PISTI IN THE TANGANYIKA. 



67 



smaller variety is thrown from the boat by a single man, 

 who follows it into the water, — the larger, which 

 reaches six feet in diameter, is lowered from the bow by 

 cords, and collects the fish attracted by the glaring 

 torch-fire. The Wajiji also make large and small drag- 

 nets, some let down in a circle by one or more canoes, 

 the others managed by two fishermen, who, swimming 

 at each end, draw them in when ready. They have little 

 purse-nets to catch small fry, hoops thrust into a long 

 stick-handle through the reed walls that line the shore ; 

 and by this simple contrivance the fish are caught in 

 considerable quantities. The wigo or crates alluded to 

 as peculiar in the 4 Peri plus,' and still common upon 

 the Zanzibar coast, are found at the Tanganyika. The 

 common creel resembles the khun of Western India, 

 and is well-known even to the Bushmen of the South : 

 it is a cone of open bamboo-strips or supple twigs, 

 placed lengthways, and bound in and out by strings of 

 grass or tree-fibre. It is closed at the top, and at the 

 bottom there is a narrow aperture, with a diagonally- 

 disposed entrance like that of a wire rat-trap, which 

 prevents the fish escaping. It is placed upon its side 

 with a bait, embanked with mud, reeds, or sand, and 

 seems to answer the purpose for which it is intended. 

 In Uzaramo and near the coast the people narcotise fish 

 with the juice of certain plants, asclepias and euphorbias : 

 about the Tanganyika the art appears unknown. 



There are many varieties of fish in the waters of this 

 Lake. The Mvoro is a long and bony variety, in shape 

 like a large mackerel ; the Sangale resembles it, but the 

 head and body are thicker. The Mgege, which suggests 

 the Pomfret of Western India, is well flavoured, but full 

 of bones. The Mguhe is said to attain the length of 

 five or six feet : it is not unlike the kheri of the Indian 



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