The Tia Kau. 
39 
which he makes into a running bowline and 
hangs over the side of the canoe from the end 
of his rod, while another man picks up a small 
bonito, passes a line through its gills, and then 
throws it far out upon the water only to draw 
it in again as fast as he can pull, first passing it 
quickly through the bowline on Muliao’s rod. 
But already a pala, a long, slender, scaleless 
fish, six times as big as the biggest salmon ever 
caught, and with teeth like a rip-saw, has heard 
the splash, and is speeding after the decoy. 
Deftly the dead fish is drawn through the trap, 
followed by the eager jaws and round head and 
shoulders of its pursuer. Then, whish ! the 
bowline jerks, slips over his smooth, rounded 
body, and tightens in a fatal grip upon the 
broad, bony tail. And then there is a mighty 
struggling, and splashing, and leaping, and the 
canoe shoots hither and thither as the crew haul 
on the line ; for a full-grown pala is as strong 
as a porpoise. At last, however, he is dragged 
alongside, and then Muliao, grasping a heavy 
turtle-spear in his right hand, rises to his feet 
and watches. And then, with arm of strength 
and eye of hawk, the spear is sped, and crashes 
through the paid 1 s bony head. 
