Saturday, February 20, 2010

Trapping The Mouse Deer


My memories of lipis is still fresh. Life was simple. There was no tv, no computer, no internet, and not even newspaper. During school holidays, there not much really to do. It is funny, when I still think I had a wonderful childhood. And I still remember, when I was 10 years old, I was brave enough to track the jungle. We were used to it. There no fear, never thought of the tigers, snakes or jaguar.

This school holiday was no different. Most of the time I was out, doing whatever activities, mostly closely related to nature. I cannot remember this time, whether I went alone or with my brother or sister. I have one sis who was more adventurous than most boys. Though a girl, she would follow me in all the boys activities. So one day, I was out to make a trap, we called it perangkap, for the mousedeer............ or kancil. If you have you seen it, it is quiet small, may be smallest of the deer family. You are not suppose to do this nowadays, as our favorite kancil is one of the protected species. You may end up in court. But those days were different. The green jungle was still in abundant.
We leave the normally around 9 am. We only need to bring a parang, (machete), The rest of our needs will be obtained from the jungle. My friends were surprised when I shown them how easy to get fresh drinking water from the creepers, (we call is akar kayu). All you have to do it find it, cut it into manageable length and the water will pour out from it. It sound easy, but please don’t to it, you may be poisoned if you choose to cut the wrong type of tree.

to be continued...........

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