Queer Game 



antagonist. Few native fishermen have the temerity 

 to attack this monster; in fact, they avoid it; but a 

 few years ago, at Ceylon, a crew was employed to 

 capture one in the. interest of an English collector of 

 museum curiosities. A long native boat was used, 

 which held ten or fifteen men, and an old native, 

 whose reputation as a harpooner had been established 

 after many a conflict with the denizens of the deep, 

 was placed in charge, the Englishman being the only 

 white man in the party. 



" Even in this locality the sail-fish was a com- 

 parative rarity, but rumors had been afloat for some 

 time that a fine specimen had been seen a dozen miles 

 up the coast at a small fishing village. In a few hours 

 the place was reached, just at nightfall, as it hap- 

 pened, the party finding accommodations on shore, 

 the men in the huts of the fishermen and the white 

 man in a poor hotel. 



" Stories about the ferocity of the great fish were 

 in every mouth, and had they all been taken literally 

 it is doubtful if the purposes of the expedition would 

 have been carried out. A tall, olive-colored lascar 

 was mourning the loss of his boat the great fish had 

 completely wrecked it and stated that he narrowly 

 escaped with his life. Another native claimed that 

 the fish was a magician and had charmed the coast, 

 roaming up and down and waging warfare against 

 all who dared to venture upon his domain. Still 

 another volunteered the information that the great 



3 1 ? 



