Red bead (Buah Saga)

Following up on the Red bead (Buah Saga), we used to keep a round cigarette tin full of these seeds for our games. Sorry no Cranium or other fancy board games that you have at that time. One of the favourite games using Saga seeds was to have each playing party contributing a certain number of seeds. After deciding (through scissors, paper, stone) who went first, he or she would collect the seeds in one hand and lightly release them by spreading out the fingers. Then using the last finger, he or she would draw an imaginary perpendicular line between each pair of seeds, after which he / she would flick the seed against the other in the pair. If the seed struck the other of the pair successfully without disturbing the rest, the person got to keep the two seeds and the game continued until he/she missed. The turn would then go to the other party until all the seeds were struck.

In many other countries, saga seeds are one of the many popular seeds used in botanical jewelery. Often they are used as beads, drilled and strung into necklaces and bracelets. Similarly, seed of Abrus precatorius with its red colour and black dot resembles very much of Crab's Eye is popularly used as well. I collected necklace made from these seeds in Yunnan, China and saw them selling in Madagascar too when I visited the island in 2005. The Aborigines up in the Kimberley also used them for the same function. The other common plant the seeds of which are used as beads is Job's Tears (Coix lachryma-jobi), a member of grass. The species name `lachryme-jobi' also means Job's Tear in Latin. Its seeds come in different shades of grey and even white or ivory, even white. You could find this plant growing in damp places of Kuching in days gone by, presumably cultivated. Unlike seeds of Saga which are pretty hard, seeds of Job's Tears are easy to pierce through using needle. They are thus simple to string into necklaces, even for children who liked to play masak-masak.

As a kid, I used to collect the seeds in the big jungle-like (possibly a belukar or secondary vegetation) compound of Lau Koh, an auntie of mum who lived along the middle section of Rubber Rd, extending towards Satok Road. Lau Koh always wore sarong just like a nyonya, had a purple birth mark on her left forehead. Her hair though never permed, came down straight and bend outwards. Her 2-storey timber house had attap roof and was pretty old. Rainwater was collected outside her house in a metal tank and was conduit into the house using sections of split, green culms of giant bamboos. You know why we did not suffer from Greenhouse effect then. That was the coolest house I ever encountered. There were mosquitoes in the belukar but at that time I was not aware of malaria or dengue fever. You got the tast of mosquito bites if you wanted to collect the golden-flesh, sweet Kedondong fruits from her yard. As far as I could recall, that was\n the best kedondong fruits I ever tasted anywhere. for those of you who don't know, this is a fruit the size of a green mango. The flesh looks like mango but tasts differently. It has single seed with more fibrous `spikes'. Oh yes, I must also mention the free-range ducks and turkeys that Lau koh reared. Some of the ducks had warty ugly `face'. However, the huge duck eggs that Lau Koh collected from them provided us with delicious duck egg omelette at dinner time .

Incidentally, the small round `barleys' that mum boiled as a cooling drink actually is not the barley as we see here but a variety of Job's Tears from China. Quite often, we have used the common name too loosely - just like `kana' from China is actually not true olive but a and is similar to Kenari nut. It is closer to `olam' nut from the Rejang area. `Olam' (native to Rejang area) is a black olive-like fruit occasionally bought and cooked by Cho-Cho in salted boiling water and eaten with porridge. Dates often used in Chinese recipes are also not true dates which come from a palm tree in the middle-East. Chinese dates are from plant related to the jujube, the fruits of which are common in S. China, Thailand, Myanmar area."


As a kid, I used to collect the seeds in the big jungle-like (possibly a belukar or secondary vegetation) compound of Lau Koh, an auntie of mum who lived along the middle section of Rubber Rd, extending towards Satok Road. Lau Koh always wore sarong just like a nyonya, had a purple birth mark on her left forehead. Her hair though never permed, came down straight and bend outwards. Her 2-storey timber house had attap roof and was pretty old. Rainwater was collected outside her house in a metal tank and was conduit into the house using sections of split, green culms of giant bamboos. You know why we did not suffer from Greenhouse effect then. That was the coolest house I ever encountered. There were mosquitoes in the belukar but at that time I was not aware of malaria or dengue fever. You got the tast of mosquito bites if you wanted to collect the golden-flesh, sweet Kedondong fruits from her yard. As far as I could recall, that was the best kedondong fruits I ever tasted anywhere. for those of you who don't know, this is a fruit the size of a green mango. The flesh looks like mango but tasts differently. It has single seed with more fibrous `spikes'. Oh yes, I must also mention the free-range ducks and turkeys that Lau koh reared. Some of the ducks had warty ugly `face'. However, the huge duck eggs that Lau Koh collected from them provided us with delicious duck egg omelette at dinner time .

Incidentally, the small round `barleys' that mum boiled as a cooling drink actually is not the barley as we see here but a variety of Job's Tears from China. Quite often, we have used the common name too loosely - just like `kana' from China is actually not true olive but a Canarium and is similar to Kenari nut. It is closer to `olam' nut from the Rejang area. `Olam' (native to Rejang area) is a black olive-like fruit occasionally bought and cooked by Cho-Cho in salted boiling water and eaten with porridge. Dates often used in Chinese recipes are also not true dates which come from a palm tree in the middle-East. Chinese dates are from plant related to the jujube, the fruits of which are common in S. China, Thailand, Myanmar area.

Pin