2 6o LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



you have time to let the line go a monstrous fish may 

 have darted off with the bait, and dragged the line at 

 such a rate through your fingers that it must be felt to 

 be fully appreciated. On one occasion I had a nasty 

 cut in this way. After one run, if there is one, it would 

 be just as amusing to pull a dead weight out of the 

 water as to catch the enormous fish that inhabit the 

 Settite. The most common one caught by our fisher- 

 men, Albert and Hadji Basheer, is a hideous creature 

 with an almost black skin, called by the Arabs ' bayard.' 

 The head is very large compared with the body, and it 

 has four long feelers in the upper jaw and two in the 

 lower. Though ugly it is very good to eat, and we 

 generally have it sliced and fried. The finest yet caught 

 probably did not weigh more than twenty-five pounds, 

 but Baker mentions having frequently seen them from 

 sixty to seventy pounds' weight. 



