Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean JunglesGomes, Edwin Herbert
History
Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo: A Record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles
Gomes, Edwin Herbert
Iban (Bornean people); Sarawak (Malaysia) -- Description and travel
Most of the people bring with them some _tuba_ root, made up into small
close bundles, the thickness of a man’s wrist, and about six inches long.
Early the next morning some of the canoes are filled with water, and the
root is beaten and dipped into it. For an hour or so fifty or more clubs
beat a lively tattoo on the root bundles, as they are held to the sides
of the boats. The _tuba_ is dipped into the water in the boat, and wrung
out from time to time. This gives the water a white, frothy appearance
like soap-suds. The Dyaks, armed with fish-spears and hand-nets, wait in
readiness in their canoes. At a given signal the poisoned liquid is baled
out into the stream, and the canoes, after a short pause, begin to drift
slowly down the current. The fish are stupefied by the _tuba_, and as
they rise struggling to the surface, are speared by the Dyaks. The large
fish are thus secured amid much excitement, several canoes sometimes
making for the same spot where a large fish is seen. The women and
children join in the sport, and scoop up the smaller fish with hand-nets.
The _tuba_ does not affect the flesh of the fish, which can be cooked and
eaten.
This form of fishing, when carried out on a large scale, is always a
great event among the Dyaks, because besides the large amount of fish
secured on these occasions, there is always a great deal of fun and
excitement, and it is looked upon as a pleasant sort of picnic.
[Illustration: DYAKS RETURNING FROM TUBA-FISHING
In _tuba_ fishing the juice of the _tuba_ root is put in the water to
poison it, and cause the fish to rise stupefied to the surface, when they
are secured either with spears or by hand-nets. In the picture the men
are seen taking up to the Dyak house their fish spears and the fish they
have succeeded in taking. The boats, which are dug-outs, each made out of
the trunk of a tree, are being made fast to the bank. The large hats the
men are wearing as a protection from the sun are made of palm leaves. On
the right of the picture is seen a three-pronged fish-spear.]
For superstitious reasons the Dyaks do not interfere with the crocodile
until he has shown some sign of his man-eating propensity. If the
crocodile will live at peace with him, the Dyak has no wish to start a
quarrel. If, however, the crocodile breaks the truce and kills someone,
then the Dyaks set to work to find the culprit, and keep on catching and
killing crocodiles until they find him. The Dyaks generally wear brass
ornaments, and by cutting open a dead crocodile they can easily find
out if he is the creature they wish to punish. Sometimes as many as ten
crocodiles are killed before they manage to destroy the animal they want.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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