Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

234 MODES OF BARTER part ii
without destroying the tree. But the answer always
was that the " taban " would not run like dammar,
or like many other guttas, such as caoutchouc, and
this is probably the fact. Varying statements were
made as to the produce per tree, the extremes
mentioned being two kati's and fifty kati's,^ but it is
doubtful whether anything near the latter quantity is
ever obtained from a single tree. Many of the Jakun
who had been engaged for some months in collecting
assured me that they had occasionally obtained as
much as eighteen kati's, but never more, and that the
quantity obtained is usually nearer from three to five
kati's than it is to the maximum mentioned. Logan
described the collection of " taban" at length, because
nearly the whole of the Jakun tribes had for some
time past been withdrawn by it from their usual
pursuits. They were not, however, under any apprehension
that it could be extirpated, as it was
only full-grown, or nearly full-grown, trees that repaid
the labour of felling them and extracting the gutta, and
the younger trees which they were compelled to leave
would be amply sufficient (they believed) to keep up
the stock. They were, no doubt, to some extent correct,
but the effect of thinning out the " tabans " too rapidly
had already been to reduce the annual supply of seed
and seedlings. The seeds were eaten by the Jakun,
but they did not, like the Malays in some countries
[e.g. at Siak), extract an edible vegetable tallow from
them."
Of the methods in which the other articles of traffic
yielded by the jungle were procured, Logan con-
sidered it unnecessary to speak at any length, because
he did not learn that they differed in any respect from
1 A "kati"=i.i lbs. 2 y. /. a. vol. i. pp. 262, 263.