FISH OF PECULIAR FORM 



175 



and you can buy up all our cattle.' No amount of arguing or 

 persuasion could make the Oromaj budge from tins position. 



Our men "vvere, however, quite content now with the dhurra 

 they had dubbed asses' fodder at Mawia. They got ugali or 

 stiff porridge twice every day now, and they had not tasted 

 it since they left Kikuyuland. Many supplemented this diet 

 with fish, mussels, of which there were quantities in the shallow 

 water of the lake, and soft, sticky red berries, which grew near 

 by. We made acquaintance with several different kinds of fish, 

 some of them of very jDeculiar form, mostly belonging to the 

 silurid^e or eel families, including one resembling a snake, but 

 with hard, stiff armour-like scales. Another had a pointed 

 head like that of an eel, a small mouth the shape of that of 

 a shark, and in the upper and lower jaws a row of square 

 teeth like human incisors. A third kind looked like a smooth, 

 short, thick eel, with the head of a cat-fish, and a wide month 

 with numerous pointed teeth. The fore part of its body was 

 grey, but it became red towards the tail, and the sides were 

 dotted with small isolated bright red spots. 



There was apparently very little big game in the neighbour- 

 hood, so that we were not tempted to do any hunting. The 

 numerous waterfowl had forsaken the lake and flown further 

 north soon after our arrival. Only a few larks and now and 

 then two or three crested cranes were seen near the camp, the 

 last-named eagerly picking up the big scorpions, incredible 

 numbers of which were to be found under the stones on the 

 ground. 



We did not suffer much from the heat here, as the rainy 

 season was already approaching, and the sky was generally 

 overcast. There were showers in the neighbourhood, especially 

 on the Amdrr Mountains on our east, pretty well every day, 

 but we only had three copious downpours in Eeshiat between 

 April 3 and 14. The prevailing wind was from the east, which 



