I Rushed Into The Lake,
And Thirsty With Heat And Fatigue, With A Heart Full Of Gratitude, I
Drank Deeply From The Sources Of The Nile.
Within a quarter of a mile of
the lake was a fishing village named Vacovia, in which we now
established ourselves.
Everything smelt of fish - and everything looked
like fishing; not the "gentle art" of England with rod and fly, but
harpoons were leaning against the huts, and lines almost as thick as the
little finger were hanging up to dry, to which were attached iron hooks
of a size that said much for the monsters of the Albert lake. On
entering the hut I found a prodigious quantity of tackle; the lines were
beautifully made of the fibre of the plantain stem, and were exceedingly
elastic, and well adapted to withstand the first rush of a heavy fish;
the hooks were very coarse, but well barbed, and varied in size from two
to six inches. A number of harpoons and floats for hippopotami were
arranged in good order, and the tout ensemble of the hut showed that the
owner was a sportsman.
The harpoons for hippopotami were precisely the same pattern as those
used by the Hamran Arabs on the Taka frontier of Abyssinia, having a
narrow blade of three-quarters of an inch in width, with only one barb.
The rope fitted to the harpoon was beautifully made of plantain fibre,
and the float was a huge piece of ambatch-wood about fifteen inches in
diameter.
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