Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAVAGE MALA YS OF SELANGOR 125
stantly chew sugar-cane, etc., throughout the day, and
they do not hesitate to accept an extra meal whenever
the opportunity offers. They gorge, in fact, Hke
pythons whenever they get the chance, and are only
too willing to sleep it off afterwards. It is, however,
only fair to them to say that they do not often get the
opportunity of eating to excess, except in the fruit season
or at harvest-time. They eat monkeys, rats, snakes,
and even crocodiles.
One of their more elaborate banquets, at which I
was present, will be described in detail in a later
chapter.
Betel-leaf and Tobacco.
Besisi.—The chewing of the betel-leaf is a favourite
occupation of the Besisi, who especially affects the
wild betel-leaf called " chambai " and the bark from the
stem of a creeper called " kalong," ' which is, I was told,
identical with the stem of the "chambai." I have
tasted both, and found that both possessed equally the
pungent aromatic Havour of the betel-leaf, and left
behind them a sort of roughness of the palate for at
least a few minutes after they had been chewed.
The Besisi are also extremely fond of tobacco, which
is generally smoked in the form of small cigarettes,
rolled up in thin coverings of palm-leaf after the Malay
fashion, but which is also occasionally chewed."
Food and iis Preparation.
Mantra.—Of the Mantra we are told that no kind
of food comes amiss, so long as it does not " intoxicate "
or poison them.^
• Piper i ait iti inn. -' Skeat m Sel. Journ. vol. v. p. 381.
' y. I. .-i. vol. i. p. 254.