152 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



The enclosure was simply made : into the sandy 

 bottom of the river stakes were driven a foot or two 

 apart, and were firmly bound together with lengths of 

 bamboo. From these hung " chicks " (blinds of fine 

 split bamboo laced together with rattans), which men 

 had been making for the past month under the datoh's 

 house. The top of the chicks appeared a few inches 

 above the surface of the water, and the bottom was 

 firmly pegged into the sand of the river-bed; the 

 chicks overlapped, affording no means of escape, for 

 the fish rarely if ever attempted to leap over them. 



At the lower end of the enclosure was a purse, 

 known as a magun, which was built on the same 

 principle as the ordinary crab-trap. The fish could 

 find their way into it from the enclosure, but could 

 not get out again, and round it the palisading was 

 carried to some height above the level of the water, 

 and was made of double strength. 



The men worked with a will, and by midday the 

 enclosure was finished, and in the early afternoon all 

 the boats that were to join in the drive were poled 

 up-stream. 



By four o'clock they reached an island with a 

 beautiful sandy bank, and here all the house-boats 

 tied up for the night. 



In the cool of the afternoon the majority of the 

 Englishmen set about practising the use of the casting- 

 net, for few of them had realised that it was the 

 only weapon that would be used on the morrow, 

 and fewer still had ever thrown one. Other men 

 went in search of jungle-fowl, and some took out 

 their rods again. 



