the source of great supplies of bait; while overhead a great hovering
army of kites and vultures are constantly circling round, eagerly
watching for the slightest scrap of offal from the nets. When the rains
have fairly set in, and the fishermen have got their rice fields all
planted out, they are at liberty to follow their hereditary avocation.
A day is fixed for a drag, and the big nets are overhauled and got in
readiness. The head _mullah_, a wary grizzled old veteran, gives the
orders. The big drag-net is bundled into the boat, which is quickly
pushed off into the stream, and at a certain distance from shore the
net is cast from the boat. Being weighted at the lower end it rapidly
sinks, and, buoyed on the upper side with pieces of cork, it makes a
perpendicular wall in the water. Several long bamboo poles are now run
through the ropes along the upper side of the net, to prevent the net
being dragged under water altogether by the weight of the fish in a
great haul. The little boats, a crowd of which are in attendance, now
dart out, surrounding the net on all sides, and the boatmen beating
their oars on the sides of the boats, create such a clatter as to
frighten, the fish into the circumference of the big net. This is now
being dragged slowly to shore by strong and willing arms. The women and
children watch eagerly on the bank. At length the glittering haul is
pulled up high and dry on the beach, the fish are divided among the
men, the women fill their baskets, and away they hie to the nearest
_bazaar_, or if it be not _bazaar_ or market day, they hawk the fish
through the nearest villages, like our fish-wives at home.

There is another common mode of fishing adopted in narrow lakes and
small streams, which are let out to the fishermen by the Zemindars or
landholders. A barricade made of light reeds, all matted together by
string, is stuck into the stream, and a portion of the water is fenced
in, generally in a circular form. The reed fence being quite flexible