We Had Been So Entirely Hidden
While On The Lake On The Other Side Of The Reed Bank That We
Had been
unable to see the eastern, or Magungo shore; we now found ourselves in a
delightful spot beneath the
Shade of several enormous trees on firm
sandy and rocky ground, while the country rose in a rapid incline to the
town of Magungo, about a mile distant, on an elevated ridge.
My first question was concerning the riding oxen. They were reported in
good order. We were invited to wait under a tree until the presents from
the headmen should be delivered. Accordingly, while my wife sat under
the shade, I went to the waterside to examine the fishing arrangements
of the natives, that were on an extensive scale. For many hundred feet,
the edges of the floating reeds were arranged to prevent the possibility
of a large fish entering the open water adjoining the shore without
being trapped. A regular system of baskets were fixed at intervals, with
guiding fences to their mouths. Each basket was about six feet in
diameter, and the mouth about eighteen inches; thus the arrangements
were for the monsters of the lake, the large bones of which, strewed
about the vicinity, were a witness of their size. My men had just
secured the half of a splendid fish, known in the Nile as the "baggera."
They had found it in the water, the other portion having been bitten off
by a crocodile. The piece in their possession weighed about fifty
pounds.
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