 cms. in length, was composed of
four fine bars or strips of iron, bound together at the " tang,"
or end which is inserted into the shaft, with a strip of rattancane.
This "tang" is exceedingly clumsy and measures as
much as 2.5 cms. in breadth below the base of the blade
proper, but tapers towards its other end owing to the fining out
of the iron bars of which it is composed. In the blade
the two outer strips are bent at the base so as to separate them
from those in the centre : the latter are slightly bent apart at
their tips. The spear-head looks a very inefficient implement,
but in spite of this, I saw fish each of about three pounds
weight, which had been obtained with fish-spears of this type.
Barbed fish-spears like those of the Malays (serampang) were
also used, and the Sakai told me that these too were of their
own manufacture.