xvi] POISONOUS FISHES 



are well formed, and very small, and often in women they rival 

 in gracefulness their very elegantly shaped and diminutive hands. 

 During the month of July I formed a collection of the fish of the 

 Sarawak river. Not a few of the many species found there live 

 both in fresh and in salt or brackish water. However, many of 

 those brought me at Kuching came from Santubong, where the water 

 is nearly quite salt. 



The Malays are well acquainted with, and easily distinguish the 

 various species of fish, which, with rice, form their principal article 

 of diet. This is not to be wondered at, if one considers that they 

 are a people who live almost exclusively on the water, whether along 

 the sea coasts, or on the banks of rivers. Their children, almost from 

 the time that they can stand upright, live more in the water than 

 on land, and pass days together in little boats fishing, either with hook 

 and line, or with some other angling apparatus. They thus have 

 a perfect knowledge of the habits of fish, and the ready way in 

 which they distinguish even closely allied species has often, surprised 

 naturalists. Just as these do, the Malays assign to species which 

 have a common resemblance a generic name (which often corres- 

 ponds closely to the scientific one), and distinguish the species with 

 a second specific name, which is usually an adjective, as in the bino- 

 mial system of Linnaeus. Thus " Bokkut " is a generic name ; and 

 we have a "bokkut itam " (black bokkut), a "bokkut pasir" (sand 

 bokkut), a " bokkut buta " (blind bokkut, i.e. having very small 

 eyes), and a " bokkut bodo " (foolish bokkut) : four different species 

 of the same genus, distinguished by their most prominent charac- 

 teristic, precisely in accordance with the rules of scientific no- 

 menclature. 



At Kuching, normally, the water is brackish or partly salt, 

 even at low tide, and true freshwater fish are absent ; but during 

 floods some are carried down from the Upper Sarawak. For true 

 freshwater fish one must go to the forest streams, or to the waters 

 of the rivers beyond the tidal influence. There are certain locali- 

 ties which appear to be alternately frequented by freshwater and by 

 brackish or saltwater species, according to the state of the tide. 

 I have myself observed an instance of this in the Mattang river. 



According to the natives there are several species of poisonous 

 fish in the Sarawak, of which the most dangerous are the following : 

 " Ikan gurut," " sombilan," " pare," " tukka-tukka," " leppu 

 appi," " leppu benuar." The most poisonous of all is the " ikan 

 sombilan." Less poisonous, but always unwholesome, are the 

 following: " Ikan lundu," " uttit," "jahan," " n'kalang," " qua- 

 gok," " bahon " ; the last mentioned species lives in clear waters 

 near the sources of rivers and streams. I imagine that most of these 

 fish are considered poisonous on account of their spines and aculei. 

 This is certainly the case with the " ikan pare." 



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