342 JU'/iMA, ITS PEOPLE AXIJ PRODUCTIOXS. 



you may meet when lisbing for mahsecr. One of these is a silvery-looking gentleman, 

 with one long fin -whieh goes all down his belly and half way up his back. He takes 

 the spoon verj' freely, and you had better be very careful to knock him on the head, 

 and make quite certain that he is dead before you start ' clearing,' as his mouth is 

 a complelc mass of small teeth like wool-carders, and he has a ' grip ' like a bull- 

 dog. The other gentleman frequently makes his appearance at the end of your Hue 

 when you are fishing with ' atar ' for small fiy. He Is an innocent-looking little 

 fellow enough ; but when you pick him up to get out your hook, he suddenly shoots 

 a spike up out of his back, and another out of each fin, and generally succeeds in 

 giving you a reminder. I missed my shot once when stabbing at one of these fish 

 with a shikar-knife, and got a prod in the wrist which has made me pretty careful 

 ever since. I dissected one of these brutes last year; he could not have weighed 

 more than half a pound, yet his fin-spikes were some three inches in length, of solid 

 bone, and as thick as an ordinaiy penholder. 



"The only other troublesome beast is the turtle. He eats any sort of ground-bait 

 he can get, and runs iip to an enormous size. I shall never forgot the fun a fricn<l 

 and I had with the first one I caught. It was at Chowmook on the Poonch : the 

 river was in a state of flood, and we were fishing in a small mill-race close to the 

 village for such small fry as we could catch. I booked a large turtle on strong single 

 trout gut. Of course, hauling him out with such tackle and a ten-foot rod was an 

 impossibility; so we kept on, chucking stones on top of him and making him run 

 about. After a bit he seemed to be getting rather blown, and wo accordingly tossed 

 up who should go in after him and work him up to the bank with a gaif . I lost the 

 toss, handed the rod over to my friend, denuded myself of my nether garments, and 

 proceeded to stalk the wily turtle fi'om the rear — a rather 'jumpy' proceeding, as, 

 though the water was only about two feet deep, it was as thick as mud, and, although 

 we were both ignorant, as far as personal experience went, of any facts connected 

 with the natural histoiy of turtles, except that they made very good soup, my friend 

 consoled me with a casual remark that I had better look out, as a friend of his had 

 told him that ' they lut like the devil.' I therefore approached my enemy with 

 great care, and commenced prodding him up in the rear with the gatf. For a time 

 all went well. He seemed quite to fall in with our views, and my chum hauled 

 away at his head, and I shoved him from behind, until wc got him with his nose and 

 fore paws (or flappers, or whatever you like to call them) on the bank. Now, my 

 young friend, not entirely without reason, rather fancies himself as to his personal 

 appearance ; but whether on account of the eccentricity of his costume — which con- 

 sisted of a pair of bathing drawers and a ' sola topee,' — or from the fact that he had 

 his hair cut a fortnight before within an inch of his head and hadn't shaved since, 

 I know not, but he fairly frightened that turtle into a fit. The moment he saw him, 

 he (the turtle I mean) threw a hand spring off the bank and 'scooted all he knew,' 

 as the Yankees say, for my legs. I fortunately managed to check him in his wild 

 career with the gaff, and a regular rough and tumble ensued, during which I had the 

 luck to get the gaff hook fast in the slack skin which forms the telescopic portion of 

 the hind limbs, and drew him on to the bank, where wc laid him on his back and 

 executed a war dance over his prostrate form. This beast weighed 22Alb. Having 

 ascertained this fact and let him have a few bites at the gaff handle — the results of 

 which experiments made me thankful that he hailn't got hold of my toe — we held 

 a board to determine how he was to bo killed. The natives proposed inducing him 

 to put his head out and then chopping it off with a hatchet; but I was very anxious to 

 save the hook and gut, so I handed him over to my bearer to finish, and we went 

 to dinner. 



" Just as wc had finished this meal, my bearer came in with a long face and said 

 that the turtle was a ' shaitau,' and that they couldn't manage to kill him anyhow. 

 I then got a doul)lc-cdged pigsticker, and 'went for' for that turtle. I turned him 

 over on his buck, so as to get a fair shot at the thin ])art of his shell, and stuck him 

 clean through the body several times. He now bled like a pig, and, as he lay quite 

 still, I thought he was dead. Uy friend, however, maintained that he was /)nly 

 ' playing possum ' ; so, to make assurance doubly sure, we placed him in an inverted 



