738 



BANTU NEGROES 



l)ractic-;illv protected. Tlie ox kept is the humped, short-horned variety. 

 15iitter is made from milk, and is often used as a dressing for wounds. 



The Kavirondo, especially in the valh^v of the Xzoia, hunt game with 

 the lielp of dogs, driving the wild animals before them into a widely 

 extended net, which consists of a long rope fastened in a rough semi- 

 circle to trees or long poles. From this rope hang down numerous 

 running nooses of string. These, at any rate, detain the creatures long 

 enough to enable the men to come up with and spear them. They dig 



pits on the banks of rivers 

 (covering the orifice with grass) 

 to catch hippopotamuses as they 

 leave the water, and they also 

 rig up over the hippopotamus 

 paths ropes and traps, by means 

 of which a passing hippo loosens 

 a heavily weighted harpoon sus- 

 pended over the path, which 

 then plunges into his back. 

 Elephants are killed by a large 

 number of hunters surrounding 

 one of these animals and attack- 

 ing it with assegais. Fish (of 

 which the Kavirondo are ex- 

 tremely fond as an article of 

 diet) are angled for with rod 

 and line, and are also caught in 

 traps. In all the Kavirondo 

 rivers there are built up at in- 

 tervals two converging walls of 

 stone, which are carried out into 

 the bed of the stream at an angle 

 of about sixty degrees. The 

 small space between the two stone dykes is filled with ample fish-baskets. 

 The fish coming down-stream have their only exit blocked, and must, 

 l^erforce, fill the baskets. The snares for quails have ahready been 

 mentioned. These are usually springes, with a noose of very fine string. 



The Kavirondo are essentially an agricultural people. Both men and 

 women work in the fields with large iron hoes. As usual, their agriculture, 

 being of the negro order, has been destructive to forests. The whole of 

 Kavirondo was once covered with dense forest of a rather West African 

 character, but trees are now scarcely ever seen, except in the river valleys. 

 The people would hew down all the trees they could fell, and burn the 



395. AlaUKL* UAIKWAY OF A WALLElJ XUWN, 



K^u^RO^•uo 



