Little Brother will lose his life.”
At this critical juncture the Kingfisher opens her beak to laugh, and the fish slips back into his native element and escapes!
Fowling Ceremonies
Ideas of sympathetic magic run very strongly through all ceremonies connected with the taking of wild birds, such for instance as jungle-fowl or pigeon.
The commonest method of snaring jungle-fowl is to take a line (called rachik), with a great number of fine nooses attached to it, and set it so as to form a complete circle, enclosing an open space in the forest. You must bring a decoy-bird with you, and the instructions which I collected say that you should on arriving enter the circle, holding the bird like a fighting cock, and repeat these lines:—
“Ho, Si Lanang, Si Tĕmpawi,
Come and let us play at cock-fighting
On the border-line between the primary and secondary forest-growth.
Your cock, Grandsire, is spurred with steel.
Mine is but spurred with bamboo.”