UP A TREE IN THE JUNGLE 181 



tan was all laid out in two piles in cut lengths of 

 twelve and ten feet and seventy-two pegs or bamboo 

 stakes were driven into the ground. I myself had 

 measured off the ground and stakes for length and 

 width of nets. Twenty each, stakes for top and 

 bottom, and sixteen stakes each for width. 



The first day was pretty nearly a tie, although 

 one crew had started on another net and had got 

 one-quarter of it finished when a halt was called for 

 the day. Nine nets on the following day, the crew 

 that had one-quarter of a net finished the day before 

 finishing four nets by four o'clock; the other two 

 were practically tied, and as such I gave them 

 credit ; they had three and a half nets finished, and 

 each of the crew received second prize money, three 

 dollars each. There was great satisfaction, although 

 the first crew with their five dollars each were strut- 

 ting around and talking big. After finishing the 

 half-made nets, I had twenty-one ten by eight rattan 

 nets. Great work in four days; had I gone any 

 other way about getting them, it would have taken 

 twice as long. Even with the money prizes, they 

 cost me on an average of only two dollars (Mexi- 

 can) or one dollar each. 



The third day after the net-making contest, tak- 

 ing fifteen men and loading their nets, large and 

 small, on an elephant, we started off for a half day's 

 journey from the kampong to set up the nets on the 

 ground and in the trees, also to dig pits at the water- 

 holes. We had been moving on slowly, the first 



