194 



INDIANS SHOOTING FISH. 



for fish. While the mules were loading for the ferry I accompanied the 

 three savages. As we walked along they asked me all sorts of questions, 

 none of which I could understand. When they saw a bird they called 

 my attention to it, and made signs for my gun to shoot. They seemed 

 to admire my gun as much as I did their bows and arrows. I drew 

 from my belt one of Colt's revolvers and showed the number of balls it 

 carried. By way of trying one of them, I offered it to him ; he shook 

 his head, no ; patting his hand on his arrows, as much as to say he ad- 

 mired his own invention the best. As we neared the fishing place they 

 quickened their pace and walked single file, like soldiers marching up 

 to a fortification. The lake was small and deep, with water so clear 

 that the bottom was plainly to be seen. The stream that fed it ran off 

 the side of a hill, thickly wooded. Long stakes had been driven into the 

 muddy bottom, and to the heads, which stick out of water, poles were 

 fastened by means of creepers, so that the Indians could walk out upon 

 a platform just above the surface of the water. As they did so they 

 arranged their black spears, which were about twelve feet long, and 

 silently watched on the bottom, one at each end of the lake and one in 

 the middle. Their arrows were pointed down into the water; when one 

 fired and missed there was a general shout of laughter, and he good 

 naturedly talked to them and to the fish as he caught the arrow when 

 it rebounded to the surface, between the bow and its string, a stout 

 cord, neatly twisted, made of white cotton. The next one that shot 

 caught his arrow in the same way, which was shaking with a heavy fish, 

 a foot in length. He killed it by sticking his knife into the back of its 

 head, took out ihe arrow, and threw the fish on the shore. Turning up 

 the point of his weapon he sharpened it with his knife, and made ready 

 the second time. The knife was fastened to a string suspended round 

 the neck ; after using it, he threw it over his shoulder, where it hung on 

 his back out of his way till the next fish was caught. The knife looked 

 like a table knife broken square off, and sharpened at the end like a 

 chisel, and was used as such, not like a common knife. 

 | As the fish were thrown out one after the other, in quick succession, 



the excitement became very great ; they chatted and laughed all the 

 while, and appeared to be joking one another. Their faces brightened 

 pleasantly as they drew out the fish, and whenever one of them missed, 

 they all shouted in loud laughter. Each man shot five fine fish, and 

 one of them one more. They then repaired their fishing scaffold and 

 left the lake. After we had returned some distance they stopped, cut 

 fresh green leaves from a sort of cabbage plant, and rolled them one by 

 one therein, after their entrails had been taken out. One of them made 



