28 Inventory of mahseer's stomach. Chapt. hi. 



less he knows what the fish is in the habit of eating, he 

 cannot tell what bait to offer it. If he expects to be 

 successful, he must offer natural food or something re- 

 sembling it, for a fish is not so foolish as to take any- 

 thing that is offered to it on the sole faith of the ad- 

 vertisement. Only reasoning beings do that. Let us 

 then turn out this gentleman's stomach, and discover his 

 weaknesses, as Prince Henry and Poins did Falstaff's, 

 from the contents of his pocket. What do we find there? 

 Aquatic weeds of all sorts, some taken intentionally, 

 some when grabbing at the insects that live on them; 

 seeds of the Vateria Indica or Dhup of the West Coast, 

 which are about the size of a pigeon's egg; the seeds of 

 many other trees also which hang over the. river where 

 it is forest-clad; bamboo seeds; rice thrown in by man; 

 and unhusked rice, or paddy, as it is washed from the 

 fields; crabs, large fresh-water crabs as big as the palm 

 of a man's hand, and with back and claws so thick and 

 hard that it is astonishing how the fish can have the 

 power to crunch them into the small pieces in which 

 they are found in the intestine; small fish, earthworms, 

 water beetles, grasshoppers, small flies of sorts, water or 

 stone crickets, shrimps, and molluscs or fresh-water snails 

 are also found there, the latter shell and all, and smashed 

 to pieces like the crabs. 



Of all this category the easiest food for the fisher- 

 man to present in a natural form is a small fish or imita- 

 tion fish. 



It will also be observed that the food taken on the 



