194 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



grass and rush. The bow was square, but the stern 

 was high and shaped somewhat Hke the prow of a 

 Venetian gondola. In the bow fishing -nets can be 

 attached to two large poles that, from an upright 

 position, are lowered to either side, spreading the net 

 out wide, and thus looking like the wings of some 

 mighty bird. They are dipped into or raised from the 

 water by a central pole, to which a weight is attached. 

 The canoes thus equipped for fishing float side by side 

 across the river, and the fish are driven down into the 

 lowered nets by a line of beaters, who walk the river 

 much as we walk a turnip-field for partridges. When 

 in ordinary use the apparatus is taken out, and the 

 canoes, from 30 to 45 feet in length, are picturesque 

 and beautiful. 



The crossing was soon made, but the Jeggara was 

 not there to receive us in person, owing, it was alleged, 

 to his ill-health. Outside the city wall, where we 

 landed, is the market-place, but it has lost its erstwhile 

 importance as a commercial centre. A few poor houses 

 belonging to fishermen were clustered by the banks, 

 and behind them a tall mud wall encircled and pro- 

 tected the city. The houses, both in Gulfei and farther 

 down the Shari, are made of mud, with thatch roofs, 

 the thatching being continued in some cases right 

 down the walls for the sake of coolness. The roofs 

 are high, and are supported by a pillar in the centre 

 of each hut. The doorways are sometimes shaped like 

 a waist, and on entering there is a step down and 

 another up before the true floor is reached. It is made 

 of such hard, smooth mud that it looks like concrete. 

 The walls are surrounded by pots, laid one upon the 

 other in tiers. 



