JUNGLE HUNTER 249 



they fish, mostly by means of large bamboo traps 

 set along the river banks; but there is no fishing 

 for export, and often not enough to supply the 

 local wants— though this is more from lack of 

 fishing than lack of fish. Not every native has 

 the right or the affluence to own such a trap, 

 therefore in some districts chosen individuals at 

 intervals along the river are given exclusive 

 rights— a permission that entails the obligation to 

 sell as much of the fish caught as the natives of 

 that particular locality may require. Except for 

 the tapioca-producing root, which tastes somewhat 

 like sweet potato, though not nearly so sweet, there 

 is no cultivation of soil by the native ; and there is 

 no meat eating. Rice and fish are the staple sup- 

 plies ; and there is fruit growing wild for whoever 

 will come and take it. The few Chinese traders 

 do rather handsomely, for they pay the native 

 about half what he could get if he opened direct 

 trade with the outside world. Some day a future 

 may open for industrial Sumatra, but it will not 

 be by any effort of the Malays, or because of the 

 present policy of the Dutch. And when develop- 

 ment does come to this East India island, it will be 

 through the work of plodding John Chinaman, 

 who, though damned at every hand, yet— patient, 

 stolid, dependable— remains the industrial back- 

 bone of Siam and of the Malay Archipelago. Eng- 



