488 
ON THE ABORIGINES 
backwards, and three or four are often found jammed in 
the end of these little traps, with the scales and skin 
quite rubbed off their heads by their vain endeavours to 
proceed onwards. Other matapis are larger and more cy- 
lindrical, with a reversed conical mouth (as in our wire rat- 
traps), to prevent the return of the fish ; these are often 
made of a very large size, and are placed in little forest- 
streams, and in narrow channels between rocks, where the 
fish, in passing up, must enter them. But the best me- 
thod of procuring fish, and that which has been gene- 
rally adopted by the Europeans in the country, is with 
the Cacoaries, or fish-weirs. These are principally used 
at high-water, when fish are scarce : they are formed at 
the margin of rivers, supported by strong posts, which 
are securely fixed at the time of low-water, when the 
place of the weir is quite dry ; to these posts is secured 
a high fence of split palm-stems, forming an entering 
angle, with a narrow opening into a fenced enclosure. 
Fish almost always travel against the stream, and gene- 
rally abound more at the sides where the current is 
less rapid : they are guided by the side- wings of the 
weir into the narrow opening, from which they cannot 
find their way out. They are obtained by diving into 
the weir, and then catching them with the pisa (small 
net), or with the hand, or sticking them with a knife. 
In these cacoaries every kind of fish is caught, from the 
largest to the smallest, as well as river tortoises and 
turtles. The Indian generally feels about well with a 
rod before entering a cacoari, to ascertain if it contains 
an electrical eel, in which case he gets it out first with 
a net. The Piranhas, species of Serrasahno, are also 
