Reviving Magalus – one family at a time
Published on: Sunday, February 06, 2022
By: Lorena Binisol
Text Size:
Ricarldo Angat holding a Sago worm (or ‘Butod’ in Kadazan).
Those raised in households back in the 70s till late 80s may recall, but this activity had died down since.
“Magalus” literally means shredding of the palm tree branch into bits and pieces using a sharp device. The thing that comes out of it is called “Ipou”, Kadazan for shredded Sago.
It is then dried under hot sun and kept for a period of time until it was time to feed livestock.
“When I was a young boy, I could remember everything about ‘Magalus’ because for us it was a fun thing to do. We were seated in between the branch of the Sago palms and played,” said Armando Angat, a resident in Penampang.
Ricarldo drying the ‘Ipou’ so they can last longer to feed to their livestock.
Magalus session while Armando (wearing hat) looks on.
They used to gather the dried shredded Sago and kept them in a gunny sack – sold at RM5 per sack.
It really brought him to down-memory-lane whenever they wanted to do “Magalus” with his family members today.
Since they have livestock and other animals, they need not have to buy feeds, instead they just fell a palm tree and process it into feeds.
“Due to development, ‘Magalus’ session is hardly seen today, as palm trees remain only a handful to make way for new buildings and other infrastructures.
“In the past, the whole Penampang had Sago plants everywhere.
“Magalus is an activity of extracting the flesh of Sago from the trunk by laying the branch horizontally and two persons from each side sit and move the device upward and downward until the whole trunk diminishes,” Armando explained.
While felling of the trunk is the men’s job, his mother Jane Mansah, would insist to tag along with the troupe into a nearby swampy area, she too got excited to be part of it as it reminded her of how they used to do it easily and with no qualm during those days.
She also probably had “hidden agenda” as to why she was eager to tag along with her adult children Armando and Eddie (in their late forties), checking whether they could still perform the laborious tasks rightly.
She recalled in the 80s, many people in Penampang reared pigs, so they always teamed up to collect as many Sago plants as they could and process them together.
Besides being food for animals, Armando said in those days they also processed the Sago flesh into “Ambuyat”, a traditional food claimed by the Bruneians.
Ambuyat, or “Natok” in Kadazan, was one of the staple foods for the people of yore and it becomes a delicacy in many restaurants today.
“Well, we only made for our own consumption during my younger days and never really took it seriously as our staple food then because we also had rice as our main source of carbs,” he said.
In Kuala Penyu, most populations there still carry out their ancestors’ style of consuming carbohydrates by eating “Ambuyat” as Sago palms are still aplenty there.
Rose Kulin of Menumbuk was equally excited whenever she made Ambuyat for her family. She shared her technique of making the delicacy and enjoyed eating it with her neighbour, Rose Tigkun.
“I grew up having it, how can I ever forget things that I went through in my childhood. Making Ambuyat is precious,” said both Roses.
Another exciting adventure whenever Armando and family go into swampy area is the young ones would look forward to check whether there were any Sago worms to bring home, another bizarre edible worms popularly known as “Butod”.
The daring ones would immediately gulp down a piece.
“The family value that we have is because of the activities we carried out before and are still doing together today.
“This is real happiness that money cannot buy,” he said gratefully.
He was thankful to his mother who insisted all the children help in the paddy field or swampy places to get either Sago plants or catch fish for their dinner in their younger days.
Jane would go with her children to fell a few Sago palms at a swampy area.
Jane Mansah was delighted to find many Sago worms.
“I remember every time after school, right after lunch, we immediately followed our parents to do physical work till dusk, we never care about completing our school work, as we wanted to just play in the mud, harvest paddy and carry the whole branch of Sago.
“And that was really fun to do,” he laughed.
He, however, was worried about the situation today where children as young as four years old given handphone as a “toy” to play with.
“I am not against the gadget (handphone) as it is a need today where it connects us with almost everything from work to information and everything else.
“However, by giving our toddlers to play with, is like robbing away their childhood. They are supposed to play with fish in the pond, jump into puddles or pluck the grass for fun and anything that is safe for children to do under the sun.
“But it looks like the situation is not like that, sadly,” he opined.
He said some of the reasons why his family insist on doing the laborious job like ‘Magalus’ is that he wanted youngsters to be physically involved, hence, they could forget their handphone for a moment.
He was grateful that they successfully helped the young ones forget their handphones for a while and their eyes are rested from looking at bright rays from the phone which is bad for the sight, he said.
Having said that, Armando and his family wished other households in Penampang would recall their past activities, and try to revive them for the sake of the children.
Rose Kulin of Menumbuk sharing her technique of making Ambuyat.
Rose Tingkun had always enjoyed eating Ambuyat.
ADVERTISEMENT
