BRITISH BORNEO. 533 
pong on this side isthat of Burong Pingé, formerly a very 
important one, where dwelt the principal and richest Malay 
traders. It is now much reduced in size, European steamers 
and Chinese enterprise having altered entirely the character 
of the trade from the time when the old Brunai nakodahs 
(master or owner of a trading boat) would cruise leisurely up 
and down the coast, waiting for months at a time in a river 
while trade was being brought in. ‘The workers in brass, the 
jewellers, the makers of gold brocade, of mats, of brass guns, 
the oil manufacturers, and the rice cleaners, all have their own 
kampongs, and are jealous of the honour of each member of 
their corporation. The Sultan and nearly all the chief nobles 
have their houses on the true left bank of the river, z.e., on 
the right bank ascending. 
The fishing interest is an important one, and various methods 
are employed to capture the supply for the market. 
The £élong is a weir composed of nets made of split bambu, 
fastened in an upright position, side by side, to posts fixed 
into the bed of the stream, or into the sand in the shallow 
water of aharbour. There are two long rows of these posts 
with attached nets, one much longer than the other which 
gradually converge in the deeper water, where a simple trap 
is constructed with a narrow entrance. The fish passing up 
or down stream, meeting with the obstruction, follow up the 
walls of the £é/ong and eventually enter the trap, whence they 
are removed at low water. These fé/ong, or fishing stakes 
as they are termed, are a well known sight to all travellers 
entering Malay ports and rivers. All sorts of fish are caught 
in this way, and alligators of some size are occasionally 
secured in them. 
The raméat is a circular casting net, loaded with leaden or 
iron weights at the circumference, and with a spread some- 
times of thirty feet. Great skill, acquired by long practice, 
is shewn by the fisherman in throwing this net over a shoal 
of fish which he has sighted, in such a manner that all the 
outer edge touches the water simultaneously; the weights 
then cause the edges of the circumference to sink and gradu- 
ally close together, encompassing the fish, and the net is drawn 
