NATUEAL HISTOEY OF LAKE UEMI. 365 



"begin to swim in small circles at the top of tlie water, and 

 may be taken in a landing-net. Many wliicli have eaten mucli 

 of the poison will swim into the bank and lie helpless in the 

 shallow water. If the river is at all full of fish, a great number 

 may be caught with a surprisingly small quantity of poison. On 

 September 9 I mixed about sis ounces of the poisoned paste 

 and ground-baited the Tatawa Chai near Sujbulak. We took 

 38 Capoeta and chub of five ounces and upwards, and both sides 

 of the river were silvered by lines of poisoned smaller fish for a 

 distance of about a hundred yards. 



The fish which have not eaten much of the poison gradually 

 recover, and regain the power of coordinating their movements. 

 The dead fish which are too small to be worth picking up by the 

 villagers, who always turned out in crowds at the mere mention 

 of fishing, are soon devoured by the crabs. If the poisoned fish 

 be carefully cleaned, they have no bad effect when cooked and 

 eaten. 



The large rivers which flow into the lake from the southern end 

 — the Djaghatu Chai, Tatawa Chai, and Gader Chai — are stated by 

 the natives to contain " whales " whose ancestor swallowed Jonah. 

 The "whales" turned out to be Silurus glanis. They are caught 

 either by being driven into nets or by the gaff. A Jewish fisher- 

 man accompanied me to a place near Ocksa, where the Grader Chai 

 has cut a deep channel under a bank overgrown by willow-trees. 

 After divesting himself of all needless clothing, he dived into the 

 deep water with his gaff", and hooked about among the willow-roots 

 a,t a depth of about 4-5 feet. After eight minutes he succeeded 

 in gafiing a large female Silurus 3 feet 9 inches in length, and 

 before a quarter of an hour had elapsed he had three fine fish 

 out on the bank. He told me that the largest " whale " he had 

 ever seen was about five feet long. They spawn in deep pools 

 below the willows, where the water runs slowly, about one and 

 a half months after the melting of the snow. The Silurus is 

 eaten by Armenians, but is unclean to Jews and Mahomedans on 

 ^account of the absence of scales on its body. 



I was informed that the Grovernor, when he wishes to do 

 honour to a guest, organizes a '• whale " hunt, and all the villagers 

 assist at the "tamasha." The buffaloes of several villages are 

 turned into the river and are made to walk upstream for a couple 

 of miles, with the result of driving the fish before them. At a 

 suitable place, a line of men with nets stand prepared to catch 



