XXV HOW CHILLIES ARE GROWN 275 



the shelving beaches, which are washed when it is high, 

 the inhabitants were busy laying out chilli-beds. As 

 soon as the seed is sown, it is covered with cut grass, 

 which is lifted every morning, for the bed to be watered, 

 and then replaced. When the plant is two inches high, 

 a frame of branches a foot from the ground is built and 

 covered with grass to shade the plants. Between these 

 strips of cultivation and the bushes and rushes by the 

 water's edge was beautiful short green grass, on which 

 herds of fine big cattle were grazing. These water 

 meadows were seamed in every direction by hippo-paths, 

 which were evidently used every night. We circled round 

 a great bed of rushes and, turning east again, reached the 

 bank of the Abbai. Here the river was very different 

 from what it was where I shot bohor and bushbuck 

 near Dungoler ; steep mud-banks led down to the water, 

 which was some 80 yards across, over 10 feet deep, 

 and of a thick mud-colour. The spot where we reached 

 the river was called Johannes; here were a few huts 

 and a ferry, which consisted of a very primitive raft 

 made of reeds and propelled with a piece of wood tied 

 to the end of a bamboo-stick. The further bank of 

 the river, opposite the ferry, was formed by a strip of 

 alluvial soil, which gradually narrowed from 400 yards 

 to only a dozen or so. This belt of land, which is over 

 three miles long, runs northwards into the lake and then 

 turns towards the east. We followed down the west 

 bank for a couple of miles to where the Abbai divides 

 into two and flows round the little island of Abbaider,^ 

 which is half a mile across, to meet again and enter 



1 Stecker applies the name Abaidar to the whole district. 



