ABRANCHIATA. 375 



you would take him for a patient who had left his 

 sick-bed in a fit of delirium. If you observe him 

 every now and then raising his legs, and examining 

 them one after the other, you might suppose him a 

 fool ; but he is an intelligent Leech-fisher. The 

 Leeches attach themselves to his legs and feet, as he 

 moves among their haunts; he feels their presence 

 from their bite, and gathers them as they cluster 

 about the roots of the bullrushes and weeds, or 

 beneath the stones covered with green and gluey 

 moss. Some repose on the mud, while others swim 

 about, but so slowly, that they are easily gathered 

 with the hand. In a favourable season, it is possible, 

 in the course of three or four hours, to stow ten or 

 twelve dozen of them in the little bag which the 

 gatherer carries on his shoulder. Sometimes you 

 will see the Leech-fisher armed with a kind of spear 

 or harpoon ; with this he deposits pieces of decayed 

 animal matter, in places frequented by the Leeches ; 

 they soon gather round the prey, and are presently 

 themselves gathered into a little vessel half full of 

 water. 



" One of the traders, what with his own fishing, 

 and that of his own children, and what with his 

 acquisitions from the carriers, who sell quantities 

 second-hand, was enabled to hoard up 17,500 

 leeches, in the course of a few months; he kept 

 them deposited in a place where, in one night, they 

 all became frozen en masse. But the frost does not 

 immediately kill them; they may generally be thawed 

 into life again. They easily, indeed, bear very hard 



