HUNTING AND F1SHING. 



IÔI 



veering, in order, when the two wings meet, to make a basin 80 — IOO M. in diameter, enclosed 

 by the standing net. Meanwhile most of the men, armed with their long spears, place them- 

 selves on the gunwales of the boats or on the platform, even sometimes as in fig. 105 

 on the railing of the platform, to spear the fish which clearly stand out against the sand 

 of the banks. Others, armed with a dip net, jump into the water outside the net between the 

 boats, to catch with a rarely failing skill the frightened fish, which try to escape with great 

 rapidity and a high jump over the edge of the net. This stage of the action and part of the 

 basin is represented in fig. 103, where also, in the distance, in the middle of the photo, a man 



Fig. 103. Fishery in Jôtëfa Bay; a shoal of fish enclosed. 



with r a dip net is standing in the water. On the boat in front a dip net is lying, for the moment 

 not in use. Some of the boats, which use no large nets, spread in the basin to pursue the fish, 

 which hâve retired to the centre; the scène now offers the greatest liveliness: the fish, darting to 

 and fro with great rapidity, are speared by the excited crowd with cries of exertion, disap- 

 pointment or success (fig. 104), whilst the men with the dip nets show the greatest alacrity. 

 At length a single fish shoots to and fro among the boats, its way marked out by the spears 

 thrust towards it, till also this one is speared or caught in a dip net when trying to escape 

 by a brave leap. At once the activity is over, the suspense is gone; the nets are taken 

 in behind on larboard and orderly piled up in coils on the platform (fig. 105), so that they 

 can smoothly glide into the water with the next manoeuvre. While the booty, greater or 

 smaller, is sprawling and jumping at the bottom of the boats, the fleet again sets into 

 motion to repeat the same thing on other banks and afterwards to return home with a booty 

 of from two to five fishes a head, each fish 40 — 50 cm. long. On the large platform of Tobâdi every- 

 thing is spread out; the chief, kâresôri, first chooses the finest fish for himself and gives every 

 partner his share. One day on the occasion of such a fishing party on the bank east of Metu 

 Débi, a member of the expédition was standing with me in the water outside the net- 

 Nova Guinea. III. Ethnography. 21 



