The deer are frequently addressed, in the charms used by the hunters, exactly as if they were human beings, e.g.-- "If you wish to wear bracelets and rings Stretch out your two fore-feet." These rings and bracelets are of course the nooses which depend from the toils. In a charm of similar import we find:-- "Ho, Crown Prince (Raja Muda) with your Speckled Princess (Putri Dandi), Rouse you quickly (from your slumbers) And clasp (round your neck) King Solomon's necklace." I may add that in some places the Pawang (magician) will himself first enter the toils, probably with the object of deceiving the stag as to their nature and purpose. The ceremonies for hunting deer are somewhat intricate, and it will perhaps be best to commence by giving a general description of deer-catching as practised by the Malays. "This pastime" [306] (deer-catching) "is one the Malay delights in. After a rainy night, deer may be easily traced to their lair by their footprints, and as they remain stationary by day the hunters have ample time to arrange their apparatus. When the hiding-place is discovered all the young men of the kampong [307] assemble, and the following ceremony is performed before they sally out on the expedition: Six or eight coils of rattan rope, about an inch in diameter, are placed on a triangle formed with three rice-pounders, and the oldest of the company, usually an experienced sportsman, places a cocoa-nut shell filled with burning incense in the centre, and taking sprigs of three bushes, viz. the jellatang, sapunie, and sambon [308] plants (these, it is supposed, possess extraordinary virtues), he walks mysteriously round the coils, beating them with the sprigs, and erewhile muttering some gibberish, which, if possessing any meaning, the sage keeps wisely to himself. During the ceremony the youths of the village look on with becoming gravity and admiration. It is believed that the absence of this ceremony would render the expedition unsuccessful, the deer would prove too strong for the ropes, and the wood demons frustrate their sport by placing insurmountable obstacles in their way. Much faith appears to be placed in the ceremony. Each coil referred to above is sixty to seventy fathoms long, and to the rope running nooses, made also of rattan rope, are attached about three feet apart from each other. On reaching the thicket wherein the deer are concealed, stakes are driven into the ground a few feet apart in a straight line, the coils are then opened out, and the rope attached to the stakes, two or three feet above the ground, with the nooses hanging down, and two of the party conceal themselves near the stakes armed with knives for the purpose of despatching the deer when entangled in the nooses. The remainder of the hunters arrange themselves on the opposite side of the thicket and advance towards it, shouting and yelling at the top of their voices. The deer,