It has been a while since my last posting. There is no particularly special reason for that other than sheer procrastination on my part.
My late paternal grandfather lived to a ripe old age of 90 when he died of natural causes. I called him Tok Ki (Terengganuan for grandfather, perhaps a contrite of "datuk lelaki"). During his lifetime, Tok Ki had many plot of lands. Other than the many rubber smallholdings, he also had many orchards and farm lands. A plot of his lands is located next to the Terengganu river. It was partly an orchard and partly a tilled area where corn and banana were planted from time to time.
On the river bank, there were trees including clumps of bamboo. A pangkalan was also there but it was not meant for ordinary crowd as it was steep and the water was deep, unlike popular pangkalans which were shallow and gradual. The pangkalan was used mainly by buyers of our bananas from the town who visited Tok Ki's orchards once a month.
My late paternal grandfather lived to a ripe old age of 90 when he died of natural causes. I called him Tok Ki (Terengganuan for grandfather, perhaps a contrite of "datuk lelaki"). During his lifetime, Tok Ki had many plot of lands. Other than the many rubber smallholdings, he also had many orchards and farm lands. A plot of his lands is located next to the Terengganu river. It was partly an orchard and partly a tilled area where corn and banana were planted from time to time.
On the river bank, there were trees including clumps of bamboo. A pangkalan was also there but it was not meant for ordinary crowd as it was steep and the water was deep, unlike popular pangkalans which were shallow and gradual. The pangkalan was used mainly by buyers of our bananas from the town who visited Tok Ki's orchards once a month.
Tok Ki had a shotgun - a licensed one. He got a gun license for the purpose of shooting the squirrels that spoil his coconuts. Once in a while, Tok Ki organises toman-hunting. Well it was not actually hunting, rather shooting the toman. Toman is a snakehead (?) prevalent in the river. Tomans are big and strong but difficult to hunt down.
I used to follow Tok Ki to such toman-hunting. The hunt involves a lot of patience. Tok Ki would sit still at the clump of bamboo on the riverbank. He threw kapok-seeds into the water every now and then and sat still. On his sides about a metre away, three or four young men stood ready to jump into the blue water once a toman is shot. We had to maintain complete silence as the slightest of noise would scare away the toman. The kapok-seeds were thrown into the water to entice the toman to surface. Tok Ki would train the shotgun barrel straight towards the water, onto an imaginery spot that he would expect the toman to surface.
Usually, I would sit behind Tok Ki leaning against the bamboo clump. And most of the time, I would be lulled by the deafening silence.
I was jolted from my near 'slumber" by the sound of the gunshot. At the same time, the young men dived into the water and went after the stunned toman. The toman was big. It took the four young men about 15 minutes to grab and hauled it onto the riverbank. The toman would then be brought back to our community well where the ladies took over. The fish would be cut into many portions. Each of the 'participants' would get a piece and others in our big family would also get a piece each.
Sometimes, the fish was cooked community-style. Most of the times we would be given our portion to be cooked on our own.
Nowadays, no one goes for toman-hunting in Tok Ki's fashion anymore. People hunt for toman using hooks and baits nowadays and they do that at Lake Kenyir. Angling is the order of the day!
I used to follow Tok Ki to such toman-hunting. The hunt involves a lot of patience. Tok Ki would sit still at the clump of bamboo on the riverbank. He threw kapok-seeds into the water every now and then and sat still. On his sides about a metre away, three or four young men stood ready to jump into the blue water once a toman is shot. We had to maintain complete silence as the slightest of noise would scare away the toman. The kapok-seeds were thrown into the water to entice the toman to surface. Tok Ki would train the shotgun barrel straight towards the water, onto an imaginery spot that he would expect the toman to surface.
Usually, I would sit behind Tok Ki leaning against the bamboo clump. And most of the time, I would be lulled by the deafening silence.
I was jolted from my near 'slumber" by the sound of the gunshot. At the same time, the young men dived into the water and went after the stunned toman. The toman was big. It took the four young men about 15 minutes to grab and hauled it onto the riverbank. The toman would then be brought back to our community well where the ladies took over. The fish would be cut into many portions. Each of the 'participants' would get a piece and others in our big family would also get a piece each.
Sometimes, the fish was cooked community-style. Most of the times we would be given our portion to be cooked on our own.
Nowadays, no one goes for toman-hunting in Tok Ki's fashion anymore. People hunt for toman using hooks and baits nowadays and they do that at Lake Kenyir. Angling is the order of the day!
