APRIL 21 — Before the rise of agriculture, early humans were hunter-gatherers. They obtained food by hunting animals and foraging for wild plants, roots, and fruits.
But people began a gradual transition away from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle towards cultivating crops and raising animals for food around 12,000 years ago.
Sixty-five years ago when I was around 10 years old, I spent most of my free time as a hunter-gatherer. The activities included catching fish, frogs, spiders and birds, and gathering fruits, weeds and worms.
I grew up in Pandamaran next to Port Klang, a flat new village near muddy mangrove swamps where open ditches were dug on the ground next to roads to channel rainwater into the swamp, with the flow reversed during king tides, and incoming seawater brought in many marine fishes.
Catfish thrive in these muddy drains and the one at Lorong Polis was very big due to erosion until it was rebuilt. At its intersection with Jalan Raja Lumu, hundreds of catfish were often caught in the tunnel beneath after both sides of the drain were blocked and water scooped out.
These were usually done by a group of Indian men and were a spectacle to watch. With a friend, I did something similar at another much smaller drain.
A general view of Klang on October 8, 2020. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
My tiny body could enter the very small and dark drain tunnel and emerge on the other side, after making sure no catfish was left behind.
Covered by dirty mud, I was scolded upon returning home, as I was darker than a chimney sweep.
But most of the time, I would fish with a line, hook and float near intersections with drains that grew larger, and the best times were after rain when fish became more active.
It was an adventure searching and catching aquarium fish, and many fighting fish could be found in water hyacinth ponds at pigsties in the now Kampung Sijangkang area, and also in the rubber and oil palm estates now occupied by Bandar Bukit Tinggi, where there were also angel fish.
Guppies were easily caught in a small concrete drain surrounding a detached house at Kampung Raja Uda, which is over the other side of Persiaran Raja Muda Musa.
Although I was trespassing onto private property, the old lady did not shoo me away. Then, ordinary folks were much kinder.
I often gathered water hyacinths that float on water and another type of weed that grew on mud covered by water for my grandmother to chop them up to feed ducks.
Once, there was a severe drought and a water hyacinth pond was reduced to just a puddle of water.
Instinctively, I sensed there could be fish and used my basket to scoop. Before I could check, a giant snakehead, known locally as ikan haruan or toman, leapt out of the basket and quickly wriggled away into the bushes. My reflex was just as swift and I caught it before it could get away.
At other times, I would use a changkul to dig lalang-covered soil and pull out the earthworms to place them inside a can, which would later be thrown to ducks and were gobbled up in no time.
A long earthworm, which could be fragmented, was enough for fishing in a small pond or big drain.
For fishing at Port Klang, menacing-looking beach worms were easily found under stones beside the jetty at Port Klang.
During incoming tides, the number of fish caught would depend on how fast one could throw down the line with sinker, hook and bait, as a fish could bite within seconds.
Sixty-five years ago, I ate a lot of poor-quality guavas full of seeds that thrived in Pandamaran, and would have great difficulties later when trying to empty my bowels.
When no one was looking, the guavas were plucked from trees growing in the compound of many people’s houses.
Soursops were so plentiful that most of them were eaten by birds or dropped to the ground. It became expensive in later decades.
A friend and I also pulled down sugar canes growing in a house, and then raced to a public standpipe to wash and chew off the entire length of the canes.
Often, I roamed wide areas around the village to hunt for a type of male spider that would fight each other. They built a nest by sticking two leaves to overlap using plants such as hibiscus, pandan (screwpine) and leaves of dwarf coconut palms, and their drupes can be at waist level.
The caught spider was placed inside a thick matchbox and fed with a fly, and would be taken out to fight with another on top of the matchbox.
These spiders used their oversized front legs to shove each other like sumo wrestlers, with the loser making a hasty retreat after a few seconds.
The British abandoned a military airfield in Pandamaran and living there was a type of bird that preferred to run rather than fly, as there were no trees nearby for them to perch on.
I would chase, catch one and release it just for fun. These birds could not sing, were ugly and uninteresting.
Children and youths of today and tomorrow will not experience what I had 65 years ago.
They are certainly much more informed but their knowledge is superficial. Many may continue to spot stray cats and dogs but are unlikely to encounter wild chickens, reptiles and amphibians.
For example, they may not be able to tell the difference between a toad and a frog should they see one, whereas I used to catch, slaughter and deep-fry the frogs for consumption.
Some time ago, I overheard a teenager calling a mole cricket a lobster because it had claw-like forelegs.
Today’s generations are still hunter-gatherers in a modern sense. What they hunt and gather are mostly digital information and content for their livelihood and entertainment.
What would the world be 65 years from now? It is anybody’s guess.
* This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
