CH.vi.] natives' mode of fishing. 269 



alternately swimming and diving ; transfixing the fish under 

 water, and throwing them on the hank. Others on the river 

 brink speared the fish when thus enclosed, as they appeared 

 among the weeds, in which small openings were purposely 

 made that they might see them. In this manner, they killed 

 with astonishing despatch, some enormous cod-perch ; but 

 the largest were struck by the chief from his canoe, with 

 a long barbed spear. After a short time, the young men in 

 the water were relieved by an equal number ; and those 

 which came out, shivering, the weather being very cold, 

 warmed themselves in the centre of a circular fire, kept up 

 by the gins on the bank. The death of the fish, in their 

 practised hands, w^as almost instantaneous, and seemed 

 caused by merely holding them by the tail, with the gills 

 immersed. The old men at our camp sat watching us until 

 sunset, when they went off quietly towards the river ; the 

 afternoon also passed without a second visit from the fishing 

 tribe. 



July 1 1 . — Soon after sunrise this morning, some natives, 

 1 think twelve or thirteen in number, were seen approaching 

 our tents at a kind of run, carrying spears and green boughs. 

 As soon as they arrived within a short distance, three came for- 

 ward, stuck their spears in the ground, and seemed to beckon 

 me to approach ; but as I was advancing towards them, they 

 violently shook their boughs at me, and having set them on 

 fire, dashed them to the ground, calling out " Nangry," 

 (sit down.) I accordingly obeyed the mandate ; but seeing 

 that they stood, and continued their unfriendly gestures, I 

 arose and called to my party, on which the natives immedi- 

 ately turned, and ran away.* 



* Harmer says " It was usual with the Greeks, (Alex, ab Alex. Genial. Dier. 

 1 . V. c. 3.) when armies were about to engage, that before the first ensigns stood 

 a prophet or priest, bearing branches of laurels and garlands, who was called 

 Pyrophorus, or the torch-bearer, because he held a lamp or torch ; and it was 

 accounted a most criminal thing to do him any hurt, because he performed the 

 office of an ambassador. This sort of men were priests of Mars, and sacred to 



