Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra85861922roya).pdf/458

292 This cutting which is the actual Gĕnting Pahat is some fifty yards long by ten feet deep and though only 3 feet broad at the bottom widens gradually from the height of a man's shoulders until it merges into the slopes of the hill on either hand; it is probably due to the action of two small streams rising on different sides of the watershed eating back gradually until their valleys have coalesced.

The walls of the cutting are composed of reddish earth plentifully mixed with small black pebbles and may have been shaped as the name appears to imply or merely be due to the wearing effects of traffic. In the centre of the cut is the boundary stone (No. 31) which divides Kedah from Siam and at the end of it in Siamese territory is the prostrate trunk of a giant Mĕrbau which has defied decay for many a year and is regarded as a kĕramat. whereon the suppliant or thankful passer by lays a stone of propitiation. The nearest village in Siamese territory on the further side of the border is Sěnaok some two miles distant whence the way is open to Patani.