Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

2i6 HUNTING, TRAPPING, AND FISHING
derful woodsmen. When I was at Sepang they
frequently brought me in wild animals and birds that
they had caught alive, among them being specimens
of the Malayan partridge (" sorong lanting "), the
" bertam " bird, the argus pheasant or " kuau," various
kinds of chevrotain, and even, on one occasion, the
rare and curious mammal called Gyuiiiura ("pijat-
pijat "). So, too, in his account of the wild tribes
of the same district, Mr J. A. G. Campbell re-
marked that the Besisi (" Orang Laut ") used to
bring him as many as ten "mangrove" snakes
(" ular bakau ") at a time, telling him they had caught
them all that morning. Monkeys, birds, tiger-cats,
etc., were sold by them for very small sums, and a
monkey that would bring ten dollars in Singapore
could be bought from them for twenty cents.
In addition to spring-traps, such as those already
described, many kinds of fall-traps and springes ot
various kinds, as well as game-fences, were used by
the Besisi for trapping game of different sorts and sizes.
For bird-lime many sorts of trees possessing a
viscous sap were resorted to and the sap mixed in
various proportions, the liquid being boiled down if
necessary till a proper consistency is reached. The
sticky gum thus obtained was applied to the ends of a
number of short rattan sticks or slivers (from i ft. to
2 ft. in length), and these as a rule were set in notches
cut for the purpose with a jungle-knife in the branches
oi" the trees to which the birds resorted.
The bird-lime was usually kept (by the Besisi) in
small bamboo tubes, which were corked with a section
of the leaf-stalk of a " bertam " palm.
In order to capture the argus pheasant the foliow-
'
J. A. G. Campbell, p. 243.
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