The Pagan Tribes of Borneo / A Description of Their Physical Moral and Intellectual Condition, with Some Discussion of Their Ethnic Relations

by Charles Hose; William McDougall

Tuba Fishing

Fish are caught on the largest scale by poisoning the water with the juice of the root of the tuba plant. This is usually practised in the smaller rivers at times of slack water, all the people of a village co-operating. The TUBA plant is cultivated in patches on the PADI fields. Pieces of the roots are cut off without destroying the plants. When a large quantity has been gathered, a fence is built across the river at the spot chosen, and big BUBU traps are let into it facing up stream. Then all the available small boats are manned and brought into the reaches of the river extending about a mile above the fence. Each boat carries a supply of tuba root, which the people bruise by pounding it with wooden clubs against stumps and rocks on the bank or against the side of the boat. Water is thrown into the bottom of the boat and the pounded root is rinsed in the water, pounded again, and again rinsed, until all its poisonous juice is extracted. The water in all the boats, become milky with the juice, is poured at a given signal into the river, either by baling or by overturning the boats. After some twenty minutes the fish begin to rise to the surface and rush wildly to and fro. In the meantime the boats have been put to rights, and now begin to pursue the fish, the men armed with fish-spears, the women with landing-nets. The sport goes on for several hours. Some men armed with clubs stand upon a platform which slopes up at a low angle out of the water and rests upon the fence. Big fish come leaping upon this platform and are clubbed by the men, who have to exert their agility to avoid the spikes with which some of the fish are armed. Large quantities of fish are sometimes taken in this way; what cannot be eaten fresh are dried and smoked over the fires in the house.

While the TUBA fishing is being arranged and the preparations are going forward, great care is taken to avoid mentioning the word TUBA, and all references to the fish are made in oblique phrases, such as "The leaves (I.E. the fishes) can't float over this fence." This precaution is observed because it is believed that the birds and the bats can understand human speech, and may, if they overhear remarks about the preparations, give warning to their friends the fish, whose magician[51] (a bony fish called BELIRA), will then make rain, and, by thus swelling the river, prevent the successful poisoning of the water.

Tickling is also practised with success, the men standing in the edge of a lake among the grass and sedges, where the fish seek cooler water in the heat of the day.

All the methods of taking fish described above are practised by most of the peoples, except of course the use of the drag-net in the sea.

The crocodiles, which are numerous in the lower reaches of the rivers, are not hunted or attacked, save on provocation, by any of the peoples of Borneo except the Malays.[52] Occasionally a bather is seized by one of them while in the water or standing on a log floating in deep water; and more rarely a person is dragged out of a small boat, while drifting quietly on deep water at evening. If men and boats are at hand they turn out promptly to attack the crocodile, if it rises to the surface; but there is small chance of rescue. If the victim has sufficient presence of mind and strength to thrust his thumbs against the eyes of the reptile it may release him, escape in this way is not unknown. In the case of a fatal issue, the men of the village turn out to avenge the outrage, and, in the case of the seizure of an important person, those of neighbouring villages will join them. All available boats are manned by men armed with spears, some of which are lashed to the ends of long poles. Congregating in their boats near the scene of the disaster, the men prod the bed of the river with their spears, working systematically up and down river and up the small side streams. In this way they succeed in stabbing some of the reptiles; and in this case, though they usually do not rise to the surface, their bodies are found after some days in the creeks, death having ensued from the inflammation set up in the wounds. The wound caused by a spear-thrust would seldom be fatal to the crocodile, but that the wound is liable to the perpetual assaults of smaller creatures — fish while he is in the water, flies when he lies on the bank. These irritate and extend the wound. The stomachs of those crocodiles that are captured are opened in search of traces of the person taken, traces which usually remain there for some time in the shape of hair or ornaments. If no trace is found the people's vengeance is not satisfied, and they set baited hooks, or pay Malays to do so, partly because the Malays are experts and claim to have potent charms to bring the offender to the hook, partly because a Kayan does not care to take upon himself the individual responsibility of catching a crocodile, though he does not shrink from the collective pursuit. The decaying body of a fowl, monkey, or other animal (Malays sometimes use a living dog) is bound to a strong bar of hard-wood, sharpened at both ends and some fifteen inches in length. A number of small rattans are tied to the bar about its middle, their other ends being made fast to a log. This arrangement is allowed to float down river; if it does not float freely, the crocodile will not take the bait. When a crocodile rises to the bait and swallows it, the bar gets fixed cross-wise in his gullet as he pulls on the rattans. The hunters, having kept the log in sight, then attach the ends of the rattans to the boat, tow the reptile to the bank, and haul him up on dry land. They secure his tail and feet with nooses, which they lash to a pole laid along his back, and lash his jaws together. Throughout these operations the crocodile is addressed deferentially as LAKI (grandfather). He is then left exposed to the sun, when he soon dies; in this way the people avoid the risks attaching to slaying the crocodile with their own hands.

CHAPTER 9

Life in the Jungle

All the peoples of Borneo support themselves in part by hunting and trapping the wild creatures of the jungle, but for the Punans alone is the chase the principal source of food-supply; the various natural products of the jungle are, with the exception of cultivated sago in some few regions, their only marketable commodities.

Hunting