Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAJ OF PERAK 207
until they are able to drive a sharp-pointed stake into
the sole of its foot as the latter is lifted in walking.
The elephant being thus effectually lamed, and un-
able to pursue them, they shoot their poisoned darts
into him from behind a tree (preferably into his eye),
and thus despatch him. They are no less ready to
attack the tiger and the rhinoceros.'
The Sakai of Perak, like the Semang, not un-
frequently employ dogs in the chase, a custom which
Mohammedanism has, no doubt (to some extent, though
not entirely), brought into disuse among the Malays.
The traps and snares used by the Sakai are of
various sorts and sizes, one of the commonest being
the " b'lantek " or spring-spear trap, of which there is
a very good account in Hale.^ This trap is used for
killing game of almost any size, from the rhinoceros
to the porcupine. When used for large game the
spear is either manufactured from a single piece of
bamboo, or has its shaft made of a hard piece of wood,
with a bamboo spike or blade firmly bound to its
lower extremity. In either case the point of the
weapon is generally fire-hardened. For small mammals
a hardwood shaft, the end of which is similarly
sharpened and fire-hardened, is employed.
The "b'lantek" described by Mr. Hale is one of the
forms of a Malay spear-trap called " b'lantek parap,"
or the " slapping spring-spear." The different parts of
it are as follows :
—
^ De la Croix, p. 335. De M. held in a bent position by a bit of
{L'Honimc, ii. 651) questions the truth jungle cortl, which at a touch releases
of this account. the spring, when the spike, which is
" /. I. A. vol. iv. p. 429. eight to ten inches long, is buried in
^ Hale, pp. 289, 290. Cp. "They the animal. The existence of these
generally get pigs and deer by an in- spring traps makes it advisable always
genious wooden spring made of the to be accompanied by a Sakai guide
branch of a tree with a bamboo spike when moving about their countrj-."
fixed to the end of it ; the spring is /. K. A. S., S. B., No. 4, p. 29.
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