HUNTING AND FISHING. 



167 



Fig 



107. Woman diving for freshwater Molluscs: 

 Lake Sentâni. 



February enter the lake in great numbers from the sea by means of the Tami River (Sechstroh- 



Fluss of Finsch) and the Jafùri River. Probably for spawning or for impregnating the spawn, 



the fish like to stay near objects standing in the water. For this reason the natives hâve 



erected in the water c i r c u 1 a r \v e i r s, mdra 



(figs. 94 and 107), consisting of vertical piles driven 



into the ground and mutually supported by circular 



twigs tied round them. The interstices between 



the piles are large enough to allow the fish to 



pass through. A certain number, having gathered in 



the inner space, ail of a sudden see the openings 



blocked up by a grate of thin, vertical laths, and 



are now caught with spears. This was what I under- 



stood from the information by the natives. During 



my visits in April and June this fîshery of course 



was not carried on ; the mura were more or less 



neglected, but the grates, 3 — 4 m. high, were put 



in the houses. At Asé however I saw them lying on 



the tie beams of the community house which is 



connected with the chief's dwelling, and so I strongly présume the mdra and the grates to 



be the property of the community and this fîshery to be for the gênerai benefit. In June I 



saw the people eat this fish smoked, foi nwi or jo huzvi ; I noticed rows of sharp teeth in 

 the jaws. In the right season the fish seem to be so abundant that the women cannot 



manage the fishery without aid: men and children corne to their assistance. 



The existence of fishing weirs like the mdra mentioned above, in various forms 

 and with différent methods of use, in use everywhere about the Malay Archipelago, found 

 in the Caroline Islands by KUBARV [1895, 149], at Tumleo by ERDWEG [1904, 331], up to 

 the présent was only known in two places in Netherl. N. G.. De Clercq and SCHMELTZ 



[1893, 100] describe them from the south coast of the MacCluer Gulf, where they are very 

 fréquent, especially in Sekâr Bay, while ROBIDÉ VAN DER Aa [1879, 279] mentions them 

 from Tanah Merah Bay, however without indicating the way ofusing them. Fig. 108, representing 

 one of the two Mûris Bays, situated a little west of Tanah Merah Bay, when looked at attentively, 

 shows a number of stagings standing in the sea, to which little platforms seem to be attached. 

 They were entirely wanting in the fresh water lake of Jamur. 



Another method of fishing, practised in Lake Sentâni, requires a square hand net: 

 a few women drive the fish under the dwellings towards the shore, over the net, previously 

 laid on the bottom, and which is supplied with a lath on either side, like the "Zweistangen- 

 netz" of KRAUSE [1904, PI. 13, fig. 461]. At the right moment two other women lift up the 

 laths with the net; — in this way only small fish are caught. The dimensions of thèse nets 

 may be judged from fig. 90, where a net is drying on the roof. Once I watched some women 

 making or repairing such tolerably large nets in the chief's dwelling; they pronounced the word 

 chd kèrâ or kd h'érd, in which chd or kd means fish, hèrd perhaps net, or the kind of fish 

 caught in it. ERDWEG [1902, 332, fig. 232] describes a similar net but shorter, shaped like 

 a bag and the two lengthened laths tied together at one end. Trapezium-shaped nets are 



