202 GIGANTIC SUDIS. 



The following spirited account of hunting the 

 arapaima is given by our author : — " Partly to 

 serve us for economical purposes, but more to 

 satisfy our curiosity of witnessing the Indian man- 

 ner of hunting the arapaima, this giant of the 

 fresh-Avater fishes, Irai-i, the Carib chieftain at 

 Curassawaka, induced his men to afford us an op- 

 portunity. "VVc selected a sunny day, when there 

 was more chance that at the heat of noon-tide one 

 of those fishes would rise to the surface. Our party 

 was distributed in five small corials, and we pro- 

 ceeded towards the mouth of the small stream 

 Curassawaka where it enters the Rupununi. Here 

 we remained stationary, one of the corials being 

 put on the watch, and no length of time had elapsed 

 when the signal was given that an arapaima was in 

 sight. All hands were hushed as death : Irai-i and 

 his brother-in-law Dabaero, who were considered 

 the strongest and best shots, went forward with 

 their corial and approached the fish as nearly as 

 possible, the rest following softly to be within 

 arrow-shot. There stood the sinewy Carib, Da- 

 baero, his foot firmly resting upon the bow of the 

 corial, his left hand grasping the large bow of tough 

 immara^ his right the long arrow, upwards of six 

 feet in length, and armed with a formidable iron 

 point. His position, although forced to the unprac- 

 tised, developed the sjTnmetric forms of his figure, 

 unadorned as it was by any art. Only those who 

 have witnessed the Indian's eye, when the bow is 

 strung and he approaches his intended victim, can 



