A DEER- DRIVE. 53 



When the path leaves the village it emerges upon 

 the level and scientifically irrigated rice-fields, and 

 continues, a foot or so above the level of the liquid 

 mud, along one of the innumerable little embank- 

 ments that criss-cross in every direction, and serve 

 the double purpose of retaining the vivifying water 

 and of forming boundaries between one man's crop 

 and another. 



There are no houses in the rice-fields, but here and 

 there are rude shelters consisting of a few bamboos 

 and palm leaves strung together, which afford a 

 certain amount of protection to workers during the 

 heat of the day, and which are useful when it is 

 necessary to protect the ripe crops from the depreda- 

 tions of wild pig and occasional deer. 



The two men who had found the fresh deer tracks 

 earlier in the morning point out silently and from 

 afar where the deer had entered the rice-fields, where 

 they had fed, and where they had re-entered the 

 forest. The path now skirts along the edge of the 

 forest, and as the deer may be lying up within a 

 stone's throw of the party, no one talks above a 

 whisper. The men soon arrive at the neck between 

 the secondary forest and the virgin forest, and here the 

 strictest silence is enjoined. The pawang points out 

 the line in which he wishes the sidins to be erected, 

 and as quietly as possible some men clear a track a 

 foot wide along this line. They have to take care 

 that, while cutting away as many branches, creepers, 

 and rattans as will allow the sidins to hang freely, 

 they do not cut away so much as to make the nooses 

 conspicuous. This is soon done, and all stand aside. 



