Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

36o
CULTIVATION
At the same time, it should be observed that their
claim when made, as so often happens, by way of pro-
test against some usurping Malay, is not to the owner-
ship of the tree or trees, but merely to a reasonable
share of their fruit. The Malay is frequently left in
possession by the simple jungle-folk with this express
proviso, but as frequently breaks his contract, and this
question of the ownership of such trees has repeatedly
received the attention of the Government, the dis-
appointment of the aborigines having repeatedly led
to great wrangling between them and the Malays,
whilst the latter never hesitate to use their power as
the stronger race for the purpose of seizing the trees
entirely whenever they find an opportunity of doing so
unchecked. The trees thus planted are the durian,
the mangostin, rambutan, rambai, lansat, tampoi,
and others, the value of even a small orchard of this
kind to a Malay being very considerable. The late
Sultan Abdul Samad of Selangor, whose mother was
said to have been of aboriginal extraction, had several
such orchards in his possession, and most of the in-
fluential Malay chiefs who surrounded him were the
owners of similar property.
The collecting of the fruit is done for the most
part by women. A special fruit-gathering implement
(which may, however, be copied from one employed by
the Malays) has been described by Mr. Bellamy, who
saw it in use among the Besisi, as I have myself done.
It was used mostly for fruits about the size of an
apple, especially the mangostin, and its main object
was apparently to do away with the necessity of climb-
ing the trees. To make it, the Besisi would procure
a long thin bamboo, and splitting it lengthwise (at
one extremity) between two joints or nodes, press