INTRODUCTION. 101 



the pirai possesses tenacity of life and considerable 

 strength for its size, and inflicts, besides this, very- 

 formidable wounds with its triangular teeth. A 

 bludgeon is always at hand to kill the fish before it 

 is unhooked. If the Indian has been successful 

 enough to secure as many as he thinks he requires 

 for his dinner, some tough slender twig is taken, 

 and one end being put through the gill aperture 

 and then out at the mouth, they are thus strung 

 and carried to the camp. 



The Indians are a nation of ichthyophagists, they 

 possess therefore various methods of securing fish, 

 but the most wonderful is the skill which they pos- 

 sess of shooting them with bow and arrow. If we 

 recollect that proper allowance must be made for 

 the false reflection of objects under the surface of 

 the water, and the resistance which the arrow 

 meets, it is really w^onderful to see the success 

 which attends this mode of fishing. The sharp- 

 ness of the sight of the Indian is equally sur- 

 prising ; when the fish is comparatively at ease or 

 rest, I have not been able to see it under the sur- 

 face of the water, although the Indians pointed it 

 out, and no doubt ridiculed my stupidity in not 

 being able to observe it ; but the Indian not only 

 sees the fish when in quick motion, but shoots it 

 likewise with his arrow; making, therefore, just 

 allowance for the false reflection, its progress while 

 discharging the arrow, and the resistance which 

 the latter meets when entering the water. The 

 arrow remaining a moment in a perpendicular 



