Tales of a Hakka town (9)

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

Tales of a Hakka town (9)

When we were in high school, we, two of my best friends and I, were a
crazy lot in this little town. We loved to go bush walking. At times 
we rambled barefooted aimlessly for hours in the bush and the rubber
plantations near the town. We did this in order to toughen ourselves. 
Many an occasion, when it rained we took off our shirts and let the rain
beat on our bodies and we called it rain bathed. 

On one Sunday we walked across a small stream and saw a lot of fish in 
the water. We decided to come back to catch the fish the next time.
For a few days we were discussing ways to catch the fish. One of my 
friends suggested to use tuba (derris) roots to poison the fish, but 
where to get them. We asked the rubber tappers who came to my father's 
rubber dealing shop to sell their rubber sheets. They told us that we
could obtain them at the fringes of Kledang Range which is about four or
five kilometers west of the town. 

Determining to get some tuba roots, the next Sunday morning we cycled to
the jungle. We rode on the uneven road and passed through thousands of
rubber trees before we arrived at the fringe of the thick forest. We
found many types of creeping vines. Eventually we found some tuba
roots. We cut them into the length of two or three fee t and bundled them
behind our bicycles. 

We did not go fishing that day, but stored the tuba roots in my father's
palung (tin mine). I told the kepala (the leader of the workers) not to
throw them away as we were coming back to fetch them next Sunday.

The following Sunday morning we picked up the tuba roots and borrowed a
few hammers and buckets and scoop nets from the palung. Off, we cycled to
the small stream where there were a lot of fish. We chose a big flat rock
and pounded the roots with the hammers. The roots produced a kind of milky
juice. When we had pounded all the roots we emptied the juice into the
river and it flowed downstreamed. After a few minutes we saw a lot of fish 
floated on the surface of the water. It was a great joy to scooped the
fish big and small into the buckets. Could not remember how many buckets
we got.

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.