114 



115. The Chetlat palm groves are less prosperous than 

 those of Kiltan and this forces their owners to devote more 

 attention to fishing. As at Kiltan much of the fishing is 

 done with hook and line, but harpooning is still more in evi- 

 dence. By the latter means shark, sword-fish, seer and other 

 large fish are caught. As a iure a false bait is shaped from 

 wood in the rude representation of a flying-fish. This is a 

 spindle-shaped dummy, about 12 inches long, painted black 

 and white with a flat wooden projection on cither side to mimic 

 wings. The pattern most generally followed consists of narrow 

 white rings set widely apart on a black body. Occasionally 

 conventional eyes are added, and in one case a touch of realism 

 was attempted by substituting longitudinal white bands in 

 place of rings and by endowing the tail with a bilobed termi- 

 nation (Fig. 14«). The wood used is teak, the pigments, coal 

 tar for the ground colour, and a mixture of chunam (lime) and 

 resin for the white which is not simply painted on but used as 

 a white filling for deep pattern-grooves cut in the substance of 

 the poe-mm as it is called. The harpoon head is of iron, 

 single barbed, with a socket in the base fitting over an iron pin 

 at the end of a long wooden shaft to which it is attached by a 

 length of coir rope, so that when a fish is struck the barbed 

 head may not be carried away. The poe-mln (literally u false 

 fish ", Malayalam) after being furnished with a white rag to 

 its tail is played on the surface of the sea by means of a short 

 rod and line held in the left hand. In the right the harpoon 

 is poised ready to strike the instant a fish makes a rush for the 

 dummy bait. Sometimes, as we observed at Amcni later in the 

 cruise, a real flying-fish is used as the lure. During our visit 

 sword-fish appeared the principal fish caught by this mode 

 of fishing (see Pigs. 18 and 19). 



116. Flying-fish are themselves taken in quantity by 

 means of a harpoon or rather by a form of 

 "grains" locally known as chellal, consisting 

 of a bundle of pointed hardwood sticks or prongs 

 arranged and somewhat splayed in two concentric 

 rows tied upon the end of a light pole. The inner 

 row of points are short, the outer long, admirably 

 arranged, and having sufficient play to enable 

 them to grip securely any object that may pass 

 between the prongs. A coir cord of length 

 equal to that of the shaft is tied at the near end, 

 the other end attached by a loop to the wrist of 

 the harponeer. By day, hook and line are used 

 to catch flying-fish; by night only are they 



Fig. 20. speared, the fish being attracted within range 



