180 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
give to be known as the best and fastest net-makers 
in the whole of Kelantan. The tiger hunt was off, 
and the net-making and round-up was on. 
At daybreak the following morning, the whole 
kampong gathered at the Tungku’s, and, after eat- 
ing the breakfast of rice and dried fish, started off 
for the jungle to cut, collect and wash the rattan. 
One who has never seen rattan in its natural state 
would be quite deceived by its appearance; it is not 
the smooth, shining, pointed cane one sees in the 
market; it grows as a vine, sometimes one hundred 
feet and over, up and down trees or along the 
ground, twisting in and out; it is covered by an 
outer shell or skin, and at each joint a circle of 
thorns an inch in length. The outer skin and thorns 
are scraped away, washed and cut in lengths of 
sixteen feet, one hundred lengths to a bundle, and 
the rattan is ready for the market. They grow in 
various thickness. The Malacca cane is the thick- 
est grown. 
Everybody went down to the stream where they 
would strip the thorns and peel off the outer skin, 
wash, split and cut in lengths; the crews kept cut- 
ing like mad. I do not believe there ever was so 
much rattan cut, stripped, washed and cut in lengths 
in the state of Kelantan, or in any other state, in 
one day as those twelve men did. 
On the morning of the third day, the whole dis- 
trict was in holiday attire and all on edge to see 
and encourage their friends to be the first. The rat- 
