at 9 to 12 per cent, interest and is paid off in instalments. Some 

 Reddikees who carry on business in dried fish also advance money 

 to the ticket holders but no interest is charged and no concession 

 in price is given. There is much demand for fresh fish from 

 Pithapuram and other towns in the neighbourhood where it is 

 carried on kavadies by men runners. Kothapalem is a fishing 

 hamlet near Uppada inhabited by Pallees and a few Vada families. 

 They are much poorer than the Vada fishermen of Uppada and do 

 not own any Alivi or other big nets and boats. 



GODARIGUNTA. 



This village is situated a few miles north of Cocanada town 

 and contains about lOO huts inhabited by Vadas and a few Pallees. 

 The huts made of mud wall and thatched are of the usual round 

 type and built in a most irregular manner leaving hardly any room 

 between each hut. The sanitary conditions are very defective as 

 the people do the gutting and cleaning of the fish at their doors 

 and all the offal is thrown on the adjoining land where they rot 

 and pollute the atmosphere of the whole place with a very bad 

 stench. The fishermen seem to be in affluent circumstances owning 

 large Alivi and other nets, and their women folk wear gold and 

 silver ornaments with decent clothing. Some of the younger men 

 emigrate to Rangoon but their women are not allowed to work as 

 ordinary coolies. There are hardly any literates among them and 

 they are utterly ignorant of the benefits of education. Drinking is 

 prevalent. The fish caught by the men are taken by the elderly 

 women to Cocanada and neighbouring places to be sold as fresh 

 fish, or they are gutted and cured by them in their own premises 

 with bazaar salt. The local fish-curing yard has been closed owing 

 to decrease in the operations which was due to the fact that the 

 fish caught by the other villagers in the vicinity and which used 

 to be brought here for curing in former years, are now disposed of 

 in the fresh condition owing to an increased demand for fresh fish. 

 The closing of the yard is a great hardship to the curers of this 

 village especially as they have at times to cure large quantities of 

 Vanamattalu (harpoden nehereus = Bombay duck) which are caught 

 in the Alivi nets and which can hardly be sold as fresh owing to 

 the large quantity of moisture present in its flesh and which makes 

 it unsuitable for cooking. They do not prepare this fish as they do 

 on the Bombay coast by simply sun-drying them, as it is usually 

 caught during the rainy season. The Pallees of the village are 

 much poorer than the Vadds and own no Alivi nets. Curing is 

 conducted by the women and no regular hired labour is employed. 



MOGULLAPETA (COCANADA). 



This is a fishing hamlet situated on the eastern side of the canal 

 opposite the Cocanada harbour and contains alDout 200 huts 

 inhabited mostly by fishermen of the Pallee caste and some Vadas 

 and Jalaris. The village site belongs to the Raja and being 

 outside the Municipal limits there is no arrangement for the 

 sanitary upkeep of the place- The fisher-folk dry all their fish 

 including large quantities of prawns on the ground adjoining their 

 huts and as all the offal is thrown about the place there is a very 



