The wild pig (SUS BARBATUS[53]) is the principal object of the chase, but deer of several species are also hunted and trapped. The largest of these (CERVUS EQUINUS) is rather bigger than the English fallow deer; the smallest is plandok, or mouse deer (TRAGULUS NAPU and T. JAVANICUS), standing only about eight inches at the shoulder; intermediate in size is the muntjac (CERVULUS MUNTJAC). There are also small herds of wild cattle (BOS SONDAICUS), a small rhinoceros (R. SUMATRANUS), large lizards (VARANUS), various apes and monkeys, and a large porcupine (HESTRIX CRASSISPINUS), and several small mammals, such as otters (LUTRA), bear-cats (ARCTICTIS), and civet cats (PARADOAURUS) of various species, all of which are hunted for their flesh, as well as several birds. The tiger-cat (FELIS NEBULOSA) and the bear (URSUS MALAYANUS) are hunted for their skins and teeth, and the dried gall-bladder of the bear is sold for medicine.
The pig and deer are most commonly hunted on foot by a party of several men with a pack of four or five dogs. The dogs, having found the trail, chase the pig until he turns on them. The dogs then surround the pig, barking and yelping, and keep it at bay till the men run up and despatch it with their spears. Both men and dogs sometimes get severely bitten and torn by the tusks. During the fruit season the pigs migrate in large herds and cross the rivers at certain places well known to the hunters. The people lie in wait for them in little huts built on the banks, and kill them from their boats as they swim across.
Kenyahs and Klemantans sometimes catch deer by driving them into a JARING. This consists of a strong rope of plaited rattans stretched in a straight line across the jungle, from tree to tree, some five feet above the ground. It is generally laid so as to complete the enclosure of an area that is almost surrounded by the river. Dependent from the whole length of the rattan rope is a series of running nooses also of rattan, each of which, overlapping its neighbours on both sides, forms a loop about two feet in diameter. Men armed with spears are stationed along the JARING, at short intervals, and the rest of the party with the dogs beat the jungle driving any deer in the enclosed space headlong towards the JARING. Some of the deer may escape, but some will usually run their heads into the nooses and fall victims to the spears of the watchers. Both pig and deer are sometimes brought down with the blow-pipe, especially by the Punans, whose favourite weapon it is.
The wild cattle are very wary and dangerous to attack. They sometimes take to the water and are then easily secured. Punans, who hunt without dogs (which in fact they do not possess) will lie in wait for the rhinoceros beside the track by which he comes to his daily mud-bath, and drive a spear into his flank or shoulder; then, after hastily retiring, they track him through the jungle, until they come upon him again, and find an opportunity of driving in another spear or a poisoned dart through some weak spot of his armour.
Birds and monkeys are chiefly killed with the blow-pipe.
Traps
Traps of many varieties are made. For pig and deer a trap is laid at a gap in the fence about the PADI field. It consists of a bamboo spear of which the end is sharpened and hardened in the fire. This is laid horizontally about two feet from the ground, resting on guides. Its butt end is lashed to one end of a springy green pole at right angles to its length; the pole is laid horizontally, one end of it being firmly fixed to a tree, and the other (that carrying the spear) bent forcibly backwards and held back by a loop of rattan. This spring is set by means of an ingenious trigger, in such a way that an animal passing through the gap must push against a string attached to the trigger, and so release the spring, which then drives the bamboo spear across the gap with great force. (The drawing (Fig. 22) Will make clear the nature of the trigger.)
In one variety of this trap the spring is set vertically. The trap is varied in other ways. A curious practice of the Ibans on setting such a trap is to measure the appropriate height of the spear by means of a rod surmounted with a carving of a human figure (Fig. 23).
Of many ingenious traps for small animals the JERAT is the most widely used (see Fig. 24 and Pl. 85). A rude fence some hundreds of yards, in some cases as much as a mile, in length, is made by filling up with sticks and brushwood the spaces between the trees and undergrowth of the jungle. At intervals of ten or twenty yards narrow gaps are left, and in each of these a JERAT is set to catch the small creatures that, in wandering through the jungle and finding their course obstructed by the fence, seek to pass through the gaps. The gap is floored with a small platform of light sticks, six to eight inches long, laid across it parallel to one another in the line of the fence. The ends of these are supported at one side of the gap, about two inches above the ground, by a cross-stick lying at right angles to them. This stick in turn is supported about one inch above the ground in the following way: the two ends of a green stick are thrust firmly into the ground forming an arch over the end of the platform, and the extremities of the cross-stick are in contact with the pillars of the arch, and kept a little above the ground by being pulled against them by the spring trigger. This consists of a short stick attached by a cord to a strong springy pole thrust vertically into the ground. To set the trigger it is pulled down, bending the pole, and passed under the arch from the platform side outwards; the upper end of the trigger is then kept by the pull of the cord against the curve of the arch, and its lower end is pulled against the middle of the cross-stick. The pressure being maintained by the tension of the cord, this end of the platform is supported by the friction between the trigger and the cross-stick. The cord is prolonged beyond the trigger in a slip noose which lies open on the platform completely across the gap, so that any small animal entering the gap, and stepping upon the platform, necessarily places its feet within the goose. A few leaves are laid on the platform and cord to disguise them. When, then, a pheasant or other creature of appropriate size and weight steps on the platform, its weight causes the cross-stick to slip down from the hold of the trigger, and this, being released, is violently jerked with the noose into the air by the elastic reaction of the bent pole; in a large proportion of cases the noose catches the victim's feet and jerks him into the air, where he dangles by the feet till the arrival of the trapper, who visits his traps twice a day.
Another very curious and strikingly simple plan is employed by the Sea Dayaks for catching the Argus pheasant, whose beautiful wing feathers are highly valued. The cock-birds congregate at certain spots in the jungle, where they display their feathers and fight together. These spots they clear of all obstacles, pulling and pushing away sticks and leaves with their heads and necks, as well as scratching with their feet. The Dayaks, taking advantage of this habit, thrust vertically into the ground slips of bamboo, the edges of which are hardened in the fire and rendered very sharp. In the course of their efforts to remove these obstructions, the birds not infrequently inflict serious wounds about their necks, and weakened by loss of blood, are found by the Dayaks at no great distance from the fighting ground.