Tales of a Village
Imagine about a hundred years back when 'padians' were still selling wares among the houses in the water village. Among the goods and wares that the padians would be selling would be food and fruits. With Bruneians living on the water, someone somewhere would have to plant the food and fruits and someone would have to get them from somewhere. This was the job of 'pengalu' and not 'padians'. Pengalus function more like wholesalers and are generally men unlike the padians who are generally women. Pengalus are the ones who would be going deep into the interior of Brunei to get food supplies and other foodstuffs in exchange for goods which came from the Kampung Ayer such as the metal and brasswares and also goods which came via ships coming from abroad. Pengalus would bring the goods to trade with the Bruneians who lived further inland and exchanged them with fruits and other food stuffs. The rivers were the main and only transportation networks in those days. There...