One of the antenatal patients. Orang Asli women are increasingly attending Gombak for childbirth. Orang Asli girls are trained as midwives and work both at the hospital and in the jungle.
Some species of plants have roots or bark containing latex that can asphyxiate or kill fish. Batek sometimes poison fish in small streams with these substances. Here some women are pounding poisonous tree bark (species unknown) and then wringing the poison out in the water. They will simply pick up the fish that float to the surface.
Generally the Orang Asli like to have their photographs taken, especially if you give them a copy. Also, it could be said that the various tribes get along well together at the hospital. It is probably the only place where they meet other tribe members.
Rattans (Calamus spp.) are closely related to palm trees, but many rattan species have vines instead of trunks. The crown of the rattan clings to the upper branches of forest trees, and the vine trails down to the ground. Some of the small-diameter rattans can simply be pulled down, tearing the crown loose from the supporting branches. The harvester then cuts off the crown and leaf sheathes, cuts the vine into standard trade lengths (nineteen feet for thin rattan), ties the sections into bundles, and then drags them out to a river or other collection place. In the 1970s, Malay traders used rafts to carry large loads of rattan downriver to their villages, where they processed the vines to preserve them and then shipped them out by train or truck. Thin rattan is made into fish traps or is split and used for caning and lashing in furniture. Here a man is pulling down the vine of a thin rattan.
Here a man has tied together a bundle of twenty-five lengths of thin rattan. He is folding the bundle in the middle to make it easier to drag it through the undergrowth. Middle Lebir River, Kelantan.
Photo of volunteer staff house on the hospital grounds. Included electricity, 2 bedrooms, living/dining room, kitchen and bathroom, with indoor plumbing. Cold water source was bamboo pipe line from stream above house.
Orang Asli like to smoke! They are known to start early in life too. When I was at Gombak in the mid-1960s it was widespread yet the medical evidence did not show much sign of carcinoma of the lung. The Orang Asli cultivated their own tobacco then. The few case of carcinoma among the Orang Asli were usually traced back to their contact with commercially produced tobacco products.
