roTH] ANIMAL FOOD 199 
woven without a stick, on a different mesh (fig. 61). A conical shaped 
landing net or basket net, made of plaited itiriti strands attached to 
a long handle, is used by the Pomeroon Carib, Warrau, Akawai, and 
Arawak for bringing the fish up to the surface after being poisoned 
(sec. 423). Hilhouse has drawn attention to its use (HiA, 38). 
202. Dams may be constructed of varying complexity with a view 
to inclosing an area of water, which may then’be bailed out, and the 
fish caught. Thus, Indians will dam up a shallow portion of the 
swamp and bail the water out in their calabashes. For this 
purpose they all stand in a row with their backs to the dam 
and throw the water with incredible swiftness in between their feet 
backward over the dam (SR, 1, 408). Schomburgk mentions a modi- 
fication in the modus operandi of the dam as practiced by an old 
Makusi woman on the lower Rupununi. The brook Curassawaak 
was at a low level, and we observed, he notes, that she had her 
corial drawn across the stream and had closed every opening still 
left with rocks and dry branches. The place selected for the purpose 
was where the brook widened farther upward. The fish, on their 
passage down, finding the communication stopped, attempted to 
jump over the impediment laid in their way, but failing, they fell 
into the corial (ScG, 260). In the neighborhood of the falls on the 
upper Essequibo, and on the Corentyn, the pacu chooses certain sleep- 
ing places in shallow, swiftly running water. Having found such a 
spot, the Indians will gradually surround it with a stone dam, about 
3 feet high, though sometimes higher, composed of big‘ blocks of rock, 
the interstices of which are filled up with smaller ones, though none 
of the stones employed are, roughly speaking, less than a man’s head. 
The work of construction is carried on during the daytime and may 
take two or three days to build, and the opening daily narrowed 
more and more until, when all is ready, and the Indians are con- 
vinced that many pacu are within, it is finally closed during the 
nighttime, when the fish can easily be caught (JO). <A reference 
to such structures is to be found in the British Colonial Library 
(BCL, 114). Somewhat similar but temporary stone damsareerected 
for poisoning the same fish (sec. 210). 
203. Weirs and fences.—The Indian will stop the mouth of the 
ereek which opens into the river by fences, leaving a small opening 
about 4 feet broad. During the flood tide the fish pass into the creek 
in search of food. As soon as the ebb begins the Indian stops this 
outlet to prevent the return of the fish, which at low water are seen 
lying on the mud (Bol, 160). A palm named kiragha may be utilized 
for the fencing (ScK, 34). The portion of fence limiting ingress 
and egress may be replaced by a more or less permanent door. Thus, 
in Surinam, the contrivance consists simply of a kind of square in- 
