A FISH-DRIVE. 161 



not been appeased, and the efforts of the men who 

 are now driving, the work of the men who have 

 toiled at the bamboo frame of the enclosure, and 

 his own long strivings, have all been of no avail. 

 And the meaning of it all is that the water is too 

 deep and too much discoloured, that the fish have not 

 therefore seen the drag-line sufficiently clearly, and 

 that at the splashing of the nets and poles they have 

 scattered almost as much up-stream as down. 



But we who were at play shouted and splashed 

 none the less cheerily. Shame on him who would 

 make the little less. We worked our way steadily 

 through the water to the head of the island; the 

 drag -line was brought up to the gate of the en- 

 closure (which was an opening some thirty yards 

 wide), and then a number of men ran out with a 

 bamboo "chick" frame and closed the entrance. 

 Dug-outs were allowed into the enclosure by a 

 shallow spot at the edge of the island. Every one 

 rushed forward with his casting -net. Those who 

 would not wait their time in the press of craft 

 struggling through the narrow entrance ran down 

 the island, and rushed waist deep into the water to 

 get their haul of the fish. For although the drive 

 was held to have failed, there was a very considerable 

 quantity of fish in the enclosure. At first the nets 

 took them three and four at a time, but these were 

 mostly fish of not more than half-a-pound. Every 

 one was furiously at work. We cast our nets, drew 

 them in again, extricated our fish from its meshes, 

 strung the catch on the rattan -line we carried at 

 our waists; and before we had breathing - time we 



14 



