MY SECOND VOYAGE ON THE LAKE 55 



ably, to constant intermarriage. The same cause no doubt 

 accounted for the remarkable resemblance which all those I 

 saw bore to one another. This particular f amilv with which 



HAULING THE BOAT THROUGH THE MUD 



we came to close quarters was very picturesque. Their canoe 

 was much larger than any I had seen before and appeared to 

 contain all their worldly goods. There were bundles of nets, 

 a spare pole or two, several blackened cooking-pots for the fish, 

 which was their sole article of food, and a number of odds and 

 ends including hippo teeth for scraping the fish, and rolls 

 of black tobacco which all the Budumas chew incessantly. 

 In features they were coarse and forbidding and the men 

 looked repulsive till they stood up, and then one was lost in 

 admiration of the fine development of their chests and arms. 

 The woman, with her head protected from the sun by a cover 

 of blue cloth, was a most picturesque figure as she crouched 



