TRAPS 351 



Birds are usually caught by means of a con- 

 trivance almost exactly like the " springle " so dear 

 to the heart of every properly constructed British 

 boy. It is made of a long stick about the thick- 

 ness of a whip-stock, bent down and attached to a 

 running noose kept in position by several small 

 upright sticks. In the midst of these, and con- 

 nected with an ingenious catch, a small quantity 

 of millet or maize is so placed that a guinea-fowl or 

 partridge picking it up would be caught by the 

 neck and quickly strangled. I have even seen 

 rabbits and small buck secured in this way. 



Fish in the rivers and streams are caught chiefly 

 by means of basket fish-traps of triangular shape 

 about five feet long, and made of finely split 

 bamboos. The spot selected for setting them is the 

 mouth of some stream flowing into the Zambezi. 

 At the point of confluence a dam of reed-fencing is 

 constructed, the fish-traps being placed in position 

 in the dam at short intervals all the way along it. 

 They are visited night and morning, and are 

 almost always found to contain fish. In addition 

 to the foregoing, net-fishing is very largely practised. 

 The nets, often fifty yards in length, are dragged 

 behind canoes, and large catches are made, the 

 varieties chiefiy consisting of bream, barbel, a 

 handsome tiger-fish, and another resembling a 

 perch, but singularly tasteless and bony. Most of 

 the fish taken are split open and dried either in the 

 sun or over wood fires. Line-fishing is also very 

 general ; some of the villages on the Zambezi 

 indulging in rod-fishing also, precisely in the same 

 way as that followed by Europeans. A long 



