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young people from Shing Mun planned to take property from Shek Lei Pui and they sent a note saying when they would come and what they wanted. Shek Lei Pui was very frightened. So some went to Tsuen Wan and told them. Sixty or 80 young men got together and hid around Shek Lei Pui and waited for the robbers. More than ten robbers came and were caught. The people took them to Tsuen Wan but didn't want to kill them. Finally, they put them in a big boat and took them to Nam Tau. But at Kap Shui Mun, one prisoner stabbed a Tsuen Wan man in the leg and escaped, and then swam to shore. They took the rest to Nam Tau. The escaped man went back to Shing Mun and said all the prisoners had been killed except himself. The people of Shing Mun were very angry and attacked Shek Lei Pui with weapons. They beat them because they gave no warning, and took all their property. But some Shek Lei Pui people escaped to Tsuen Wan and said the rest were all killed. Then more than 200 Tsuen Wan natives got together and marched to Shing Mun and fought there.
The Shing Mun story, on the other hand, is quite different. It blames the war on the jealousy of the Tsuen Wan villages, especially Lo Wai, whose people tried to levy charges on Shing Mun persons passing through their territory to sell pineapples in Tsuen Wan Market. Pineapples were a prominent local product and said to be quite lucrative.
There may well be something in the Tsuen Wan version, however, because a local lineage now living in Middle Kwai Chung had formerly lived in the hills to the north east in a place called Lan Nai Tong (MW). An 80-year-old man told me that they left there because of attacks from Shing Mun ‘about a hundred years ago' and settled in a less remote and exposed position, near existing villages in Kwai Chung. He also took me to the site of the old settlement, though it is overgrown with tree plantations and there is nothing to see there other than some old graves of his lineage and some of their abandoned paddy fields. The "Shek Lei Pui” of the story may well relate to their long-deserted and now little-known settlement, since it is the area place name as well as that of another village.
* I have since received the written account reproduced below at Pp 197-198.
NOTES AND QUERIES
189
young people from Shing Mun planned to take property from Shek Lei Pui and they sent a note saying when they would come and what they wanted. Shek Lei Pui was very frightened. So some went to Tsuen Wan and told them. Sixty or 80 young men got together and hid around Shek Lei Pui and waited for the robbers. More than ten robbers came and were caught. The people took them to Tsuen Wan but didn't want to kill them. Finally, they put them in a big boat and took them to Nam Tau. But at Kap Shui Mun' one prisoner stabbed a Tsuen Wan man in the leg and escaped, and then swam to shore. They took the rest to Nam Tau. The escaped man went back to Shing Mun and said all the prisoners had been killed except himself. The people of Shing Mun were very angry and attacked Shek Lei Pui with weapons. They beat them because they gave no warning, and took all their property. But some Shek Lei Pui people cscaped to Tsuen Wan and said the rest were all killed. Then more than 200 Tsuen Wan natives got together and marched to Shing Mun and fought there."
The Shing Mun story, on the other hand, is quite different. It blames the war on the jealousy of the Tsuen Wan villages, especially Lo Wai, whose people tried to levy charges on Shing Mun persons passing through their territory to sell pineapples in Tsuen Wan Market. Pineapples were a prominent local product9 and said to be quite lucrative.
There may well be something in the Tsuen Wan version, how- ever, because a local lineage now living in Middle Kwai Chung1o had formerly lived in the hills to the north east in a place called Lan Nai Tong (MW). An 80-year-old man told me that they left there because of attacks from Shing Mun ‘about a hundred years ago' and settled in a less remote and exposed position, near existing villages in Kwai Chung. He also took me to the site of the old settlement," though it is overgrown with tree plantations and there is nothing to see there other than some old graves of his lineage and some of their abandoned paddy fields. The "Shek Lei Pui” of the story may well relate to their long- deserted and now little-known settlement, since it is the area place name as well as that of another village.*
* I have since received the written account reproduced below at Pp 197-198.
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