Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SA VA GE MALA YS OF JOHOR 223
irresistible force with which the spear was impelled
across the opening were admirable. The materials
for every part of this contrivance were collected from
the forest around. Even the spear-head was made of
a species of bamboo (the " buloh kasap ") and was
exceedingly hard and sharp.
The Berembun tribes also, to capture wild animals,
dug pits about twelve feet in depth, which they
covered over with brushwood.
Wild pigeons, wild fowl, and many other birds
used for food were caught by means of bird-lime, of
which they possessed several very effective kinds,
prepared by mixing the viscid sap yielded by different
trees.^
^
Fishing.
Benua-Jakun.— Many families had small huts on
the bank of the nearest stream on which they kept
canoes, and men, women, and children, one, as a rule,
to each canoe, were everywhere met with engaged
in the quiet occupation of angling. They had, however,
other methods of catching fish. The most
common was by means of small portable traps woven
from rattan creepers {Calami). Rows of stakes or fish-
fences were also used. But the most elaborate form
of fish-trap consisted of a large framework, like the
skeleton of a bridge, which was thrown right across
the stream, and at a level some feet higher than the
banks, so as to be above inundations. A line of stakes
was fixed across the river-bed, an opening being left
in the middle. Above this the Benua took his seat
on a small platform (sometimes sheltered by a roof),
' /. /. A. vol. i. pp. 257, 258. proved fatal, v. Lake in /. R. A. S.,
Accidents from these traps often occur S. B., No. 25, p. 4.
to human beings. For one which ^ y^ /. ^. vol. i. pp. 257, 25S. ^ lb.