Hunting and Fishing: The Ancient Way

For perhaps a majority of people who fish, their equipment includes a net or a rod. Hunting is usually done with a gun. But as a member of the Mandaya tribe in the southern Philippines I was taught how to hunt and fish for food without any of that equipment!

My training began at five years of age. By many persons, the methods we used might be viewed as primitive, but our family enjoyed an abundance of meat and fish from the forest's own larder.

Fishing-Jungle-Style

For example, when fishing we did not use rods or nets. What, then, did we use? Often, just our hands! My father taught me to catch fish, shrimps, lobsters or crabs with my hands, around the rocks and grasses of the riverbed. I also learned to use a bamboo basket or a basket of thorns. At night I would put bait in these, and in the morning-hopefully-there would be a harvest.

In our tribe, the bow and arrow was very often used for fishing. I learned to crouch on a branch overhanging the water and to imitate the sounds of certain fish. When they would surface, I would shoot the arrow, and dive in to retrieve my catch.

Another way in which we caught fish was by digging a hole into the riverbank, about two feet wide, two-and-a-half feet long and a foot deep. In front of this inlet, we made a fence with bamboo slats. The fence had a small door, made in such a way that when the fish swam in to look for food, it was trapped.

In another style of fishing, five or 10 persons would work together. We would put up a kind of corral at the end of a pond or a stream and then slowly wade through the water toward it, all the while beating the water with sticks. Fish, turtles and even small crocodiles would be driven into the corral. Yes, we would eat the crocodiles too!

Large eels would often swim underneath tree trunks, roots, twigs or leaves. To catch them, we would simply drive a long spear through any of this flotsam. If there was an eel there, and we hit it, it would float to the surface.

When nights were dark, we would lure the prey with a light. When it got close, we used the appropriate weapon to dispatch it.