Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAPTER I.
Food—Stimulants— Narcotics.
Although food is always (naturally) a burning ques-
tion among the wild tribes that are still nomadic, it
apparently becomes, strange as it may seem, of even
greater importance among those that are just entering
the path of civilisation, who are frequently rendered, to
a pitiable extent, dependent upon the Malays for their
very existence, a circumstance which the latter are not
slow to turn to their own advantage. The wildest
tribes, who are thoroughgoing nomads, seldom stay
more than three or four days in one place, but as
soon as they have exhausted the sources of food in
one neighbourhood, move on to the next, and hence
are as a rule fairly, though not liberally, supplied.
The staple food of these tribes does not consist so
much of the flesh of animals as of such wild vegetable
food as may happen to fall from time to time in season.
When this fails, the men engage in hunting, trap-
ping, and fishing excursions in order to eke out
their dwindling stock of vegetable supplies, which
consist mainly of wild yams,^ roots, and fruits of the
jungle.
The less wild tribes who have learnt the use of
^ According to H. N. Ridley the of the wild tribes is Dioscorea pentayam
most sought after by all branches pliylla.
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