forty-pounder. They get a coarse sort of hook in the bazaar, rig up a
roughly-twisted line, tie on a small piece of hollow reed for a float,
and with a lively earth-worm for a bait, they can generally manage in a
very short time to secure enough fish for a meal.

With a short light rod, a good silk line, and an English hook attached
to fine gut, I have enjoyed many a good hour's sport at Parewah. I used
to have a cane chair sent down to the bank of the stream, a _punkah_,
or hand fan, plenty of cooling drinks, and two coolie boys in
attendance to remove the fish, renew baits, and keep the punkah in
constant swing. There I used to sit enjoying my cigar, and pulling in
little fish at the rate sometimes of a couple a minute.

I remember hooking a turtle once, and a terrible job it was to land
him. My light rod bent like a willow, but the tackle was good, and
after ten minutes' hard work I got the turtle to the side, where my
boys soon secured him. He weighed thirteen pounds. Sometimes you get
among a colony of freshwater crabs.

They are little brown brutes, and strip your hooks of the bait as fast
as you fling them in. There is nothing for it in such a case but to
shift your station. Many of the bottom fish--the _ghurai_, the
_saourie_, the _barnee_ (eel), and others, make no effort to escape the
hook. You see them resting at the bottom, and drop the bait at their
very nose. On the whole, the hand fishing is uninteresting, but it
serves to wile away an odd hour when hunting and shooting are hardly
practicable.

Particular occupations in India are restricted to particular castes.
All trades are hereditary. For example, a _tatmah_, or weaver, is