RoTH] ANIMAL FOOD 193 
The water will be about 8 or 10 inches deep, and the fish, lying close 
to the bottom either alongside or at right angles to a log or bank. 
Huri (Hoplas malabaricus), etc., are easily caught in this manner. 
On the Moruca River, when the first showers take place after the dry 
season, the yarrau (? Hypostoma, Doras) makes its way to the 
savanna, where it is especially sought after and chopped. 
191. Hook and line-—Wallace, who traversed the area of the 
Amazon stream in the middle of last century, mentions the use of rod 
and line by the Indians who consume an enormous quantity of hooks, 
There are probably not less than 100,000 fishhooks sold every year in 
the River Uaupes; yet there are still to be found among them many of 
_their own hooks, ingeniously made of palm spines (ARW, 339). The 
Carib Islanders, from a description given two and a half centuries 
ago, are said to have been wonderfully expert at fishing with the 
hook (RO, 506). On the Orinoco, Gumilla talks of laulao (low- 
low, Stilurus sp.), being caught with a large and strong hook (G, 1, 
989), while in British Guiana within recent times there is the record 
of Indian fishhooks from Essequibo River being shown at the London 
International Exhibition of 1862 (CC, 51), and the mention (IT, 
238) of most beautifully finished hooks of large size, 2 to 4 inches, 
being made by the Indians themselves . . . for low-low and 
arapaima (Sudis gigas). In all probability these larger hooks were 
made of pointed sticks tied at their center with a string similar to 
those we know to have been employed for alligator (sec. 217). At 
the present day the Waiwai, Parikuta, and Maopidyan use a similar 
small pencil, not necessarily pointed at the ends, and tied at the 
center to which the bait is attached. After swallowing, the stick is 
transfixed by pulling (JO). The Arawak speak of the hook as 
budehi, a term indicating any hooked or forked stick. Certain old 
Warrau have made me similar single and crossed double-pointed 
wooden pencil fishhooks identical with what they remember having 
seen and used in their early boyhood days (pl. 46). The hook and 
line may be used in various ways. Thus on Vituni Creek Dance men- 
tions how a stout cord having several fishing lines, with hooks baited, 
and with a weight attached to one end, is let down into the water, and 
the other end tied to a small raft of floating wood. The motion of 
the raft up or down the river is the signal of a fish caught by one of 
the hooks. Low-low of several hundred pounds’ weight are fre- 
quently thus caught (Da, 48). Instead of rafts, the Warrau in the 
Pomeroon district employ emptied calabashes for floats (sec. 449). 
192. Among the plant baits brought into requisition with hooks 
may be mentioned the flower of the large white water lily, crab-wood 
seed, guava, the green pulp of the calabash fruit (Da, 95), berries of 
the common calaloo (BB, 251) aramatta seeds (sec. 188) for morokot, 
