240 
Peculiar Practice eor Attracting Pish. 
however, it is lightly wound. As soon as the creature is struck, the 
arrow-tip remains where it is, but is released off the shaft, from which 
the string at the same time becomes unrolled, when the fish dives below. 
The shaft floating on the surface of the water shows where the catch is 
hiding. The Garibs and Macusi Indians call this kind of arrow Sara- 
racca. Equal dexterity is also exhibited in the use of fishing-lines. As 
each species of many of the fish generally requires a particular bait, the 
Indian, after gazing with critical eye at the occupants swimming here 
and there below, throws out his hook, supplied with the very bait that 
the fish which lie exactly wants for his table is especially partial to. A 
rod is only rarely used for the purpose. With practised hand lie throws 
his line and now feels every nibble till finally a stronger tug tells him 
that it is time to pull on it. In the still water where the banks have a 
steep slope, particularly in those sp jts where its surface is strongly 
lighted up with the sunshine, were usually found collected a number of 
beautiful sunfish, the Luganani of the coloured people, Gichla ocellaris 
Bloch., C. argns Humb., which seldom escaped rhe arrows of the Indians. 
A peculiar practice for attracting fish consists in this that when the 
fishermen use a rod and so throw the line into the water, they whip the 
surface many times with it. The fish seem to take this noise for fruits 
falling from the trees and will snap greedily at every object they meet. 
Our German anglers would be afraid of such a noise frightening them 
away and, judging from the piscatorial experiences of my own youth, 
they would not be far wrong. Probably the American fish are less smart 
than the Teuton ones! Extra excitement was afforded in camp every 
time one of the giant sweet-water fish, a Laulau, or some large sheat-fish 
was caught on the night-lines: for the rest, it required special skill to 
land the ungainly creature. Several of the Siluroids, particularly the 
Paearuima ( Phra otocephalus bicolor), make a noise as soon as they are 
pulled out and then, with thick clubs, done to death: this sound is so 
peculiar that one can even distinguish at a distance whether the catch is 
a laulau, a pakaruima or some other species of Pilurus. 
722. During the afternoon while strolling along the riverbank with 
some Indians, one of them drew my attention to an object on the opposite 
shore: I took it to be an old tree trunk, but on my sharp sighted hunter 
jokingly advising me with a smile to bring out mv “second eye” (pocket 
telescope) I recognised it to be a huge kaiman, which was warming itself 
in the scorching sun. A hunting party was quickly made up: the small 
boats soon emptied of their baggage, manned and freighted with rifles, 
guns, and pistols: we divided ourselves, one corial was to go upstream 
above, and the other to cut across below the brute. Although the Indians 
again chaffed us about our preparations and suggested our staying 
quietly where we were because the kaiman was far too smart and would 
certainly make its escape, they did not deter us from our purpose. Zeal 
added wings to the paddlers though to our great disappointment the 
reptile slowly withdrew into the water as we got to within .300 paces of 
it. I often had the opportunity subsequently of watching the same shy 
timidity of the kaiman on land. 
