A FISH-DRIVE. 151 



source, and from time to time muttered to himself, 

 "It is not right; it is not right at all." 



On an island in mid - stream thirty or forty men 

 were busy putting the finishing touches to the 

 enclosure into which the fish were to be driven. 

 The drive was to begin some seven or eight miles 

 up - stream, and a rope through which glittering 

 strips of palm-leaf were threaded would be dragged 

 through the water between two boats to scare the 

 fish and send them down- stream. This rope is known 

 as a relap, and when it reached the door of the 

 enclosure the gate would be shut, and the imprisoned 

 fish be caught by means of the ordinary casting-net. 



Alang Abdullah had staked the river on one side 

 of the island and thus prevented any fish from 

 passing that way, and had decided to make his 

 enclosure on the other side. 



His original intention had been that the island 

 and the river - bank should form the two sides of 

 his enclosure, and then all that would have been 

 necessary would have been a barrier at the lower 

 end, and a barrier and an entrance - way at the 

 upper end. But the swollen river had made him 

 alter his plan. The water by the river -bank was 

 now so deep that the barriers would barely show 

 above water, and if the river were to rise another 

 six inches the fish would escape over their tops. 

 He had therefore been compelled to stake off this 

 deeper water, and his enclosure now hugged the 

 shallower waters beside the island, alongside of 

 which it ran in a narrow strip. 



