Chart. xxv. '■ Pools. 361 



arrow on each side pointing up stream from the tail of a i 1, and 



an arrow on each aide pointing down stream from the head of the 



1 1. would indicate that all between them was reserved from nets. 



55. The pools would have to be selected not only with a view- 

 to their being convenient to the fish and fry, but also with s 



reference to their being convenient to protect. Pools in the 

 neighbourhood of the land or house of the head of the village 

 would be preferred ; and for the extra duty of throwing his Begia 

 over them a trifle might be added to his very meagre pay. Six 

 rupees a year for each head of a village thus employed would 

 probably come to somewhere ahout 300 rupees a year out of the 

 fishery rents. 'Without some payment it cannot be expected that 

 the duty will be well done for a continue 



56. Fortunately there are already two places on tributaries of 

 the 1'uiswany and Netravatty where the fish have, in the priests of 

 the temples at Thodikan and Cicilly, friends as stout as were the 

 monks of old. They have a legend that their god [shwara per- 

 formed a journey from Kailasa to Thodikan on the hack of a 

 Mahseer. These fish, therefore, which are fortunately the best 

 fish in the river, are considered sacred, and no man is allowed to 

 harm them in any way, and the priests and pilgrims feed them. 

 The consequence is that they are exceedingly tame and numerous. 

 They crowd together till, for 20 yards round the temple steps, fish 

 of all sues, from eight pounds downwards, are packed as thickly 



Note. — This feeding and protecting of Mahseer at Hindu temples is, I find, 

 a common practice. I have observed it in other places in the Madras Presi- 

 drntv, and in the Mysore Territory, and have heard of it in more places again, and 

 also in Northern India, notably at Jubbulpore. The fish are alwav- Mahseer, for, 

 the simple reason that the food given by Hindus is always grain, and the Mahseer 

 being the largest fish that feed on vegetable matter, soon assert their strength over 

 the smaller Bab, which you may see giving place to them. 



It may be interestingly noted here that, as a friend points out, Martial had 

 observed similarly fed fish, 



" Piseator fuge, ne nocens recedas, 

 Saoris piscibus ho? natantur andffi," 4c 

 and that Xenophon mentions the sacred fishes of the river Chains, a tributary of 



the Enpbrati — 



■' xriXov Trorafiov 7rXijpi} ixOvw 



ltt-fu\it/t' Kin TTpaiujv, ins til 2i'rpot 

 0*Auc ivofiiZav Ktti tUiKtiv 6uk iiwr." 



icr Chains full of big tame fish, irbicb the Syrians held as Qods, and would 

 do) allow to be ill-use I. 



