154 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



Then a row of boats carrying men with casting- 

 nets was arranged in front of the drag-line. Their 

 main object was to add to the splashing, and the odd 

 chance of catching some fish that might be breaking 

 back was only a secondary consideration. 



Soon the array was set in order, and amid the 

 shouting of men and the booming of gongs the drive 

 started away down-stream. 



By eight o'clock the line of boats came in sight of 

 the island where the house-boats were tied up. Every 

 one on the island bestirred himself, and in a few 

 minutes the palm -leaf awnings, under which the 

 Malays had been sleeping on the sand, were pulled 

 from their supports and rolled up ; boat poles were 

 brough tout, cooking-pots were shoved away somewhere 

 out of sight, and by the time the drivers approached, 

 the island, on which a large party of men had en- 

 camped, was abandoned. The drag-line was cut in two 

 at the head of the island, and the drive continued in 

 duplicate on either side of it. The house-boats natur- 

 ally followed the wider stream, and as they swung out 

 into mid -stream, each sounding the assembly call on 

 its war-gong to take up their places in the drive, they 

 were greeted with the Malay sorak or battle -yell. 

 " Sorak," shouted old Alang Abdullah, " Whoo ! Whoo ! 

 Whoo ! " and a series of whoos, terminating in a final 

 screaming " Whooi ! " issued from his throat. Every 

 man in the boats that were drifting down with the 

 drag-line joined in the yell. " Reply ! Reply ! Sorak ! 

 Sorak ! " shouted the datoh ; and the men in the 

 house- boats roared back a mock defiance, every man 

 shouting the final " Whooi ! " at the utmost pitch of his 



