668 BANTU NEGROES 



Baganda carry no sword or dagger, properly speaking, they sometimes 

 stick a small knife in the armlet worn on the upper left arm, and a 

 knife with a wooden or ivory handle is thrust into the waist-belt. 



In former days the Baganda huoited with a good deal of bravery the 

 wild beasts of their country. They surrounded the elephant, the lion, 

 and the leopard with hordes of spearmen. Nowadays, if allowed by the 

 Administration, they would attack the same animals with rifles or muzzle- 

 loading guns. The smaller antelopes are still caught in snares. There is 

 the suspended harpoon, weighted with a huge block of wood, which is 

 placed over the path that hippopotamuses may follow. Pitfalls of various 

 sizes and a snare (made of a sapling bent downwards by a stout cord, 

 to which is fastened a slijjknot placed over a game track) are also in use. 

 In the la>t-named device the slipknot is kept in position by pegs, which 

 are easily disturbed. A passing beast puts his foot into the slipknot, the 

 sapling springs back, the knot tightens, and the creature is found 

 suspended by one leg. There are also ropes fastened across these game 

 paths in such a way that if a beast jtre^ses against them a heavy lance 

 enters his body. The Baganda are very adroit at catching young 

 hipjjopotamuses, elephants, zebras, and antelopes ; but, strange to say, with 

 all their intelligence they have hitherto shown themselves very poor 

 hands at taming the wild creatures around them, and they have hitherto 

 had absolutely no idea of domesticating beautiful birds and useful beasts. 

 Those of the Baganda that dwell on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza, 

 and still more the islanders on the lake, spend a good deal of their time 

 in fi-shi'iig. They use weir baskets, usually made of the stiff rind of the 

 raphia palm fronds or of the stems of certain wiry creepers. A wide- 

 mouthed basket with a short funnel stem passes into another basket 

 with a long funnel, and this discharges again into a largeish chamber 

 of the same wickerwork, which has a hole at the back through which the 

 fish are taken out. These weirs are usually fixed in a horizontal position 

 with stone weights, and are often placed across the neck of a small 

 inlet or gulf. The natives sometimes fish with rod, line, and hook, and 

 they lay out night lines with floats. Very often fish are driven towards 

 weir baskets by the men wading out into the shallow water of the 

 lake and carrying after them a rude kind of seine made of long strips of 

 banana leaves fastened to a floating or to a sunken line. This seine is 

 gradually drawn in towards the narrower part where the baskets are 

 placed, and the fish are in this way driven into the baskets, or may be 

 driven right on to the shore without the use of baskets at all. Fish is 

 a good deal eaten by the Baganda, especially near the lake, but it is also 

 roughly cured, smoked, and taken inland as an article of barter. Locusts 

 are eaten in the usual way — by pulling off the wings and roasting the 



