Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

298 WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS
injury. This doubling of the tube, as has been said,
is intended to keep it straight and to prevent warping,
and generally to protect the blowpipe, which would
be otherwise too frail to sustain its own weight.^
The Sakai blowpipe is, as a rule, far more highly
decorated (with incised rectilinear designs) than that
of the Semang, and has a wooden mouthpiece which,
for shooting purposes, is either placed between the lips
and the teeth or taken directly into the mouth itself.'
The darts, which are not of bamboo but of the
hard leaf-rib of the " bertam," are of the usual "knit-
ting-needle " type, and have butt-ends not of rattan
but of " bertam " wood, but are more delicately finished
and symmetrical than those of the Semang, which in
comparison are very roughly made. They are from
8-1 1 in. (20 cm. to 28 cm.) long. The usual wad of
flocculent palm-down is inserted in the tube behind
them to prevent windage.^
This down is obtained from the cuticle of a tree,
fined down with a knife, sun-dried, and rolled in the
hand in order to eliminate the harder tissues.*
The quivers of the Sakai are much more elaborate
than those of the Semang. They are made from a
bamboo (internode), which is highly decorated, and
which contains small bamboo tubes or reeds in which
the darts are kept ;
they
further contain all the re-
quisites for making new darts and for poisoning them.^
1 For descriptions and illustrations, ° De Morgan, Z'//. ii. 6 1 6, and
see De Morgan, vii. 416 ; UHomme, vii. /. c. Hale (p. 289) adds, "At
ii. 614 ; and Hale (who gives measure- the bottom of the quiver a supply of
ments), pp. 288, 289 ; cp. also_/. /. A. bees-wax is always kept, with which to
vol. iv. pp. 429, 430, where, however, polish the quiver as well .as the blowbamboo
(!) darts are spoken of. pipe, exteriorly ; this polishing, com-
^ ^ De M. and Hale, loc. cil. bined with the fact that they are always
* De M. loc. cit. Hale (p. 289) suspended over the fire, where the
says it is composed of the natural fluff smoke can get at them, helps to give
or down obtained from the leaf-bases them the rich red colour that the
of certain rattans {Calami). Sakai admire."