At play among the trees

Here are a couple more of Batek kids from last year's visit to Taman Negara.

Left: a young trapeze artist walks a tight root (can't resist the pun). What else is a kid to do with such a ready-made jungle gym in front of him?





Right: a baby enjoys the company of his big brother, while their mother looks on. Paul Schebesta, whose Among the forest dwarfs of Malaya (1928) I finished reading recently, wrote of Semang peoples generally: "Fathers and mothers are very devoted to their children... I have often seen, with astonishment and pleasure, how tenderly the dwarf [!] mothers kiss their children, dangle them on their knees, and prattle to them, laughing...one often saw fathers caressing their children" (pp. 111–112). I would concur (except with the "dwarf" part).