Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

NEGRITOS OF PERAK 293
of the tubers that is employed. The "lekir" is an Aroid
belonging to the genus Amorphophallus, and the
" gadong " is a thorny climbing yam belonging to the
order Dioscoreacccc. Botanical specimens of both
these plants had been sent to the Calcutta Botanical
Gardens, but identifications had not (when writing)
been received. It was probable that the specimens of
" lekir " had been transmitted to Kew by Dr. King, in
which case they would be found numbered 3327.^
The tubers are rasped up fine with a knife, and
the soft mass put into a piece of cloth, which is then
forcibly pulled through two pieces of stick tied firmly
together a short distance apart, so that the juice,
which is very acrid, is expressed without coming in
contact with the hands. The juice of the '' lekir " and
"gadong" tubers so obtained is mixed with the Ipoh
sap, and the mixture dried on a wooden spatula over a
fire, and the darts poisoned in the way that has already
been described.'^
The tubers of both these plants, which contain
starch in large quantities, are cut up into thin slices
and suspended in a basket in running water and
allowed to steep until the poison contained in them
has been dissolved out. They are then cooked and
eaten by the aborigines, and also occasionally by the
Malays.^
The acrid juices of these plants are said not to be
fatal by themselves, and the part they play when
mixed with the arrow-poison is to cause local irritation,
which hinders wounded animals from escaping before
the antiarin has time to act ;
but
all the Semang and
Sakai encountered declared that the pure Ipoh was
more deadly than the mixture.^
^'gL. Wray in /. ./. /. vol. xxi. (1892), ]ip. 47S, 479. - ^ < lb.