40 



MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



wait at the station till we could join them. We rushed through breakfast, caught our two Indians, 

 who were just ready to eat their breakfast, and made them take it along, and then went after the 

 fishing Indians, who started as soon as they saw our boat come out of the creek. After skirting 

 Gluck Island some time they stopped at a creek so small that I thought it could have no fishes. 



Fig. 10. Indian women pounding leaves in a hollow on the ground preparatory to using the pulp for poisoning 



a stream on Gluck Island. 



Two of the Indian women scraped a small depression into the ground, cut two sticks and used them 

 as pestles and the depression as a mortar in which they pounded a basketful of leaves into a pulp. 12 

 They then built a fence across the creek with palm leaves, scraped the mud from their mortar into 

 balls and squeezed them into the water some distance up the creek. The Indians and myself were 

 soon knee-deep in water and mud, picking up the fishes which came to the surface. The little ones 

 died in numbers on the banks, the bigger ones revived. I had a set-to with the Indian women 

 because they did not want to sell me all the catch. We finally compromised, and I took all I wanted, 

 giving them the larger ones. I supposed they wanted several dollars, but they asked only two 

 shillings. I gave them three and we were both happy. After my transaction with the women was 

 completed, the man gleefully held up a fine luckananee he had shot with an arrow. 

 12 1 regret to say that I did not get the name of this poison. 



