A favourite occasional amusement is _tuba_ fishing. The _tuba_ is a plant the juice of which has strong narcotic properties. Bundles of the roots are collected and put into the bottom of the canoes, and when the fishing ground is reached, generally a bend in a river, or the mouth of a stream which is barred at low tide, water is poured over the _tuba_ and the juice expressed by beating it with short sticks. The fluid, thus charged with the narcotic poison, is then baled out of the canoes into the stream and the surface is quickly covered by all sorts of fish in all stages of intoxication, the smaller ones even succumbing altogether to the poison. The large fish are secured by spearing, amid much excitement, the eager sportsmen often overbalancing themselves and falling headlong into the water to the great amusement of the more lucky ones. I remember reading an account of a dignified representative of Her Majesty once joining in the sport and displaying a pair of heels in this way to his admiring subjects. The _tuba_ does not affect the flesh of the fish, which is brought to the table without any special preparation. The principal export from Brunai is sago flour. The sago palm is known to the natives under the name of _rumbiah_, the pith, after its first preliminary washing, is called _lamantah_ (_i.e._, raw), and after its preparation for export by the Chinese, _sagu_. The botanical name is _Metroxylon_, _M. Lævis_ being that of the variety the trunk of which is unprotected, and _M. Rumphii_ that of the kind which is armed with long and strong spikes, serving to ward off the attacks of the wild pigs from the young palm. This palm is indigenous in the Malayan Archipelago and grows to the height of twenty to forty feet, in swampy land along the banks of rivers not far from the sea, but out of the reach of tidal influences. A plantation once started goes "on for ever," with scarcely any care or attention from the proprietor, as the palm propagates itself by numerous off-shots, which take the place of the parent tree when it is cut down for the purpose of being converted into food, or when it dies, which, unlike most other palms, it does after it has once flowered and seeded, _i.e._, after it has attained the age of ten or fifteen years. It can also be propagated from the seed, but these are often unproductive.