My Friends the Savages Part 30

[Ill.u.s.tration: Shooting poisoned arrows through the blowpipe.

_p._ 205.]

Often they strive so for more than an hour but at last the serpent is suffocated and is reduced to a lifeless ma.s.s. Then its victors carry it triumphantly to their village where it makes a banquet for almost all the inhabitants.

The Sakais would find but a scanty result from their hunting and shooting-, and their own lives would not be sufficiently protected if the forest did not provide them with an inexhaustible and infallible means of dealing death with their blowpipes and darts.

There is such a rich and varied quant.i.ty of plants growing in the jungle which produce poison, that Man has the choice of using the one he deems more adapted for this or that particular need.

The Sakai is enthusiastic over his poisons, so much is he engrossed in the science that it takes with him the post of a besetting. Like a maniac which always speaks of his strange fancies, so this poor savage speaks all day long of his poisons, and studies their qualities.

And they provide him with all the necessaries for his primitive existence for he utilizes them in shooting, fis.h.i.+ng, and in setting traps for big and small animals, they are a defence for himself and the whole village where he lives, besides furnis.h.i.+ng him with the means (by barter) of obtaining tobacco, rice or any other article that cannot be found in the forest.

All his best intellectual faculty is consecrated to the research and preparation of poisons because it must not be thought that he uses one instead of the other indifferently. Those with which he is most familiar are each used as the occasion may require.

Just as a gun is not loaded with the same sized shot when shooting small birds and partridges, the Sakai does not waste his strong poisons when a weaker one would be equally effectual.

His selection of one rather than the other is frequently regulated by the state of the atmosphere (damp being pernicious to venomous productions) and sometimes by the phases of the moon.

These plants are herbaceous, arboreous and often creepers, but not all those that grow in the forest, nor even those known to the savage for their efficacy, are yet in the knowledge of Science.

This is a very great pity as I fear that these medicinal treasures, which may contain miraculous properties, will be inevitably lost if a scientific study of this wild jungle produce is not quickly initiated.

The fever of colonization has attacked the forest and here and there it rages; for certain it will not be a long time before that vast extension of tropical vegetation with the extraordinary fertility of its soil will give place to plantations of Parah-rubber, gutta-percha, coffee, sugar, rice, tobacco, etc.

For this reason I shall be very pleased to give what aid I can to the cause of Science by means of notes, collections and specimens of paints and animals not yet thoroughly known or studied, should anyone feel inclined to respond to the offer before it is too late. Such help would seem to me a sweet chain of thought, linking the mind of the colonist in the remote depths of the Malay Forest, to the Mother Country and that civilization from which he has withdrawn himself.

The "_giu u toalang_" is one of the colossal trees of the Jungle for it reaches from 40 to 46 yards in height. It may be said that its whole organism is poisonous because its deadly properties have the same force in the juice under the bark as in the leaves, when they are rubbed or broken. If this sap finds its way under the skin, in contact with the flesh or blood-vessels it has a quick and mortal effect. It seems to me that even the smell might produce fatal consequences but of this I am not sure, although it is a certain fact that it makes one feel very ill and the indisposition can only be cured by keeping the patient in a high temperature.

Almost the same poisonous power has the "_giu u rangas_", a tree of more modest dimensions, and the "_giu u sagol_" smaller still. It is dangerous to touch the leaves of these two plants because they bring about a severe irritation of the skin, covering it with pimples and little bladders, that itch intolerably, whilst the body becomes swollen. And yet the temptation to scratch must be resisted or ulceration follows with the probability of gangrene. When one is able to renounce the momentary relief procured by rubbing or scratching the inconvenience pa.s.ses in a couple of days.

The _toalang_, _rengas_, and _sagol_ are to be found scattered profusely over the forest but the Sakai does not interest himself in their venomous properties because he finds that those of which he already knows the secret fully satisfy his wants in promptness and effect. On the contrary he wages a continual war against these noxious plants beating them down and destroying them wherever he comes across them. He is very careful, however not to touch them with his hatchet but chops down one of the giants growing near which bears them to the ground in its ponderous fall.

As soon as the dangerous trees are down the trunk and branches of their involuntary a.s.sa.s.sin are pulled away and they are left on the spot for one or two months to dry, and when completely withered they are burnt.

There is also a large and varied number of plants in the forest whose leaves are very dangerous. I will mention for an example the _sla dol_, _sla plek_ and the _sla clob_ the leaves of which, if eaten, may engender fatal consequences according to the Sakais.

In some the poisonous qualities are located only in the roots. Of the _legop_, which belongs to this cla.s.s I will speak further on, for now I will only name the _akar toba_.

This root is first well pounded and then left to soak in some water for a few days after which the venomous liquid is thrown into a pond and a perfect ma.s.sacre of big and little fish follows, all of which may be eaten without doing any harm to the persons.

What sort of poison this is I cannot say for it has never been made the object of special study. I have proved its utility in destroying insects and particularly the larva of mosquitoes and the little worms that ruin fruit and vegetables.

The _ipok_ called "_upas_" by the Malays and "_antiaris toxicaria_" by botanists is a tree which supplies a poisonous juice to the Sakais of the plain. It is a colossus of the forest, and belongs to the nettle family.

It has broad, s.h.i.+ny leaves something like those of the magnolia, and numerous species are to be found in the Malay Jungle.

When the season is not too damp and there is a full moon the Sakais make some deep cuts in the bark of this tree and place some bamboo tubes around it in order to catch the sap which flows out abundantly. This juice has a gluey, resinous appearance and is white or yellow according to whether it is extracted from the trunk or from a young bough.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A branch of the poison-tree "Upas".

_p._ 210.]

Then, whilst still in the thick of the forest, they light up a fire and boil the liquid during which process the _Ala_, who presides over the work, mutters the magical words without which the poison would not have the desired force.

It is not taken from the fire until it presents the aspect of tar, in thickness and colour. Finished to boil, some lemons are squeezed over it and after throwing in red a.r.s.enic and other drugs it is all stirred up together and the mixture is ready for use.

The substances added to the _ipok_--with the exception of the a.r.s.enic--are not toxical but are only the expression of Sakai prejudices.

The flesh of animals killed with arrows dipped in _ipok_ are perfectly eatable after being cooked a little, but the precaution must be taken of cutting away for about an inch round the wound which turns purple immediately from the action of the poison.

An antidote against _ipok_ poisoning is found in the juice of a climber called _lemmak kapiting_. By energetically rubbing the wound with this juice all baneful effects of the _ipok_ are checked.

I believe that it is amongst creepers that the most powerful poisons must be sought.

The Sakai is on confidential terms with the _giu u legop_, _giu u labor_, _giu u lampat_, _giu u mase_ and the _giu u loo_, but the _lampon_ and _broial_ are not forgotten either.[20]

The roots of these two plants yield poisons that are amongst the most terrible of those which abound in the forest.

It seems to me that the only difference pa.s.sing between these creepers is in the intensity of virulence, but not in the nature of the venomous substances, and it is just for this that the Sakais favour the _legop_ and make it the centre of their primitive chemical studies because it furnishes them with the strongest and most fatal of poisons.

This parasite, as soon as it is long enough, clings to one of the superb vegetable kings of the forest, twining round it with a tenacious hold.

Its trunk is from 2 to 4 inches in diameter and gives vigorous life to about 5000 feet of its offspring.

The _legop_ leaves are green, smooth and glossy, similar in form to those of the lemon, but they are larger. They are covered longitudinally by prominent nervures.

The fruit borne by this dangerous plant is of the size and form of a small orange, slightly depressed at the stalk and the opposite part. It is very black and hard to break, a hammer or its subst.i.tute being necessary to disclose its contents which consist in a great number of little seeds embedded in a scanty pulp.

All the Sakais extract and prepare poison from the _legop_ but there is a tribe living in the most remote parts of the forest, severed from all intercourse with civilized beings, and in consequence pure barbarians, who are renowned for their ability in the preparation of the same, and whose products are considered much superior in strength.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Extracting poison from the "Upas" tree.

_p._ 210.]

It is the Mai Bretak tribe to whom all the other Sakais have recourse, carrying with them a large tribute of the goods usual in exchange. This speciality mixed with _ipok_ is the Essence of Death in drops. The minutest particle that enters the blood means imminent extinction of life. The sentence is irrevocable for no remedy is known with which to avert it. The utter impossibility of saving a creature that has fallen a victim to this terrible poison has given rise to a superst.i.tion among the Sakais that an evil spirit hovers over, or goes into the mixture when it is being prepared and for this they do not set themselves to the work without taking numerous precautions.

_Ipok_ is extracted and condensed (under the exorcism of _Ala_) in the presence of, perhaps, all the village but no women or girls may a.s.sist at the preparation of _legop_ lest the invisible enemy should do them some injury. (The spirit is evidently a woman hater!).