120 FROM THE NIGEE TO THE NILE 



fishing-boats are very curiously constructed, being made out 

 of many pieces of wood strongly sewn together. I remember 

 seeing one that had a bottom made of fourteen separate bits. 

 The sterns are carried high out of the water and the bows are 

 cut square. For fishing, a large circular net is attached 

 between the fork made by two poles joining in the boat at 

 the bow another which is weighted with a stone at the end 

 and worked as a lever to lower the net in and out of the water. 

 The nets which stick out beyond the bows like the transparent 

 wings of a great dragon-fly give the boats a quaint appearance 

 as they float down the river. 



The river is full of fish. There is one almost the size of 

 a man, known to the Hausas as " Giwan Rua " (the elephant 

 of the water). During the night the large fishing-boats are 

 drawn up across the river in echelon from the bank, and boys 

 in small boats beat the water, driving the fish into the cul-de- 

 sac so formed. For catching the smaller fish there is another 

 method. The fishermen sit astride bundles of maria, a very 

 fight, pith-Uke wood, in mid-stream holding downwards in 

 the water large circular nets, the shafts of which are about 

 20 ft. in length hke exaggerated butterfly-nets. It is a strange 

 sight to see the silent men, apparently unsupported by outside 

 agency or their own efforts, riding down the stream. 



In the evening I paid a visit to the Sultan Jaggra. He 

 conducted me through the rooms of his palace and after- 

 wards round his stables to show me his horses of which 

 he had many. He pointed with pride to a beautiful roan 

 which had come from Kanem and had cost him 100 dollars, 

 equalhng £14, a very large price for any horse in Western or 

 Central Africa. Horses of fourteen to fifteen hands are rare 



