XXV LAKE TANA AND ITS ISLANDS 279 



islands dotted the blue surface of the lake, while its 

 shores presented a series of grassy bays, each set, as 

 it were, in a horse-shoe of well-wooded highland, the 

 heels running out into the water in the shape of pro- 

 montories which separated one bay from another. The 

 background of the whole panorama consisted of mag- 

 nificent rocky peaks. I think the scenery of this lake 

 among the most beautiful I have seen, not excepting 

 the Pangong in Tibet, Chusan in Nippon, Ontario in 

 Canada, and the Wular in Kashmir, all so justly cele- 

 brated for their picturesque beauty. 



On the way back to camp I shot a bohor, which was 

 grazing close to a bed of reeds. After lunch a party 

 of hippo -hunters came to see me ; they were armed 

 with poisoned harpoons and heavy spears. These 

 harpoons are made of wood 18 inches in length, with 

 a barbed iron head 2 J inches long by i^ inches broad ; 

 for 8^ inches below the barb it is thickly coated with a 

 black-coloured poison made by boiling the root of some 

 tree. The shaft is of heavy wood 8 feet long and 4 

 inches in circumference ; one end is split and a hole 

 bored in it, into which 6 inches of the harpoon are let, 

 and kept in position by a binding made of twisted 

 gut, which can be quickly tightened or loosened. For 

 safety, except when in sight of their game, the barbed 

 head is always kept covered by a sheath made of rush. 

 The spears are 6^ feet long, and have heavily made 

 blades 12 inches in length by i^ in breadth, with a 

 7-inch socket. The natives generally hunt hippo when 

 they land to feed on the vegetation at night, but also 

 do so in the daytime, if they can approach a school in 



