206 



Such hiding would easily deceive even a 

 trout, for I have often taken my position at 

 the edge of a jam and after lying perfectly 

 still for ten minutes have seen the wary fish 

 rise from under the logs to investigate a straw 

 or twig that I held in my fingers and with 

 which I touched the water here and there, 

 like an insect at play. 



So Old Noel is probably right when he 

 says that Pekompf fishes with his whiskers, 

 for the habits of both fish and cats seem 

 to carry out his observations. 



But deeper than 

 his cunning is 



Pekompf's in- 



'* i 



)* born suspicion 



and his insane fury 

 at being opposed or 

 cornered. The trap- 

 pers catch him, as 

 they catch his big 

 cousin the lucivee, by setting a snare in the 

 rabbit paths that he nightly follows. Opposite 

 the noose and attached to the other end of the 

 cord is a pole, which jumps after the cat as he 





