483 
Game is oftener trapped than hunted however. The commonest trap 
consists of two parallel fences which vary in height, strength and distance 
apart with the animal to be caught. Two longitudinal weighted beams 
rest on cross supports between the fences near the top. The supports 
are retained by strings of bark looped over a peg that projects into the 
path below. Traps for birds or rodents are baited with grain, those for 
Felidae with fowls or flesh, and set in places likely to be visited. For deer 
they are placed where tracks pass along narrow ridges or ledges of rock, 
the jungle being obstructed for a considerable distance before the trap 
is reached to ensure the animal taking only the path that passes through 
it. The least touch deranges the mechanism, and the victim is crushed 
by the falling beams. Pitfalls, two metres deep and one metre across, 
neatly covered with decaying branches and grass, are common. The 
earth removed to make these is carried some distance to obviate suspicion 
on the part of the game. They may be simple pits, or be studded with 
“pangies” often so closely set that the animal’s feet must be transfixed and 
it too severely disabled to escape in the event of its struggling out. Nearer 
the plains, the pits are made so large that buffaloes and even elephants 
are captured. To snare birds gins of hair are used ; those for wood¬ 
cock are set along the streams where they feed, those for pheasants 
in a circle round a “decoy” placed in an open part of the jungle. Rats 
are simply dug out. An innocent looking creeper lying on the path may, 
if disturbed, relax a huge bamboo which catapults a couple of spears 
across the path. Should a man upset the mechanism one spear passes 
in front and one behind him ; a deer, touching it with either pair of feet, 
no matter in what direction it is going, must be transfixed by one spear. 
It is said that fish are poisoned and the juice of a prickly spurge is 
indicated as the substance used^). But the practice seems to be uncom¬ 
mon. Generally the fish are trapped. A stream is forced by a series 
of weirs into a succession of “races” ; where these debouch into the 
lower pool, long bamboo cages are made to project the direction of the 
“race.” The fish frightened by waders from the pool above into the race 
are forced by its current into the cage where they remain while the water 
escapes through its bars. When sufficiently filled the water is turned 
aside and the cage removed. 
1 ) Euphorbia antiquorum was shewn to the writer as the plant yielding their fish 
poison. They did not use it on any occasion in his presence. 
.^3 
