158 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



front line was the row of boats carrying the men with 

 casting-nets and the men who were splashing with 

 poles. Alang Abdullah, holding one end of the drag- 

 line close under one bank and his eldest son holding 

 the other end under the opposite bank, formed the 

 second line. Behind them came the rest of the people, 

 happy and careless and holiday-making, watching the 

 work of the men in front, excited by the sunshine and 

 the water-borne boom of the gongs, by the laughter, the 

 shouts, and the throng. Alang Abdullah never for one 

 moment relaxed his anxious care : where the stream 

 was deep he let the drag-line sink lower in the water, 

 using all his skill and science to prevent any skulking 

 fish from dashing up-stream under or over it. The 

 pools were well known, and the nets explored them 

 thoroughly ; under the banks on either side, where 

 the forest-trees came down and bent over the stream, 

 the men with poles were beating and prodding and 

 splashing. Suddenly a cry arises, " Sangkut ! Sang- 

 kut ! " The line has caught. Then there is a yelling 

 and a shouting, The line has caught in mid-stream. 

 Immediately the men who imagine themselves to be 

 nearest the obstacle plunge overboard, and swim and 

 dive to find the submerged line. Keep back the 

 boats; back water; splash with your poles, every 

 man of you ; the line has caught, and the fish will 

 turn back and escape up-stream. Overboard with 

 you, sluggard ; jump in and splash with your arms. 

 Who is that sitting idly in his boat ? Overboard 

 with him ! 



Every one yells to every one, while two or three 

 boats, deserted by every man that they had held, drift 



