The bird called "Barau-barau" is said to have once been a bidan (midwife) whose employers (anak bidan) refused to pay her for her services, and kept constantly putting her off. Her patience, however, had its limits, and one day, after experiencing the usual evasion, she broke out into a torrent of intemperate language, in the midst of which she was changed into a bird, whose querulous note may be recognised as the voice of the aged woman as she cries out for the payment of her just wages. About the big Kingfisher (Pekaka) an amusing parallel to the fable of the Fox and the Crow is related. It is said that this kingfisher once caught a fish, and flew to a low branch just overhanging the water to devour it. The fish, seeking for a means to save his life, decided to try the effect of a speech, and accordingly addressed his captor in the following verses, judiciously designed to appeal at once to her vanity and compassion:-- "O Kingfisher! Kingfisher! What a glistening, glittering beak! Yet while you, Big Sister, are filling your maw, 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 Tempawi, 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." Here deposit the bird upon the ground. The challenge of the decoy-bird will then attract the jungle-fowl from all directions, and as they try to enter the circle (in order to reach the decoy), they will entangle themselves in the nooses. As often as you succeed, however, in catching one, you must be careful to cast the "mischief" out of it, using the same form of words as is used to drive the "mischief" out of the carcase of the deer. The method of catching wild pigeon is much more elaborate, and brings the animistic ideas of the Malays into strong relief, the "souls" of the wild pigeon being repeatedly referred to.