Page 36 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

which with the rice and salt, will make the coming
feast.
The road lies through six or seven miles of
open country and virgin forest, and it is 9 or
IO A.M. before the river is reached, the elephants
hobbled, and the men of the party ready for
business.
In days gone by, the method would have been to
tuba the stream above a pool, but this poisoning of
the water affects the river for miles, and dynamite
which is not nearly so destructive is preferred. The
plan is to select a large and deep pool round which
the men stand to spring in, while the women
ready
make a cordon across the shallow at its lower end,
ready to catch the fish that escape the hands of the
swimmers. Two cartridges of dynamite with a de-
tonator and a piece of slow match are tied to a stone
and thrown into the deepest part of the pool, there is
an explosion sending up a great column of water,
and immediately the dead fish come to the surface
and begin to float down stream. Twenty men

spring into the pool, and with shouts and laughter
struggle for the slippery fish ; those which elude the
grasp of the swimmers are caught by the women.
It will then be probably discovered that no very big
fish have been taken ; and, as it is certain that some
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