Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/41

Rh The man into whose keeping the bunday is confided is called upon to act on the escape of a prisoner. In pursuing him he runs at full speed, endeavouring to fix the instrument round the neck, waist, arm, or leg of the pursued, who, as soon as he feels the sharp thorns encircling his body, generally comes to a full stop. Should he prove, however, one of those determined ruffians who are dead to all feelings of pain, another instrument, the kumkum, is brought into play. This heavy-looking weapon, which is of a very formidable aspect, consists of a bar of iron in the shape of a small sword, attached to the top of a stave some five feet long. The third of these singular instruments is the toyah, which is as simple in its construction as the use to which it is put is novel. It is in the shape of a pitchfork, the points of which are purposely made blunt. This is certainly the most humane-looking of the three, and it is to be hoped therefore the one first tried against the