324 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



fixed round the sides. They were about 18 ft. long and, 

 like all the Buduma canoes, made of bundles of small reeds 

 tightly bound together into lengths about 10 in. thick, 

 which are again bound to each other in the structure 

 of the whole. They take about a month to build, are very 

 strong, lasting for two years or so before they become 

 water-logged. Their average length is 18 ft., but smaller 

 ones of 8 ft. are used for the very shallow places, or for 

 quick escape from sudden surprise. Their prows arch to 

 a high point, which gives them a very picturesque appear- 

 ance, rather like the Venetian gondolas. In the forepart 

 of each canoe there is a flat stone, fixed to the reed bottom 

 by mud, and on this a fire is kept burning for cooking the 

 fish. Every fishing-fleet is accompanied by one or two 

 canoes laden with wood for the replenishing of the fi es. 

 In one of the canoes were also some shields and spears, 

 armament which the Budumas always carry for offensive 

 and defensive purposes against others of their tribe, for 

 they are all piratical and prey upon each other. The 

 shields are peculiar in form, about 4 ft. long, arched, and 

 oblong, and made of the ambatch, or maria tree. There 

 were no poles in the canoes ; the wooden structure for the 

 fish-drying made it impossible for polers to work, and the 

 canoes would have been propelled by men wading or 

 swimming behind, a method I have seen the Budumas use 

 on subsequent occasions, and one that at first gives a very 

 weird impression, quite in harmony with the characteristic 

 loneliness of the Lake. Particularly is this so when in the 

 evening light the tall prow of a canoe piled high with white 

 slabs of potash or hung with the gross forms of gigantic 



