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 Tĕmpawi,
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.