260 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



in the depths of the pools over which our boats were 

 passing. 



Bend after bend of the river now lay behind us. 

 As best we might, when the excitement slackened 

 temporarily, and the fish seemed to have all fled 

 before the tuba, we snatched a hasty meal. When 

 we were within a mile of Ahman's barricade, where 

 the final scene would be enacted, Pawang Duhamat 

 emptied into the river the two-boat loads of tuba 

 water that he had saved in the morning, repeating 

 the same short incantation as he did so. 



Then we pressed on to the barricade. This, as I 

 have said, extended across the river. Stout posts 

 had been driven, a few feet apart, deep into the 

 sandy bottom of the river. Between them was sup- 

 ported, from one bank to the other, a framework 

 made of split bamboos so closely laced together with 

 rattans that no fish could pass between the in- 

 terstices. The bottom of the framework was pegged 

 to the river bottom, and its top rose to a height of 

 some eight feet above the surface. In addition to 

 this framework the posts supported a light plat- 

 form on which a man might stand. It was about 

 a foot above the level of the river, and was on the 

 up-stream side of the bamboo framework. Some 

 three hundred yards above the barricade, on either 

 bank, a great post with a streamer of red cloth had 

 been erected. This marked the limit below which 

 only the boats of chiefs might pass, and old Ahman 

 and Pawang Duhamat stationed themselves there to 

 see that none should intrude. The four principal 

 chiefs of the district and I took our stand on the 



