384 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
formers with the paddle — in this respect unlike their neighbours to the 
north, the Mampukushu, who are experts with it. On a former journey 
by water up the Okovango to Dibebe's (Andara) in April, 1910, I was 
struck with the skill of the Mampukushu in negotiating the rapids of the 
Okovango, which they navigate, both up and down, two men standing in 
the canoe using the long paddle, or oar, with great dexterity. Some 
Makuba, who had reluctantly accompanied me as far as the beginning of 
the rapids at Popa and who were much alarmed at the big river, 
which they had never seen before, were very astonished at the per- 
formances of the Mampukushu. 
Eamokwati, an old Mokuba over eighty years of age, the grandson of 
Zankotse, who was the chief of the Makuba when Tawana and his people 
arrived at the Lake, states that the Makuba were more numerous in those 
days, having been subsequently decimated by some epidemic. He says 
that a large number lived on the shores of the Lake, Zankotse's village 
standing where Eamotsamaesi's village stands to-day on the Lake Eiver ; 
and the Lake was a vast expanse of open water, and that Makuba who 
plied with their canoes on it were often swamped by the waves and lost ; 
that Tawana was friendly with the Makuba and did not exact tribute from 
them and make them his servants as he and his people were anxious that 
the Makuba should teach them " to go on the water in canoes " ; that it 
was subsequent chiefs who made them servants. 
The river-system of N'gamiland abounds in fish, chiefly perch of 
many varieties. Mr. E. B. Woosnam, who collected specimens in 
N'gamiland in 1909 on behalf of the British Museum, obtained, I think, 
13 varieties of perch. Besides perch, there is the ordinary South African 
" barbel," or " toni " as the Makuba call it ; a small kind of pike ; and in 
the main stream of the Okovango, the " tiger fish," a black and silver 
spotted fish of pike habits, scaling frequently 12 lbs. and upwards. This 
last gives good sport, casting and trolling, with the pike rod. The Makuba 
fish chiefly with the net, which they manufacture from string made from 
the fibre of an aloe, the " mokgotse," which is plentiful in many parts of 
N'gamiland, as well as from the " maqanqawa," a prickly stemmed plant 
about 6 feet high growing on the banks of islands in the swamps some 
distance to the north of Tsau and which is not so plentiful. The net is 
soaked in a red dye made from the inner bark of the " Mooka "-tree to 
preserve it from rot. Small bunches of " madinti," a water-rush, are 
used as floats. Having extended the net in shallow water the fish are 
driven into it by Makuba approaching in canoes beating the water with 
their punt poles. They also catch fish to a large extent with fish traps, 
both fixed and portable. The former are erected in running channels in 
the shape of a stockade made of reeds across the stream, with sundry (in 
plan) heart-shaped enclosures with narrow openings at the V, at the top 
