Note 30 — DOMESTIC LIFE

My experience of fish “poisoning” by Lhotas is that the discipline of the leaders over the younger men beating the “poison” into the river is so poor that the invariable result is that almost the only fish taken are a few labeo, a bottom-feeding fish more susceptible to poison than mahseer, and any cat-fish (Bagarius yarrellii or Silundia gangetica or some similar Siluroid) that there may be in the river. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that, as far as game-fish at any rate were concerned, poisoning by niro did more good than harm, as it cleared out the predatory fish while scarcely affecting the mahseer and its kin. I found later that Mr. Soppitt’s experiences among the Kacharis in the North Cachar Hills had led him to precisely the same conclusion (see C. A. Soppitt, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Kachari Tribes in the North Cachar Hills, Shillong, 1885. Reprinted with an introduction by E. C. Stuart Baker, 1901, pp. 51, 52).—J. H. H. ↑