MALAYAN FISHES. 2& 



Trengganu Makys, male and fenialo. look fonvard. When the 

 rivers are in full flood, the sun obscured, the N. E. monsoon blow- 

 incT half a gale, the surf thundering on the beach and full of yellott' 

 yeasty foam, then you will see all the Malay ladies troo])iuo- out in 

 their best silk coats and sarong.-, and all the old blades and young 

 bloods are in attendance. 



They are all out for the day to enjoy themselves and to catch 

 mullet and the more it rains and blows the better they like it, the- 

 ladies', perhaps because their vivid silken raiment looks l)est when 

 it is wet, or may be it fit; their figures better so, and the men. 

 perhaps, because they will catch more mullet I 



These ladies have designed and made tlieir own costumes. 

 Raw C'liiuese silk has been teased, wouml and spun ; fast dies of 

 vivid colour-, orange, pink, vermilion, green; every colour and every 

 shade have been prepared from roots, bark and leaves, and the 

 garments have been woven in intricate designs, tartans, checks, 

 watered silks and Shot silks ; a creative art which has been lost on 

 the West, and will soon be lost on the East Coast, in these days of 

 cheap imitation silks and aniline dyes. But let us get back to the 

 mullet and the rain. 



And the more it rains the fresher keep the flowers in the 

 ladies' hair. These ladies wear no hats and there are no collars,, 

 draggled skirts or squelchy boots in this picnic party. 



Let us again to the mullet. Xow this catching of mullet is 

 an afl:air of casting-nets and he who catches the most mullet is 

 some ace. It is not a simple poaching trick of slinging a net over 

 a^sleepy fish in a pool, Init quite a dift'erent business, I assure you. 



The nets are made of tlie finest and strongest cotton, water- 

 proofed in white of egg which renders them to the touch, for a 

 season, as though they were made of the finest gut or sinews. The 

 small net or jala anding when thrown covers perhaps 100 square 

 feet of surface and it is weighted witli little chains of pure tin. 

 The light cord attached to the thrower's wrist is usually 30 feet 

 long and the net is often thrown so as to drop fully expanded at 

 the full extent of the cord, and that throw is in tlie teetli of a 

 Xorth-cast gale. 



Each fisherman has perhaps two or three such nets and, in 

 reserve, a much larger and stronger casting net for the Pelong 

 which is the giant of all our mullet. 



Keeping far back on the sandy beach, the men follow the 

 shore line until mullet (Anding) are seen, and, to the novice, it is 

 a difficult matter to see tliem. But there they are, and when you 

 know what to look for, in the smother and foam, you will notice 

 little black heads, in hundreds, between the breakers. Now these 

 Anding are the shyest fish that swim. A wave of tlie hand and 

 they have disappeared to pop up again at a distance further sea- 

 ward, where no man can hope to reach them. 



