FISH AXI> FISHIXG IX THE IXLE LAKE. 
1043 
Numerous other methods of fishing are also adopted and most of the different 
kinds of nets and traps in common use throughout the Lidian Empire are known 
to the Intha, I shall only mention two more methods which seem to me to be 
characteristic. The first is that of making large enclosures for the special cajiture 
of the fish Crossocheilus latia, a species usually found in running water, but not 
uncommon in the lake. The enclosure, which often surrounds a very large area, 
is made of masses of water -Aveed {Najas ) dried and pegged down with 
bamboo poles to form a sm-rounding Avail in the water and reaching up to tlie 
surface. Conical traps made of weeds are fixed in this Avail. The fishermen take 
their boats into the enclosm-e and paddle about, striking the Avater with their 
paddles and stirring up the Aveeds with bamboo poles. At the end of the 
enclosure towards which the boats move, nets are fixed up in the air on poles to a 
considerable height. As the fish are driven out from the AA-eeds many of them 
make their way into the traps, while others, attemptuig to jump over the wall, 
land themselves in the aerial nets. 
The last method of fishing that I shall attempt to describe is the use of what may 
be called the weed-trawl. This is a bag-shaped net fixed in a bamboo frame with 
an almost triangular outline but AA'ith the top rounded instead of pomted. The 
broader end is strengthened by a bamboo rumring across the side-piece.s. 
Two boats and three men are necessary for the r>se of this net. The tAA'o boats 
remain at first a few yards apart. Lr one of them there is a single fisherman ; in 
the other, two. The single fisherman plrmges the trawl doAAuiAA'ards into the AA'ater 
among the weeds, holding it by;the upper end. The two men in the other boat 
then pull it towards them by means of a couple of ropes fixed to the sides near 
the loAA'er end. They thus puU up the loAver end obliquely through the weeds- 
capturing numerous stickle-back eels, carp and other fish in the mass of vegeta- 
tion they detach. 
The Intha are versatile folk. They are not only fishermen and agriculturists 
but also keen traders and skilled weavers of silk and cotton. Perhaps their most 
characteristic means of livelihood is the trade they conduct in dried whitebait 
and dried praAvns. In both cases the animals which compose the product are 
of extremely small size. The fish belong mostly to such genera as Sawbwa, 
Microrasbora, Nemachilus and Lepidocephalus. In other words they are fish 
which never attaiu the length of more than a few inches. Some years ago it Avas 
proposed to suppress the industry as being destructive to immature fish. After 
careful examination of samples from several of the Intha bazaars I was able to 
assure the authorities that in none of these samples Avas the proportion of fish 
capable of groAving to a reasonable size more than 5 per cent, and that in a very 
large proportion such fish were completely absent. The trade was not suppressed, 
and the product is still carried by coolies and on pack-oxen and mules as far as 
the Siamese frontier over three hundred miles aAvay and up through the He-Ho 
gorge (by cooUes only) to the railhead at He-Ho. 
The dried praAvns, which are not mixed vrith the fish in the bazaars, consist 
of two species of the genus Caridina * and are even smaller than the fish. Both 
fish and praAvns are dried in the sim on mats. They have no bad smell when of 
good quality and form a palatable condiment for curry when fried with onions 
and salt and pepper. 
The Intha claim to be Burmese not Shans and to haA'e come at some not very 
remote period from Tavoy. Authorities say that this legendary origin 
is confirmed by their language, which is a dialect of Burmese akin to Talaung. 
They dress hke the Shans however, the men in baggy trousers and a short jacket 
and a loose turban, the women with a long simple skirt in place of the trousers, 
but also with the turban. They are stimdily built and taller than the Burmese 
Ijroperly so-called. Their faces are broader, their featmres generally of coarser 
(*) Kemp, Fee. Ind. Mus. XIV, p. 96 (1918). 
