Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VI NEGRITOS OF PERAK 275
feather is clipped right up to the quill, so that it can
have only the very slightest effect upon the flight of the
arrow. Moreover, the two webs are affixed (all that
is left of them) at a convergent angle, and the question
which at once suggests itself, in view of this peculiar
method of fastening them, is whether the Semang
really understand the principle of feathering, and
whether they do not rather employ it either as the
mutilated survival of more intelligent methods, or
perhaps make use of it for solely magical reasons..
At all events, the probability that they do not
understand the principle is borne out by the independent
observations of Vaughan-Stevens, in con-
tinuation of the passage quoted below ;
and
the
(apparently inevitable) conclusion that in the Semang
we have a race of archers who employ feathering, but
do not understand its elementary principles, is a
sufficiently remarkable fact, and one which may
perhaps be taken as showing the extreme simplicity
of the civilisation that we find among them. I
should add that the only part of this arrow which is
decorated is the part covered by the feathering, which
has a large number of incised rings cut round it.
The second arrow (of the first quiver) was like to
the lirst, from which it only differed slightly in
respect of its measurements. Its shaft, for instance,
was 37^ in. (897 mm.), over-all length, and two-
fifths of an inch ( i cm.) in diameter. The length of the
feathering, including the lashings, was S^^,-, in. (210
mm.), and the web was clipped off as above de-
scribed. The iron head, which was single-barbed, like
that of the first arrow, was, however, a trifle shorter.
The second quiver,—which is decorated with a
number of concentric rings and a bold geometrical