FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 435 



Cultivated fish have a keener inclination to attack and exhibit a 

 technique decidedly superior to that of wild fish, but the most striking 

 result of cultivation is the improvement in the stamina and endurance. 

 Fish collected in open waters and kept in suitable vessels for a few days 

 will, when brought together, struggle actively for supremacy, but their 

 ardor is of short duration, one or both of the contestants will soon tire 

 or lose interest, and a combat lasting more than 15 or 20 minutes would 

 be unusual. On the other hand, cultivated fish may fight on hour 

 after hour, and the contest is decided only when complete exhaustion 

 overcomes one or both of them. 



While the use of Dermogenys in matched contests began in a rather 

 remote past, the cultivation of the fish was instituted about 1863 or 

 1864 and is now completely depended on for supplying candidates for 

 pugilistic encounters. 



Cultivation as now conducted for this fish in Thailand consists in 

 the retention for breeding purposes of fish of proved stamina, the 

 holding of them in pure water in spacious vessels, and the administra- 

 tion of appropriate food in sufficient quantity. 



Only vessels of earthenware or other opaque material may be used 

 for retaining the fish. Owing to inability to adapt themselves to the 

 transparency, they break the lower jaw or otherwise injure themselves 

 against the sides of glass vessels. Favorite receptacles are the large, 

 wide-topped glazed or unglazed terra cotta water jars such as are to 

 be found in every Thai household. 



A wrestling match is arranged by providing a large earthenware 

 basin three-quarters filled with clear water and introducing therein 

 two male fish that have been kept in separate vessels. Instantly, and 

 with great rapidity, the fish dart at each other, maybe from opposite 

 sides of the wide basin, and grasp each other by their jaws. The usual 

 hold is an interlocking of jaws at their base, with the long axis of the 

 bodies at right angles, but there is considerable variety in the holds, 

 and the outcome of a contest may be determined by the particular hold 

 that one fish obtains at the start or seeks to reobtain after each break. 

 Effective and disabling holds, which some individuals are observed to 

 strive for regularly, and which place their adversaries at a decided 

 disadvantage, come from the exercise of a peculiar knack that may 

 result from generations of selective breeding. No holds are barred by 

 the rules which wrestling-fish contests are held. One fish may grasp 

 the other across the base of the jaws without interlocking, across the 

 tip of the lower jaw, obliquely across the base of the lower jaw so 

 that the adversary is kept on his side or back, across the eyes, across 

 the gill covers, and from either above or below across the gill openings, 

 so that respiration may be impaired and exhaustion be rapidly induced. 

 Other holds that may be observed in the course of a series of contests 

 are head on, with the lower jaw of one fish in the mouth of the other; 



