Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

tgiS. [.Evans: C the solid rock. We were rewarded
by the discovery, with which I will later deal in detail, of large
quantities of the spiral shells mentioned above; numbers of
fragments of bone, chiefly mammalian, some pieces of red iron
oxide, similar to those found by Mr. Wray at Gunong Cheroh '
:
a round water-worn st'.ne. probabiy used for grinding: a
mealing-slab : some pottery; parts ol a human skeleton; a
chipped stone implement of primitive type, and a rather doubtful
implement of red stone.
The floor of the cave consisted of a mass of shells and
bones mixed with earth and lime, the latter, however, not being
usuallv present in sufficient quantity, or never having been
moist enough, to bind the deposit together. The bones found
were mostly in a fragmentary condition, having seemingly been
pounded to bits in order to extract the marrow. Main- of the
fragments were blackened, or browned, by burning, and some,
from the hard layer mentioned above, were much mineralized.
No marks of gnawing were to be observed on any of them, so
it would seem likely that the cave-dwellers did not keep dogs.
No bone implements of any kind were found, and only one
small piece which shewed signs of having been cut with a sharp
instrument. Remains of the following animals were detected
—deer (Ce rvtts unicolor), muntjac. squirrel, rhinoceros, bamboorat
and wild-pig.
The molluscan shells belonged to the genera Unto and
Melania. The former were rare, the latter abundant, while a
peculiar feature was that in every case the topmost whorls of
the spiral shells had been broken off, 2 evidently f>>r the
purpose of facilitating the extraction of their contents. The
Patani Malays of Upper Perak search for these mollusks for
food, 3 but they told me thai the Negritos did not do so. this
information being subsequently confirmed by several men of
the local tribe, particularly by the two whom I employed in
digging. Furthermore, no such shells were found among the
animal and other recent remains which the Negritos had left
in the caves, nor do I remember ever having seen them lying
about in their encampments.
I have already mentioned that a mealing-slab. very
similar to those obtained by Mr. Wray. was discovered in the
cave. This was turned up at a depth of about two feet from
These are in ihe I'erak Museum
Mr Wray notes that the shells of Melania found in tic cave excavated
bv him had been .^iniilarly treated
3 The Malay borl the mollusks and suck them out of their shells. The
top whorls of the shells are knocked off before boiling, in order to render thencontents
easy I