BRITISH GUIANA AND BRAZIL — SMITH 333 



narrow, but deep, with a powerful, well-shaped tail, he is armed with 

 two single rows of interlocking teeth reputed to be so sharp and 

 powerful that the removal of a man's big toe is done at one snap. 

 Perai are best caught with a metal spinner, which after some use 

 becomes scratched and dented by teeth marks. They were a source 

 of continual apprehension to the boats' crews when hauling up rapids, 

 and should a shot bird fall in the water it soon disappeared unless 

 retrieved at once. Perai are quite edible, but not a delicacy, and 

 very bony. 



Another very fierce and even more fearless fish is the hymara, 

 which inhabits the forest creeks. They average 10 to 12 pounds, 

 are covered with scales as large and almost as tough as penny pieces, 

 and have teeth like the perai, but not so long or close fitting and 

 Bet in much broader jaws. The body ends abruptly in a rudimentary 

 tail, spoiling otherwise graceful lines. Hymara will go for almost 

 anything, and have been known to attack a crosscut saw. To clean 

 the carcass of a bird over the side of a canoe is to risk losing it and 

 to endanger the hands. Their flesh is firm and tasty, but full of 

 Y-shaped bones. Lukanani are most prized for the pot ; but cartabac, 

 looking very like the perai, the graceful koraimai, and, on the lower 

 rivers, the basher are all delicious. 



The larger fish are the skeet and lau-lau, skin fish with enormous 

 mouths, armored heads, and grinders in place of teeth. The skeet 

 makes a loud honking noise when caught. The lau-lau is so strong 

 that one hooked at Wonatobo drowned his captor by pulling him into 

 the swift water of a rapid ; the unfortunate man had wound the line 

 around his wrist and was never seen again. Two unpleasant fish 

 which must be given a wide berth are the sting ray and the electric 

 eel, or numbfish of the Indian. The spiny tail of the former gives a 

 nasty wound into which poison is injected. The latter gives a power- 

 ful electric shock until landed, when he is quite harmless. 



Fishing methods include shooting by bow and arrow, a fascinat- 

 ing thing to watch but extremely difficult to do with success, owing 

 to the effect of refraction when aiming and the patience reqiured 

 to stand motionless balanced on a precarious foothold. Chop- 

 ping fish with a cutlass also requires patience. The victims are 

 lured into shallow water by some noisome ground bait and des- 

 patched by a well-aimed stroke of a cutlass after an exciting stalk. 

 The night line is as effective but less spectacular. A fair-sized 

 living sapling close to the bank is stripped, bent down, and hooked 

 on a notched stake driven in the shallow water. The line is attached 

 to its top end and the bait thrown wide. The vicious strike springs 

 the trap and the wretched fish describes an arc at high speed to 

 land far in the bush. 



