28 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



of low water there was very little flow in the 

 stream. The enclosed area was about 12 feet 

 deep in the center, but at the dams the water was 

 no more than 3 or 4 feet in depth. The dams 

 were made entirely of freshly cut brushwood 

 pinned down at intervals of 10 feet by crossed 

 stakes. Four canoes were inside the enclosure. 



Tamapu now gave instructions to the timbo 

 beaters. Each man cut two long stakes and waded 

 waist deep into the stream. With a wooden 

 club he drove the stakes into the stream bed so 

 that they formed a cross. The two stakes were 

 then firmly lashed together. Into the crotch 

 formed by the two stakes which was just above the 

 surface of the water, the timbo bundles were 

 placed. Altogether seven of these beating places 

 were made — three on one side of the enclosure 

 and four on the other. The men then cut heavy 

 sticks about 4 feet in length and began beating 

 the bundles. 



The beating continued for about 2 hours or 

 until all the bundles had been reduced to shreds. 

 A beater would hammer away at a bundle, then 

 turn it over and continue. Once the bark was 

 loosened and the sticks began to break up he would 

 grasp the bundle in his hands and douse it up and 

 down in the stream so that the sap would mix with 

 the water. After dousing the bundle he would 

 sometimes jump up and down in the water, 

 threshing it with his arms to make the poison 

 spread more rapidly. 



While the beaters were thus occupied, the older 

 men, Tamapu among them, went up and down 

 along the shallow weed-filled margins of the stream 

 with their conical basketry hand traps, pushing 

 them down as they waded along. Every now and 

 then one could be seen thrusting his hand down 

 through the opening at the top and throwing a 

 fish onto the shore. Every fish down to 2 inches 

 in length was accepted. Boys and girls along the 

 banks collected the fish for their fathers and 

 brothers. 



Toward the end of the timb6 beating a great 

 shout went up and the Indians pointed toward 

 the center of the stream, where a number of fish 

 were seen breaking the water. The poisonous 

 juice was beginning to take effect. After this 

 first showing, fish all over the pond could be seen 

 periodically jumping or swimming lazily along the 

 surface evidently gasping for air. It was at this 



point that the bowmen got busy in their canoes 

 along the dams and on the shore, shooting at 

 fish that came to the surface. 



After the shooting began, Tamapu and the men 

 too old to shoot, sat on the shore giving instruc- 

 tions and advice to the bowmen. There was 

 much shouting, laughter, and banter. Good 

 strikes were applauded and misses were booed in a 

 good-humored way. It was amusing to watch a 

 bowman in the bow of a canoe following the wake 

 of a fish with arrow fixed and bowstring taut, 

 giving directions to the paddler behind him. As 

 the fish were small, the archer had to be no more 

 than 15 feet from the fish before he loosed his 

 arrow. The men and boys on the dams did 

 better. As the fish approached in their effort to es- 

 cape, the archers would stand like statues with 

 taut bows, and when the fish came within range 

 they were shot sometimes at a depth of 3 feet. 



Tamapu kept watching the men in the canoes 

 and was evidently dissatisfied with their perform- 

 ance. Eventually he called out that they were 

 missing too many fish because they had had sexual 

 intercourse the night before and that they had 

 better let the boys do the shooting. This obvi- 

 ously was not meant as a joke, for the men obeyed 

 and were replaced by boys. It was true that the 

 boys did better. Hour by hour more fish came to 

 the surface and lay still. At first they struggled 

 to escape when someone tried to pick them up by 

 hand, but toward evening many drifted against 

 the lower dam quite stupefied. Just before sunset 

 the fish were gathered, strung on sticks or vines, 

 and, suspended from poles, were carried back to 

 the village. Early the next morning, men re- 

 turned to collect the dead fish, clear the weirs, 

 and open the dams so that the fish could again 

 move freely in the stream. 



The next day we were able to observe how the 

 fish were cured. First the chief saw to it that 

 every house group had its fair share of the several 

 hundred fish caught. Following this the men made 

 platforms about 3 feet high covered with sticks. 

 The women cleaned the fish and placed them on 

 the platforms. Many of the smaller fish were not 

 cleaned but were thrown on the platform in the 

 round. Small fires were then lighted under the 

 fish so that the heat and smoke would cure them 

 slowly. The length of the platform, of course, de- 

 pended on the size of the catch. The platforms 



