Domokos Tamás szerk.: Pro Natura. A Dél-Tiszántúl természeti értékei (Békéscsaba, Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum, 1999)

PÁKÁSZ SETTLEMENT (pákász: primitive predatory man living in the marshes on fishing and hunting) Till the middle, but locally till the end of the last century the Körös Rivers every year flooded large areas, and the renewing marshlands covered a large are supporting the human population with food sources and other raw materials. The pákász was a characteristic hunting-gathering man of these marshlands. Their settlements were built on the higher elevations of the islands. They collected the Sweet grass and Water Chestnut, hunted, fished, and collected thousands of bird eggs (1st item: an egg container made of twigs). The most valuable resource was the reed. It was used not only to make the roof of houses, it was also the material to build the wind breaks for the livestock. The dried weed was utilised for making baskets, beehives and other utensils. In the hard times even coffins and shrouds were substituted by braided weed sheets. The Water Chestnut (Trapa natans) (2nd item) preferred the stagnant water sections. The spiky fruits were pulled out from the water with rakes, it was cooked, and the white inner material, similar to chestnut was used to mix into noodles. Herbs were also collected. For the scarce population living in the endless marshland the most important industry was fishing. In the boats there was always a bailer (3d item). Several tools were used for fishing: the harpoon (4th item), the curved gaff with its short handle (5th item), the bottom or silure hooks (6th item), which was the favourite tool of numerous fishermen around the Tisza. A very interesting tool is the "kuttyogtató" (7th item), it was used for attracting the silures by splashing the water with this club-shaped instrument, and the silures were lured to the hooks by the special sound. The fish container (8th item) braided from twigs was used for keeping the captured fish alive. In the rivers there were plenty of crayfish, and there are data on the catching of turtles for human consumption. This characteristic, and nature bounded figure disappeared as the marshes were drained. From their everyday utensils a leather sac (9th item ), a razor container (10th item) and a water-bottle (11th item) are shown. Órfás tanya Bihar megyében