A FISH-DRIVE. 165 



sight imaginable, but eventually the last fish was 

 caught and the whole drive was over. 



The datoh gave the order for the bamboo " chicks " 

 to be detached from their supports and to be put into 

 boats for removal to his house, and then every one 

 turned to estimating the weight of the catch. There 

 were perhaps a dozen fish between ten and fifty 

 pounds each, two or three dozen between three and 

 ten pounds each, a considerable number of fish over 

 a pound, and some hundreds of fish averaging half a 

 pound. 



But this was very little when the size of the river 

 and the distance the drive had covered is considered, 

 and it was obvious that the drive had passed over a 

 very large percentage of the fish. In other words, 

 the drag-line had had no terrors for the fish, and 

 Alang Abdullah could not but feel that this meant 

 that the fault was his. 



He knew that he was not really to blame, and that 

 the failure was entirely due to the postponement of 

 the date he had selected. But it meant that he had 

 done his best to keep back the rain, and yet the rain 

 had fallen ; that he had invoked the help of the Jins 

 of the earth and of the water, and that they had not 

 heard him ; that he had used all his charms to make 

 his drag-line a blinding, driving terror, and that a 

 large proportion of the fish had disregarded it, it 

 meant, in short, in spite of all excuses that could be 

 made, that he had failed. 



The Englishmen were using their towels in the 

 house-boats or lying down on their mattresses. They 

 had enjoyed themselves thoroughly. It had been 



