68 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



rivers, and to a European palate it is the best fish that 

 swims in these waters. The largest is the Singd, a 

 scaleless variety, with black back, silvery belly, small 

 fins, and long fleshy cirri : it crawls along the bottom, and 

 is unfit for leaping or for rapid progress. This sluggish 

 and misshapen ground-fish is much prized by the people 

 on account of its rich and luscious fat. Like the Pallu 

 of Sindh, it soon palls upon the European palate. Want 

 of flavour is the general complaint made by the Arabs 

 and coast people against the produce of the Tanganyika : 

 they attempt to diminish the wateriness of the fish by 

 exposing it spitted to a slow fire, and by subsequently 

 stowing it for the night in well-closed earthen pots. 

 Besides the five varieties above alluded to, there are 

 dwarf eels of good flavour, resembling the Indian Bam ; 

 Daga'a, small fish called by the Arabs Kashu'a, 

 minnows of many varieties, which, simply sundried, or 

 muriated if salt can be afforded, find their way far east ; 

 a dwarf shrimp, about one- quarter the size of the com- 

 mon English species ; and a large bivalve called Sinani, 

 and identified as belonging to the genus Iridina. The 

 meat is fat and yellow, like that of a well-fed oyster, 

 but it is so insipid that none but a Mjiji can eat it. 

 The shells collected upon the shores of the Tanganyika 

 and on the land journey have been described by Mr. 

 Samuel P. Woodward, who courteously named the 

 species after the European members of the Expedition. 

 To his memoir — quoted in pages 102, 103 of this 

 volume — the reader is referred. 



The Wajiji are considered by the Arabs to be the 

 most troublesome race in these black regions. They 

 are taught, by the example of their chiefs, to be rude, 

 insolent, and extortionate ; they demand beads even for 

 pointing out the road ; they will deride and imitate a 



