Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...fish and hog spears. The only parts he did not make himself were the split bamboo deck, the shelter mat and mat for the sail; his charge for the whole being six rupees. A full-sized boat can be purchased for about thirty mats of the finer sort. I was informed that one Selung in the Doang group could work in iron and make spear-heads, but that they generally obtained all their iron-work from Mergui. One of the chief occupations of the Selungs during the cold weather is the capture of the huge devil-fish or eagle ray, Dicerobatis eregoodoo, and which is known to them as the Kdoo. They allege that this formidable fish sometimes attains to 20 feet in breadth; and to impress me with its great size, they said that a man seated at the head of such a fish could not be seen by a man similarly seated at the tail; and it is quite possible that it may grow to the dimensions they say it reaches, as the late Sir Walter Elliot has recorded a specimen 15 feet broad. Its capture is attended with considerable trouble, and even danger, as a large fish may even capsize a boat; and the Selungs believe that it occasionally seizes and swallows men when they accidentally fall into the water, which they sometimes do while in the act of harpooning it, and I was informed that two of their number had lost their lives in this way. The harpoon is a heavy weapon, and its iron head (Plate iv. fig. 3) is let into the end of a long bamboo, and is fastened to it by a rope coiled round the end of the shaft, another and longer rope being made fast to the shaft and to the boat. When a fish has been secured, it is dragged on to the shore, skinned, and cut up into narrow strips about six feet in length, the skin and the intestines being treated in the same manner. The pieces...
