A TUBA-FISHING EXPEDITION 85 



axe and when beaten served the purpose of a gong. The 

 bark was pounded into small pieces and then thrown to 

 one side upon large palm leaves which covered the bridge. 



Boarding a prahu, I next visited Amban Klesau's 

 bridge, a little lower down, which was larger and more 

 pretentious, with tall poles erected on it, and from the 

 top hung ornamental wood shavings. The end of the 

 trough here had actually been carved into a semblance of 

 the head of "an animal which lives in the ground," proba- 

 bly representing a supernatural being usually called nagah. 

 The owner himself was beating it with a stick on both 

 sides of the head, and this made more noise than the 

 pounding of the fifty men and women who stood work- 

 ing at the trough. At times they walked in single file 

 around it. 



The pounding was finished in the forenoon, and all 

 went a little farther down the river to take the fire omen 

 at a place where the river widened out into a pool. A man 

 with many tail-feathers from the rhinoceros hornbill 

 {buceros rhinoceros) stuck into his rattan cap seated him- 

 self on a crude platform which had been built on upright 

 poles over the water. Some long pieces of tuba-root were 

 lying there, and he squatted on his heels facing the prin- 

 cipal men who were sitting on the bank south of him. 



A few minutes later the chief of Long Mahan made his 

 way out to the platform over some logs which loosely 

 bridged the space to the bank of the river, and attempted 

 the fire-making, but after two unsuccessful attempts he 

 retired. Several other prominent men came and tried, 

 followed by the man with the tail-feathers in his cap, 



