THE BINIJA OP JOHOREl 
256 ' 
den, and that the river banks are hung, and the forest paths strewed# 
with a great variety of beautiful flowers. All the remarks in this 
section, with the slight exceptions mentioned, apply to the Bermun 
tribes. 
The ladang having been once formed receives no culture, and is left 
entirely to the control of the women who are never for a moment idle. 
In the morning, having first refilled the melon skin with water, they 
fasten a deep basket on their backs by means of straps passing over the 
shoulders and head, and proceed to collect, kledi, sugar cane &c. for 
the mornings repast. Breakfast cooked and dispatched, they employ 
themselves in nursing their children, and weaving mats and bags, un¬ 
til it is time to go out and fill their baskets again for the evening 
meals. If the men are at home a slight meal is also prepared in the 
middle of the day. The only employment at a distance from the la¬ 
dang which they share with the men, and sometimes pursue by them¬ 
selves, is angling. Many families have small huts on the bank ol the 
nearest stream where they keep canoes, and men, women and chil¬ 
dren, usually one in each canoe, are every where met with engaged 
in this quiet occupation. They have other modes of catching fish* 
The most common is by small portable traps woven of rattans. Rows 
of stakes are also used. But the most elaborate engine by which the 
rivers are sifted of their denizens consists of a large frame work, like 
the skeleton of a bridge, thrown right accross the stream, and at a level 
some feet higher than the banks so as to be above inundations. A 
line of stakes is fixed accross the bed, an opening being left in the mid¬ 
dle. Abpve this the Binua takes his seat on a small platform, some¬ 
times sheltered by a roof, and suspends a small net in the opening. 
On this lie keeps his eyes intently fixed, and as soon as a fish enters, 
lie raises liis net and extracts it. The rivers and streams abound in 
fresh water fish, and there are about fifty species, the names of which 
will be given in the more detailed account of the country which will 
follow. 
But it is in the forest that the men seek their principal supplies 
of animal food. The favorite dish,—the flesh of the wild hog,—is al¬ 
so that which is procured in the greatest abundance. 1 passed seve¬ 
ral tracts which seemed literally to swarm with the hog. For miles 
together the banks of some streams were covered with the prints of 
their feet, and in some moist hollows their tracks were so abundant 
that it was impossible to recognize the path, and my guide repeatedly 
lost it. In other districts again they seemed to be less numerous. They 
arc particularly plentiful in some places to the southward of the Lulu* 
