412 



MR. F. HOLMWOOD ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF [June 17, 



Now, however, I could see that there must be some truth in the 

 story, and I determined to ascertain what the facts really were. 

 With this object I visited the various fishing-villages along the coast, 

 and found that every one knew of the use of the " Chazo," though 

 they were not very communicative regarding it, nor did they invite 

 me to enter their huts where I should have seen it. This was no 

 doubt partly owing to suspicion, for these fishermen are an exclu- 

 sive body, living mostly apart from the rest of the population, and, 

 knowing that the English had just put an end to the time-honoured 

 custom of slave-running, in which pursuit they had borne a con- 

 siderable share, they possibly imagined we might have an iuteutiou 

 of interfering with them in other ways. 



Eventually I succeeded in allaying suspicion in one village, and was 

 shown several of these fishes. They were in appearance something 

 like a Conger Eel, with a smooth and apparently scaleless skin ; they 

 were without the dorsal fin, but had on the top of the head an oval 

 laminated disk or sucker. They varied from 2 to A\ feet in length, 

 and in weight from two to seven or eight pounds. 



They were mostly kept in small canoes similar to the one which 

 had first attracted my attention, and at once came to the surface of 

 the water on the approach of the fisherman, whom they allowed to 

 take them from the water and handle them freely without attempting 

 to plunge or break away. The owners called them with a soft 

 whistling sound, but I had no means of observing whether this was 

 recognized by the fish. 



Fio-,2. 



Fig. 1. Tail-end of Eemora, with wrought-iron band and ring 

 Fig. 2. Ditto, with ring fixed on by wire. 



Each Chazo had a strong iron ring or loop fixed just above the tail 

 (fig. 1) for the purpose of attaching a line to when being employed in 



