er
some strenuous balancing feats and a stiff fight by both of us, did
we land our game. It was a large flat fish at least four feet square,
with a long whip-shaped tail, at the base of which were two barbed
bones each about three and a half inches in length. Our first act was
to sever this tail with a hatchet, as it was far too active to make
the fish a pleasant neighbour in close quarters. When the sting-ray,
or, as the Brazilians call it, the _araya_, was dead, I cut out the
two barbed bones and no longer wondered why these fish are so dreaded
by those who know them. Joao told me that they attack anyone who
ventures into the water, and with their sharp, barbed bones inflict
a wound that in most cases proves fatal, for the bones are brittle
and break off in the flesh. Superstition and carelessness are the
main factors that make the wound dangerous; the people believe too
much in an ever-present evil spirit which abides in all the vicious
and fiendish animals of the forest and swamp. Once wounded by any of
these malignant creatures, they believe there is no hope of recovery
and they hardly try to survive. Besides, lack of proper care and
treatment of a wound generally results in its terminating in a case
of septicaemia and ultimately gangrene.

I have mentioned the _pirarucu_ several times as being the largest
edible fish of the Amazon. When full grown, it attains a weight of two
hundred and fifty pounds. In Lake Innocence we saw this remarkable
fish feeding close to the shore in shallow water, surrounded by a
school of young ones. The old one was about seven feet in length
and the others but recently hatched, from nine to ten inches. The
Indian who pointed them out to me stood up in the bow of the canoe
and, fitting one of his five-foot arrows to the bow-string, sent it
through the air and into the head of the big fellow.

The bow which he used was of his own manufacture. It was about seven
and a half feet long, very tough and straight, and made of Caripari
wood. The shafts of the arrows were made of long straight reeds, the
stalks of a certain species of wild cane. The detachable part of the
arrow is a short but extremely hard piece of wood upon which is fitted
an iron head with two barbs. When the point pierces the flesh this hard
piece comes off, but remains attached to the shaft by a short stout
cord. This allows the shaft free play so that it will not break during
the struggles of the victim. Then there is a li