HUNTING AND FISHING IN THE PROVINCE OF AMAZON. !lf) 
whicli is tlie best morsel, lost they should lose the, lov(i of tlioir Avives. 
Ill the same AA^ay tliey UAmid the meat of tlie dnelc and of tho (aitia, 
a very savoury rodcut, lest theii- children should ac(iuiro big, ugly-shaped 
feet and ears, lie AAdio has shot the di'adly arroAV must not oat of the game 
it he Avould have steady aim and good luck for the future ; and the 
Avomen also, to the eAudent advantage of their selfish, hxAA-giving hahms, 
are prohibited from the eating of many animals. 
The fishes apparently are not subject to tho same objections, and every 
moans seems laAvfiil for their capture : hooks, boAA'-s and arroAA^s, casting 
nets, and drag-nets, that are spread out in a Avide circle and drawn 
m on shalloAV sandbanks, sometimes filled Avith exceedingly rich .spoil.* 
At some points AA^hole tribes Avill unite, as the above-mentioned Coroados 
of Parana, in the operation of forcing them, by raising little stone dykes 
upon and betAveen the boulders of a currfmt, to take a certain channel 
so controlled by a iilait-Avork of bamboo that at tlie upper end the Avaiter 
rushes into it with considerable force, yet leaves it perfectly dry a little 
farther down, whence it escapes through the interstices. As these “ parys ” 
(as the contrivances are called by the Coroados) are usually fitted up at 
tho season of the multitudinous return of the fish after spaAvning up- 
stream, few of the larger' ones escape theii- liite ; and their profusion 
Avould be seriously impaired in streams with pary.s, if these were not 
regularly destroyed evei-y year by the floods. 
One mode of fishing practised on the Mamore (though it be not 
veiy frequcmtly) is too singular to be passed over in silence. At certain 
seasons millions of small fish move up-stream iu dense swarms. Those 
migrations, which occupy several hours, are awaited by the Moxo Indian, 
Avho takes up a standing position in the shallow Avater, near the shore or 
near a siindbank, provided only Avith the covo, a sort of conical basket, 
Avithout bottom, carefully made of laths of a hoaiy palrn-AVood joined by 
plait-Avork. This basket he throAvs -at the passing fish, Avhich he can 
afterwards, at his leisure, take out by the smaller opening at the top, 
provided the water is not higher than the covo itself. 
Another method, — the Avmrst, of all, since it destroys both the old ones 
aud the spaAvn, the eatable and tho uneatable together, leaving gouorally 
the greater part of them as a meal for the urubiis (A'ultures),— can be 
applied only in smaller sheets of water, in the little lagoons or pools 
Sui-uhim, Pintado, Bagro, Tambnki, Tiieuaard, 
I 
