clxxvi 



and fishing only the subsidiary, occupation. Two Tehsildars estimate 

 the fishermen at 4,500; the others give no answers. All the fish brought 

 to market are sold, so " it may fairly be presumed that more could be/' 

 The percentage of fish-eaters is given at from 75 to 90 per cent, of the 

 population. The minimum size of the mesh is stated at " about the size 

 into which a finger could pass/' One Tehsildar, however, limits this to 

 " the little finger of a child ten years old." Damming is extensively 

 employed (see para. 331), as is also the use of every form of fixed engine. 

 " Where the bottom is too weedy to be netted with effect, and there is 

 no clear spot where a net can be drawn, but the depth is not great, and 

 the water clear, ' spearing' is much practised. The weapon is an ordinary 

 bamboo lat/iie, split into fifteen or twenty pieces, each of which is tipped 

 with iron. These are bound together again, and the centre one being 

 thickened by string wound round it, the others stand out and form a 

 bundle of spears, having a radius of eight or ten inches or more. The 

 men are expert enough with these to be almost certain of hitting a 

 fair-sized fish at 12 or 15 feet off, and if hit, it can hardly escape, so that 

 numbers are killed by this means, the waters being regularly beaten by a 

 line of five or six canoes, each with one man paddling or poling, 

 and another standing in front with his spear/' In the Benares Col- 

 lectorate, the Tehsildars report about 450 fishermen, who live almost, if not 

 solely, on their earnings as such ; the number of Mullahs is about 8,000 ; 

 but the majority have other occupations. Mullahs and Kahars are the 

 fishing caste ; many Mahomedans and Rajputs, however, engage in fishing, 

 though seldom as the sole means of earning a living. " The supply in 

 the city of Benares is, and has been for some time back, quite equal to the 

 demand ;" [when I was at Benares, the supply was unequal to the 

 demand, and very small fish were being exposed for sale] ; large fish 

 obtaining from two to four, and small from one to one-and-half annas a 

 seer; about 75 percent, of the people are given as fish-eaters; very small 

 fish are extensively caught during the rainy season in nets and traps, 

 the mesh being as small as that in a purse. They are also taken in the 

 paddy-fields during the rains by means of a grating made of thatching- 

 grass stalks, termed pahra ; and also towards the close of the rains by 

 damming up the outlets for the water, they are caught with the hand by 

 the people wading in the fields. The bisari is a fine meshed lave-net. The 

 khawai is a long conical bag used in small streams at .the comm 

 ment and end of the rains while there is still a current ; the mouth of 

 the net is kept open by stakes, and the space between the banks blocked 

 up with bamboo tatties ; the force of the current drives the fish into the 

 bag, and on account of its long nose and the pressure of the water they 

 cannot get back. The pasha is a grating made of the stalks of 

 thatching-grass, in the shape of a sloping plane. It is placed at an 

 opening in the side of a tank or in a dam, or thrown across a nalla j all the 

 water is made to flow through this opening by stopping up every other 

 outlet. The fish coming down with the flow of water are carried on to 

 the grating and left there dry, as the water passes through to underneath/' 

 The chop is a conical basket open at both ends, and is much used by 

 fishermen in shallow jhils and tanks. In the Ghazeepur Collectorate the 

 six Tehsildars give the following replies. Four return about 19,660 

 fishermen, but they have other occupations as well ; the markets are well 



