'■"’•> '■:" ■ 'A ' ' -
Monkeys pick coconuts
Attitude Change
(Continued from page 1)
for a few bananas a day
KOTA BHARU, Malaysia <A>)_
Coconut-picking machines on this
palmy coast run cheaply. A few
bananas a day keep them oper
ating for five years or more.
Since coconuts grow high up
long, skinny tree trunks—and it’s
a lot of work to climb them—local
Malays for centuries have found
it easier to con monkeys into the
job.
The investment is a patient wait
by the monkey trap, a few months
of concentrated gorilla training
and a daily light meal after the
day’s crop is in.
When the monkey finally fig
ures out what’s going on and re
bels, he is handed his pink slip
and sold to a neighbor who likes
curried monkey.
More than a thousand mon
keys—of a sort known as “berok”
here—work for coconut growers
in Kelantan and Trengganu states
on Malaysia’s east coast. Farther
south, Pahang state growers use
baboons.
It’s not a profession which
breeds good manners, and en
thralled tourists are warned to
stay well clear. Malay farmers
have been hospitalized or worse
from bites by their own mon
keys.
Baboons are even nastier.
ingful tugs.
A good monkey can harvest a
thousand coconuts in a morn
ing’s work, earning for his mas
ter perhaps $2. He rests only on
Friday—the Moslem day of pray
er.
He usually lives among the
stilts under a raised Malay kam-
pong house. His master takes
him to work perched on bicycle
handle bars or led down the road
like a dog on a walk. If the grove
is upriver, the berok sits regally
up front in a boat.
For some, berok training and
exploting is a detailed art. The
better indoctrinated the moneky,
the larger the gains.
For others, like young Mamat
Bin Yusof, the suggestion that
anything unusual is involved
earns the suggester a sympathetic
stare.
“What you do mean?” he asked
a visitor. “I just climb up to that
hill (indicating a nearby moun
tain), trap a monkey and when
he grows up, he picks coconuts...”
As he spoke, he said a few
words to his monkey with two
sharp yanks on the cord. He calls
his berok “Jambo” because, he
says, “it’s a good monkey name.”
Others converse in grunts and
snorts as their beroks listen in
rapt attention.
Properly, a young berok learns
to twist a coconut while sitting
on the ground. Then he is taught
to climb a short tree and pull off
coconuts attached to it by the
teacher.
He later learns to pick out
mature coconuts and drop them
to the ground. And he is taught
to leap directly to the next tree
without wasting time coming
down first.
Several Kelantanese Malays
run obedience-schools for a small
consideration.
where and American tourists are
easy to spot.
“American girls you can see a
mile away,” Brocktrup explained.
“They all have slicked-up hair
and there’s no doubt about their
walk being different.”
Sanders overheard an American
girl talking in a bus in Ireland.
She told him her father was a
former ROTC instructor at Texas
A&M and she attended Sam Hous
ton State.
“It’s a small world,” he said.
Other cadets reported on visits
to old castles in Ireland, sailing
aboard a 35-foot racer off the
Irish coast, shark fishing in the
English Channel, diving for lob
sters in The Virgin Islands and a
30-minute hydrofoil trip between
Holland and Sweden.
The only rough time during the
trip was on the way over. Seas ran
about 20 feet in the North At
lantic and the Clipper tilted to
30 degrees from one wave.
One cadet is well known at the
U. S. Navy fire-fighting school
in Mayport, Fla., where the cadets
spent their first week.
A1 Leshinen of Pennsylvania
wore his hat into the Officers'
Club. His $13.60 round for club
patrons is a record at the base.
Page 8
THE BATTALION
College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 18,1!1
DISCOUNT MEAL COUPON BOOKS
For the first time, meal discount coupon books, espe
cially designed for day students, will be sold at tk
same low price to any member of the student body
faculty and staff. Discount booklets may be purchasec
at the MSC Cafeteria and the Department of Food
Services office, Sbisa Hall, for immediate use.
Beroks are trained to work at
the end of a long thin cord
attached round their necks. They
are carefully trained to pluck a
specific coconut and respond
faithfully to commands trans
mitted by the cord with mean-
Ag Extension
editor resigns
J. W. Potts, news editor for the
Texas Agricultural Extension
Service for almost 23 years, is re
turning to West Texas.
His sign-off — jwp — has been
affixed to thousands of stories
dealing with developments in
Texas and national agriculture
and the people connected with
them. His works have won many
awards in national competition
and have enjoyed national usage.
His resignation is effective
September 1.
ijMg
A monkey who has finished his day's picking chores
refreshes himself with a scoop of water. Canoe holds his
day’s work. (AP Photo)
THE OFFICIAL
Dallas Cowboy “Insiders”
NEWSLETTER
Read it evefy Friday in
The Daily Eagle
This is the official authorized Dallas Cowboy publication
that sells by subscription for $6.00 a year, brought free to ijj;
you each Friday only in the Daily Eagle.
THE NEWSLETTER CONTAINS INFORMATION
AND SCOUTING REPORTS ABOUT THE DALLAS
COWBOYS AND THEIR UPCOMING OPPONENT
FOR THE WEEK. IT FEATURES STORIES AND
COMMENTS BY THE MOST RESPECTED SPORTS
WRITERS AND PERSONALITIES, SUCH AS:
SPORTS EDITOR
FRANK GIFFORD sports announcer
FRANK LUKSA
ANDY ANDERSON
KYLE ROTE EOOTf}AI_L ANALYST
BLADKIE SHERROD sports editor
ABC-TV
FT. WORTH STAR TELEGRAM
SPORTS EDITOR FT. WORTH PRESS
NBC-TV
DALLAS TIMES HERALD
1971 Texas A&M University Football Schedule
Sept. 11 WICHITA STATE
at College Station
Sept. 18 LOUISIANA STATE
at Baton Rouge
Sept. 25 NEBRASKA
at Lincoln
Oct. 2 CINCINNATI
at College Station
Oct. 9 TEXAS TECH
at Lubbock
Oct. 16 TEXAS CHRISTIAN
at Fort Worth
Oct. 23 BAYLOR
at College Station
Oct. 30 ARKANSAS
at Little Rock
Nov. 6 SOUTHERN METHODIST
at College Station
'Jl
Welcome Back Fighting Texas A
ggies
I l
Nov. 13 RICE
at Houston
Nov. 25 TEXAS
at College Station
7:30 p. m.
7:30 p. m.
1:30 p. m.
7:30 p. m.
7:30 p. m.
2:00 p. m.
1:30 p. m.
7:30 p. m.
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2:00 p. m.
1:30 p. m.
Since 1946
Member F.D.I.C.
'On the side of Texas A&M'
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS 77840
"We're counting on your experience and you can count on ours.’