146 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xn 



merits and much of the produce finds its way into the 

 local markets, especially that of Kisumu. At this 

 market, fish, fowls, and eggs as well as fresh milk can 

 be obtained. They are fond of fish, which they catch 

 by rod and line and in traps. These traps consist of 

 converging walls of stone carried into the bed of the 

 river at an angle of about sixty degrees : the space 

 between the stone walls is filled with fish baskets. The 

 fish coming down stream have their only exit blocked. 

 Around Kisumu we found them diligently fishing in the 

 lake, and they appeared to obtain good catches of fish 

 by means of seines made of dried papyrus stems. A 

 seine is a large net, one end of which is provided with 

 sinkers and the other with floats. It hangs vertically in 

 the water and., when its ends are brought together or 

 drawn ashore, encloses the fish. The seines are arranged 

 in the water by a man on a raft made of the dried stems 

 of the papyrus, or of ambatch. 



The Kavirondos possess cattle and use milk, but as 

 all readers of Thomson's description of this race know, 

 they dilute it with cow's urine. They also clean the 

 milk vessels with cow-dung. I made some inquiry into 

 this matter and find it is the practice to keep the milk 

 after it has been mixed with cow's urine for two or three 

 days, as these people prefer to drink it sour. 



The Kavirondos smelt and work their own iron. 

 Thomson has given an interesting account of their 

 methods : he was astonished at the dexterity with which 

 the men worked a very primitive form of bellows. He 

 found that with very crude apparatus they could pro- 

 duce fifteen to twenty pounds of metal in a day. The 

 wire made here is square instead of round, but it takes 

 a beautiful silvery polish and is used in the form of rings 

 to ornament the arms, legs, and necks of the fashionable 

 young men and women of the village. The blacksmiths 

 are very clever and make weapons such as spears, and 

 agricultural implements such as hoes. 



