Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

ENVIRONMENT
which is locally plentiful, there are at least two varieties, one of
which has a soft, most beautifully delicate silvery grey fur, the other
being of a reddish-brown colour. There is also a species of flying
squirrel, which is very much smaller, its body being little bigger than
a rather large mouse. The flying lizard, or Draco, which is most
brilliantly coloured, has the membranes with which it flies stiffened
by slight processes, which enable it to use them to a limited
extent as wings, its flight producing an impression similar to the
" buzzing " of the wings of some large insect. In flying it inflates the
gorgeous golden pouch beneath its throat (by means, as it appeared
to me, of a spine which it erected and depressed at pleasure), and in
full sunlight produces the strangest and at the same time most
fascinating effect imaginable.
The flying frog, which is said to glide through the air by means
of an abnormal development of the webs of its feet, is well known
from the description given by Wallace, but I think it is worth while
adding that there are other tree-frogs in the Peninsula, which do not
appear to be flying frogs, their feet being merely provided with
suction pads, resembling those of the Malayan house-lizard.
In another department of animal life, that of the fishes, there
are in the Malay Peninsula many good examples of specialisation
that should not be passed over : these are (to take some of the
most conspicuous) the frog-fish called " tembakul," which may be
seen in great numbers skipping over the sloping banks of tidal rivers
at the passing of a boat or steamer; the "aruan" or "snakehead"
{Ophiocephalus)^ a kind of walking mud -fish resembling a perch,
which may be seen progressing over dry land towards a pool by the
opening and shutting of its gill-cases; and a small fish called Toxotes
Jaculator, which is able to shoot a fly off a leaf above the stream by
means of a drop of water forcibly expelled from its mouth, a remark-
able fact, which, as I have ventured to suggest in a later part of this
book, is necessarily a matter of common knowledge to the aboriginal
inhabitants of the Peninsula, to whom it may not inconceivably have
suggested the blowpipe.
We have seen how powerful has been the effect of the joint
insular and climatic conditions upon the fauna and flora of the
Peninsula, and how the peculiar character of the vegetation has
affected the fauna. This latter idea leads us naturally to the
question, in what way and to what extent have the indigenous races
of the Peninsula been themselves affected by the climate and the
character of the country ? Throughout the world this physical
specialisation is far less marked in man than in the lower animals.
This, however, is probably not due to the fact that he is incapable
of such development, nor is it due to his being, comparatively
speaking, a late arrival on the earth, but simply to the fact of his
possessing mechanical ability to a degree that lifts him far above the