If you do not I shall fell you.”^144
To this the tree (through the mouth of a man who had been stationed for the
purpose in a Mangostin tree hard by) was supposed to make answer:—
“Yes, I will now bear fruit;
I beg you not to fell me.”^145
I may add that it was a common practice in the fruit season for the boys who
were watching for the fruit to fall (for which purpose they were usually stationed
in small palm-thatch shelters) to send echoing through the grove a musical note,
which they produced by blowing into a bamboo instrument called tuang-tuang. I
cannot, however, say whether this custom now has any ceremonial significance
or not, though it seems not at all unlikely that it once had.^146