46 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



Malays. It is done, of course, with the maximum 

 chatter and excitement. The natives line the banks 

 of the stream while the dynamite is dropped; then 

 they rush off, some in boats and some of them swim- 

 ming, to collect the fish that come to the surface. 



Drugging fish is another method of capturing 

 them wholesale without much trouble or work. For 

 this purpose the natives use a mixture of lime and 

 the sap from the roots of a tuba tree. They first 

 warn the villages down-stream so that the people 

 will not drink any of the water ; then they pour out 

 the white liquid. It spreads over the stream, mak- 

 ing the fish mabok (drunk), as the Malays say. 

 They rise to the surface and are gathered into boats. 



Except for such annoyances as insects and 

 leeches, which fastened on my skin as I walked 

 through the jungle, those days in Sumatra were 

 delightful. We hunted, fished and played games; 

 there was nothing to worry about and little work 

 to do. I was accepted by the natives as one of 

 them. I wore a sarong over my trousers, and I 

 shouldn't have worn the trousers if my skin had not 

 been so sensitive to the insects. And, of course, I 

 had shoes the great barrier between castes. The 

 Malays of the coast towns sometimes, but not often, 

 wear shoes, and even then it is more a matter of 

 showing-off than of being comfortable. I did every- 

 thing possible to minimize the differences between 

 us because I wanted to know them as they were, 

 not as they thought I wanted them to be. They 



