While still warm
the stones are thrown into the water, when the fish become helpless.
They die if left in water so impregnated; while the effects of the
DERRIS SCANDENS is merely temporarily soporific. How blacks became
acquainted with this process of speedily extracting the toxic principle
of the FARADAYA, and as speedily dissipating it, is unknown. One
generation passes on the knowledge to the other without explanation,
and it is accepted as a matter of course, without comment or inquiry.
A CAVERN AND ITS LEGEND
Caves and caverns in the rocks and the tops of the mountains are not
favourite resorts of blacks. According to them nearly every mountain has
its mysterious lagoon, which none but old men have visited, but which
teems with fish and waterfowl. When direct inquiries are made as to the
precise locality of any particular lagoon, invariably inconclusive
evidence is tendered. "Old man, he bin see 'em;" and, the old man is
never forthcoming for cross-examination. The origin of the romance, no
doubt, is to be attributed to the desire of the blacks to account to
themselves for the water which glitters on the face of the rocks far up
the mountains.
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