196 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS (ETH. ANN, 38 
extremity of the cylinder, which is about to be suspended from it, 
is at a distance of a man’s foot length from off the muddy, etc., 
bottom. Having passed the bait strand down the cylinder, the latter 
can now be hung from the crossbar by raising the tapering extrem- 
ity of the trigger over it from behind, and maintaining it in position 
by means of the key pin placed at right angles between it and the 
two portions of bark strip. The bait strand is so arranged that the 
bait hangs inside at the same distance above the lower edge of the 
cylinder as the latter does from the bottom. The bark strap is next 
tied around the two uprights just taut enough to prevent the cylinder 
swinging to and fro, but loose enough to allow of its slipping ver- 
tically, the necessary degree being obtained by varying the position 
of the crossbar in the splits. A weight, in the form of a small log 
of comparatively heavy wood, to steady the whole affair is finally 
placed across the mouth of the cylinder. Entering from below, the 
fish grabs at the bait, pulls and pulls at it until the key pin slips 
down below the tip of the trigger, which, now released, allows the cyl- 
inder with its added weight to suddenly drop and so inclose and cap- 
ture it. The bait used varies according to whether the trap is set at 
night or day. In the former case a fish bait is employed for imiri or 
lukuluku (snake fish), and a bird bait for imri or huri. In the latter 
case, a piece of lukuluku is almost a certainty for yarrau (WER, tv). 
195. Spring hooks, in many cases with inadequate descriptions, are 
recorded from west to east of the Guianas, mostly, perhaps, among 
the coastal tribes. Their most important objective is to keep the fish 
once hooked above the water surface out of reach of their natural 
enemies (e. g., pirai), who otherwise would quickly make a meal of 
it. In one special trap (sec. 200) the voracity of other fish is pre- 
vented taking effect by the closure of the movable door, with 
which the creel, fixed under water, is provided. On the Berbice the 
flexible rod, the spring which locks the contrivance, was known 
as the fish hammock (Da, 19). The simplest form of spring hook 
would appear to come from the Pomeroon River Indians, who take 
an elastic and tough stick, of the thickness of a finger, to the thinner 
end of which a hook is attached, while the thicker end is driven in the 
bank of the river or perhaps tied to the branch or root of a tree 
under water. Just somewhat below the surface of the water a notch 
is made in the stick, and a similar notch at the thinner end where the 
hook is attached. The stick is now bent, and by means of the two 
notches it is kept in that situation, the hook and bait being a little 
under the water; but scarcely is it touched by the fish in its eagerness 
to seize the seducing morsel, when it is not only hooked but, in conse- 
quence of the jerk, the notches part from each other, and the fish is 
drawn by the elasticity of the rod out of its element, and there it 
