NATIVE HUNTERS. 37 



An opening is often left in these fences in which a game pit is dug and covered 

 over with grass. 



These pits vary in size, according to the animal they are intended for, and are 

 from lo ft. to iS ft. in depth. 



None of the tribes referred to here put sharpened stakes at the bottom. 



Often an nsampa trap is placed in this opening, and this kind of trap {vide 

 illustration) is largely used in pathways to catch lesser cats and other animals 

 whose skins are prized for ornament, or to make bags for tobacco, &c. 



To catch quail, fieldmice, &c., this trap on a much smaller scale is used, set in 

 their runs, and for the two uprights a bit of wood, warped in the fire to the shape of 

 a croquet hoop, is substituted. A stone-falling trap, " diwa," is arranged much the 

 same as that used by boys in England. 



Nooses of aloe fibre ("konje") are laid for birds, generally near a pool, 

 where they come to drink. 



A branch or creeper is laid down near the water's edge, and the nooses attached. 



Where it bridges over a depression or a spoor mark of some large animal on the 

 water's edge is a favourite place, as a bird going to drink would put his head under the 

 bridge, and the noose is set accordingly. 



Natives, whose villages are on a big river or lake, live almost entirely on fish. 



The smaller streams and dambos, which dry up in the dry weather, they stake 

 across at intervals, to prevent the fish from escaping, and when only a small pool is 

 left, as the dry weather progresses, they spear the fish, .using long, unbarbed spears. 



The general method is for a number of natives to go into the pool, stirring up 

 the mud, and they spear at random in all directions, the fish they spear floating 

 to the surface. Needless to say, a quantity of fish, too small to be of service, are 

 killed also. In the larger rivers and lakes fish are caught with nets made of 

 string from the bwazi tree or of aloe fibre. 



These nets are used either cast as a seine or floated with bits of reed, instead of 

 cork. Traps of reeds are made for fish, like large lobster pots or safety inkpots, and 

 fastened in apertures in the staking across streams for the fish to enter as the water 

 recedes. 



A shrub called katupi* (Chiwisa, wuwa) is cultivated, which bears a pod the 

 seeds of which, pounded and thrown into the water, poison fish. 



Of other ways of hunting, large rings of fire are made during the burning of the 

 bush, great numbers of natives collecting with spears and bows. As the ring 



* Also ntetezi (Chiyao, mtulu). 



