lo6 FISHING INDUSTRY ON KRIAN AND KURAU, PERAK. 



The third is more " Bacha doa." 



The fourth is Ci Minta jauh da/a, akan datang datang raha- 

 mat yang kabejikan " (asking that bad luck may be far from 

 them and that good luck may befall them). 



The Pawang then scatters some of the yellow rice on the 

 waters, and the participants in the ceremony then eat the re- 

 mainder of the rice, and the fowls, which have generally been 

 killed and cooked on shore beforehand, 



Ong Gan states that he has never, since he has been 

 here, known the fish to get so scarce at Kuala Kurau as dur- 

 ing the last two or three years. Ah Liew and Tan Siang, 

 also very eld inhabitants (the former, the farm agent, has 

 been here twenty-eight years, and is the oldest inhabitant), all 

 tell the same story. They cannot account in any way for the 

 fish getting short, but think perhaps it is because there are 

 too many people fishing. Four years ago the place 

 increased very much in fishermen, but during the last two 

 years some have gone away. None of them seem to 

 have any idea when or where the fish breed, or 

 whence or whither they come and go, and when I sug- 

 gested that if we could find out we should, perhaps, or- 

 der a close time to give the fish a chance of breeding, they 

 said that would be very hard on them, as what w T ere they to 

 do if not allowed to fish ? In fact they want to eat their cake 

 and have it as well. I told them it was done in Europe with 

 good results. Ong Gan says he has only known the fishing 

 get bad like this once before, about twenty years ago. I do 

 not believe this, however, as at Telok Rubiah, about 6 miles 

 further off, I was told it had happened often before, the fish 

 conning and going. I then enquired into the worldly position 

 of the fishermen. They are all Hokkiens, and mostly related to 

 one another. They pay their own passages over from China 

 to join their friends, and then go into partnership with some 

 others in the ownership of a net {Pukat Lengkong). Each net 

 is divided into 7J shares, and there are six men to a net. The 

 owner has 1 \ share extra for owning the net, and he works with 

 the other five, and they all, including the owner, get one 

 share each. Thus the owner has altogether 2\ shares, One 



