Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SA VAGE MALA YS OF PAHANG 323
Blowpipe and Quiver— first type.
Pahang- Jakun (Kuantan).—Of the blowpipes used
by the O. Kuantan there appear to be at least two
types, one of which is the roughest form of blowpipe
made, and the other resembles that of the aboriginal
Malayans. The former is described as being made
from long internodes of the " semeliang " (" semi-
liang") bamboo, whose internodes are much shorter
than those of the Bambusa JFr^j>'z (" buluh temiang ").
The internal tube, therefore, is made in two lengths,
which are joined by means of an outer tube or sheath
which is manufactured from the midrib of the leaf of
the " langkap " palm, and drawn over them.^
When the two abutting ends have been fitted
together, a piece of rag (formerly, it is said, it was a
ligature of plant-fibre) is smeared with heated resin
and wrapped first round the end, the wrapping being
coated over with a thin layer of gutta-percha, which is
melted by turning it round a firebrand. The mouth-
piece is also made of {sic, ? covered with) gutta-percha
instead of the more usual material, wood.-'
These blowpipes are the least effective of all
those known in the Peninsula, and cannot propel a
dart above forty paces. They are little used, and are,
according to Vaughan-Stevens, hidden inside the
stems of living bamboos, the nodes of which have
been knocked out. Vaughan-Stevens was only able
to obtain four.^
The bamboo internode from which the quiver of
which V. -St. himself makes reference, is ployed by the O. Kuantan is " damar
a much simpler method of tightening tooyoom " (Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 113).
these rings. ' Cp. Vaughan-Stevens, ii. 112.
One of the kinds of resin thus em- - Ibid. ' IbiJ.