Rubber Seeds

Hard to imagine we could have so much fun with these simple seeds.

Meet Buah-Cina-Mati (top) and Kapok (bottom). My prized Champions!

Right after school under the post midday sun, we boys would go to the rubber estates and collect these seeds. There are specific types that we look for, highly prized being those with thick shells.

Here's why. One of the games we played is to take turns to try break another rubber seed by placing ours over them and then smash it with our palms.

Of course, the weaker seed would break and you'll have to give a seed to your opponent if yours broke. That's two, considering the one that just broke!

So how did I conned them? Haha...yes I was quite a rascal growing up. I would pick a strong seed, kapok and buah-china-mati being my favourites (more about the naming strategy later) and "modify" them.

First, carefully remove a layer of skin from the base of the seed where the stem was. Keep that skin cos you'll need to use it to patch back later.

Then use a thin wire and push into the hole and dig out as much of the seeds inside as you can. Can't get them all out? No problem. Drip a few drops of sugared water and leave your seeds where ants frequent. By the next day, they would have cleaned up the insides. Ants are hardworking creatures you know ;).

Okay, here's the hard part. Get a candle and drip wax into the hole to fill up the insides. Not easy as they clog up the hole quickly so it's a repeated process of drip drip drip, clean hole, drip drip drip, clean hole, drip drip drip. Takes a full half day for ONE seed but totally worth it. We kids back then have plenty of time. Less homework, or rather play first, homework later (what homework?) ;p.

Once it's full, heat the wax near the hole and quickly put back that skin to cover the hole.

You can see the seed on the right no longer have a skin to cover the wax while the other seed's skin has shrunk!

That's it! These are champions and have never been beaten, which accounts for why I still have them ;). There's another secret to making them look good. Rubber seeds all look alike except for their shape. So how does mine have distinct colours and shape? You need to remove it's outer skin. Break open any rubber seeds or those that have been cracked and use its fleshy insides to polish your rubber seed. It will gain a sheen and reveal its true colours. That's when you'll know what type of seeds you've got! The kapok have got ridges, that make them strong (looks like one of those aliens' shells) while Buah-Cina-Mati is wedge shape to give it a good hammer action. Which is stronger here? Don't know. Never pitted them against each other. Never will. Shared title lah.

Boring looking normal unpolished rubber seeds.

These are the capsules with three lobes = three rubber seeds

The way we find ours is because we know which tree has what seeds. That's how we got the name of Buah-Cina-Mati. You see, it is so sought after you won't find them on the floor of the rubber estate. To get them, you'll need to climb the tree to get it's seed capsule. That's where the story went that a Chinese boy fell to his death trying. Of course there are experts who climb them and sell the seeds. Make more money per ounce than tapping rubber sap I tell you. Real wan.

I love the sounds of crackling rubber seed capsules exploding and raining down seeds. When you hold them right after they fall, it's warm.

Another prank we did using rubber seeds is to rub them hard on the cement floor and touch a friend. It BURNS! And I tell you, do it properly and you leave a scar! Hahaha...

It's a shady escapade and we can spend hours here looking for seeds. Prized ones.

These are the kind of rubber estate that was behind my house after plots of padi fields. They are not the types you see along the old trunk roads that are well kept with lined trees and commercialized. There were lots of undergrowth, so we have to watch out for SNAKES. Oh yes, we need to watch out for bees too, cos there were lots of bee hives. You are not hard-core if you have not been stung by bees or face-off with a snake. Twice I had close shaves with cobras.

Other distractions here are spiders, the fighting ones. We catch them and put them in match boxes. Another posts perhaps about spiders :)

Those were the days. Good days where our cares in life was indeed so simple, just don't get stung!!!