Page 236 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

are rare, and when not actively engaged in amusing
themselves they are lotus-eating, sometimes figura-
sometimes in
tively, reality.
This is a time for action, and, the mid-day meal
all the men of the party get ready their
disposed of,
casting-nets and don the garments that will least
hamper the free use of their limbs and will not be
injured by a thorough wetting.
The backwater has a narrow and shallow
entrance on the river, and this entrance is staked
across to guard it from what in the West would be
called Through the stakes a way has
poachers.
now been made wide enough to admit of the pas-
sage of boats. The Sultan's barge and a few other
house-boats have passed the barrier, and these are
accompanied by a fleet of fifty uncovered dug-outs,
each with a light grating of split-bamboos over half
its length, and each carrying two or three paddlers,
one of whom steers and one man standing on the
extreme end of the bow ready to cast the net.
These nets are of local make, the mesh is small,
the thread of twisted strands of finest cotton, and
the length varies according to the ability of the
A
owner to cast it. very short net is five or six
cubits in length from centre to edge, a long one is
twelve or thirteen cubits, and to cast that with
220