an occasional bear) and serpents
do not frequent the heights but the cold is too intense to be well
supported by individuals who do not wear clothes and who do not build
houses to protect themselves from the inclemency of the weather.

[Illustration: Poisoning the arrows.

_p._ 214.]

The tract of land inhabited by the Sakais is, at a rough guess,
comprised between 3 deg. 50' and 5 deg. 50' North latitude and 101 deg. and 102 deg.
East longitude (Greenwich). But for such an extension they are very few
in numbers because in the year 1903, passing from one village to another
in 25 days, I could not count more than 6800 persons camping round the
durians at the ingathering season.

Reckoning the women left behind because of a recent confinement, the old
and infirm and the little children I do not think that altogether they
can be many more than 10,000 souls. It is truly the case to say: "_rari
nantes in gurgite vasto_!".

It would be impossible to take a real census of the Sakais owing to
their distrust of everything they do not understand and the difficulty
their nomadic life presents.

The climate where they live, although damp, is good, for the thick
foliage of the forest and the breezes that often hail from the mountains
mitigate the heat of the sun's rays.

There are no alternations of seasons as in temperate zones but only the
distinction of dry and rainy ones, the former being determined by the
monsoon blowing from the east, and the latter from that coming from the
west.

It is not unusual for the heat at noon to surpass 40 deg. (centigrade) but
to the torrid temperature of the day follows a cold night and the hotter
the day is, the colder the night. From 40 deg. it easily falls under 20 deg..
The Sakais who possess no garments, or rugs and whose huts are very open
and airy, sleep all huddled together (to keep each other warm) round a
large fire but they frequently suffer from these variations of
temperature.

* * * * *

As I have before mentioned severe colds are very prevalent among the
Sakais against which they have no efficacious remedy so that it often
happens for a simple attack of influenza to turn into a serious
bronchial or lung affection and finally result in consumption.

Neither the _tenak_ or _cintok_ is of any use then; the evil spirit
never leaves hold of his prey.

Cases of fever are very rare and these few must be attributed to the
wind which ascends fro