492 EXPLANATOEY INDEX. 



kill the fish, or at least to render it senseless, by asphyxiation. 

 Perhaps the paralysing effect of the Wourali may be due to 

 the haiairi juice. 



In Mr. C. B. Brown's work on Guiana, there is an interest- 

 ing account of this mode of fish killing : — 



" I set out at an early hour one morning, with Ben, Eruma, 

 and Yackarawa, in a wood-skin, for a place where the Cowen- 

 amon Indians were going to poison a pool so as to obtain its 

 fish. After about two hours hard paddling we arrived at a 

 large cataract, called Cartoweire, and, taking our canoe into 

 smooth water above, found the Indians, eleven in number, 

 busily engaged in beating bundles of a soft yellow root 

 with sticks. These haiarie roots were each about two inches 

 in diameter, and of a light yellow colour, containing a yellow 

 creamy juice, having a disagreeable raw smell. Each bundle 

 was about a foot in diameter and two feet in length. When 

 thoroughly pounded into pulp, they were thrown into canoes, 

 in which a little water had been previously placed, and then 

 the juice was wrung from them. The enclosure to be acted 

 upon was of an irregular shape, occupying about two acres of 

 river, and formed by dams of rock, built into the spaces be- 

 tween rocky areas and small islands. In building this the 

 Indians had left two large gaps open, one being where the 

 greatest body of water ran in, and the other where it flowed 

 out. When we arrived they had closed these gaps with a 

 wattle an-angement, so that all chances of escape for the fish 

 were cut ofE. Three canoes, containing the juice of six bundles 

 of haiarie, were then taken to the upper end of the enclosure, 

 and the subtle poison discharged from them. It was borne 

 down by the slight current, and mingled rapidly with the 

 pure dark water. Most of the Indians then got into the 

 canoes and pushed out, bows and arrows in hand, into the 

 middle of the enclosure, whilst the remainder, with my mea 

 also furnished with the same weapons, stood upon the rocks 

 at the edge. In ten minutes time numbers of small fish came 

 to the surface, and swam uneasily about, trying to rise above 



