114 The Course, the Camp, the Chase 



of a river where there is a rapid descent, they cut a sluice 

 into a field at the upper part, and back into the river 

 again at the lower part. Then they guide the eels to the 

 sluice by making across the stream a slanting fence of 

 thorns, which does not stop the flow of the water alto- 

 gether, though the eels do not pass through on meeting 

 it, but coast along till they come to the sluice. Down 

 they go into the field, and when the Maoris think that 

 the time has come, they stop the upper sluice and open 

 the lower one, which until then has been kept closed. 

 The water soon runs off, and the eels being left in the 

 mud in the field are speedily caught and preserved for 

 future use. Eels of great size are a very formidable 

 danger when bathing, and at one favourite bathing-place 

 in the Upper Island, so many first-rate swimmers were 

 drowned at one particular spot, that many theories were 

 started to account for the cramp which was supposed to 

 attack them there. Each used to throw up his arms and 

 shriek, and disappear, and notices were posted up warning 

 people against bathing there. At last it was discovered 

 that the unfortunate swimmers were seized by gigantic 

 eels, who used to come behind them when battling against 

 the strong current, and drag them down. 



The late Mr. Eochfort Boyd used to relate an amusing 

 story of some tenants of his near the Elver Brosna in 

 Westmeath. The land was very swampy, and when the 

 rent day came the tenants invariably pulled long faces 

 and declared they could pay no rent, as their lands had 

 all been overflowed and the crops spoilt. This happened 

 so often that at last Mr. Eochfort Boyd and a neighbouring 

 landlord combined to drain this land, and he gleefully 

 rubbed his hands on the next rent day, as now the old 



