MODE OF FISHING. 
201 
small pieces of bnaised yam, intestines of animals 
or fish, &c., are thrown over the net, and if the fisher- 
men see the prey moving about, it is slowly lifted 
out of the water. They propitiate their gods by 
Fetiches emblematical of the employment, small carved 
fishes being hung in the huts, or fastened to the lines. 
Some few sorts of fish, one of which much resembled 
mullet, were brought off, cooked in native fashion, 
which is done in the following way : After withdraw- 
ing the inside, the head and tail are secured together 
with a bit of grass, then having been dipped in palm-oil 
and hot pepper, they are dried and smoked over a wood 
fire, which gives a not unpleasant flavour. 
Sometimes the smaller ones are strung on a switch 
and prepared in the above way ; palm-oil is certainly 
an improvement, the fish being mostly very dry. 
It would he impossible to give a description of scenery 
which offered each mile we advanced some new and 
interesting feature, and a wildness of character which 
accorded not inaptly with the human denizens in its 
neighbourhood. The smooth surface of the water was 
in several places covered with tiny canoes, the possessors 
of which could not command sufficient courage to fulfil 
their earnest longings to traffic, yet they followed us at a 
little distance, paddling very rapidly, as if in mimic race 
with the object of their inquisitive fears. The females 
were equally expert as the men in using their little 
vessels, and some of them even ventured alongside to 
receive a few handkerchiefs and needles ; the latter were 
