'I closely questioned the natives as to why they had built their village
upon the lake, and they invariably gave as their reason that they chiefly
fished at night; and, as the water often overflowed, they would have to
build their houses too far away to be able to come and go during the
night; whereas "now," they said, "we are close to where we catch our fish,
and we often catch them even from our houses." Underneath each house were
tied from one to five, and sometimes more, canoes. These were much
lighter, more rounded off in the keel, stem, and stern, than the
beach-canoes.

'Three white men, they told me, had visited their village--Captain Dudley
in 1876, judging from the age of a child who was born at the time of his
visit; Captain Grant and Mr. Gillett, in 1878, I afterwards learnt, were
the other two. None of them went further into the interior.

'After breakfast we crossed the lagoon, passing on our way several canoes
fishing in the middle. The water was very clear and blue, and of
considerable depth, judging from a stone dropped in. Unfortunately I had
no other means of sounding. Not until a dozen yards from the shore were
any signs of a stream discernible. Pushing aside some reeds, we entered a
narrow lane of water, varying from three feet to eighteen feet in width,
deep, and, according to the natives, navigable for three days by canoes.
This stream is known by the name of Bousaha, and the lagoon by Ebumesu.
After two hours' hard paddling in a northerly direction we stopped to walk
to the village of Níbá, a large place, principally engaged in raising food
for the coast fishing-villages and Béin, and also in elephant-hunting.

'Elephants at the time of my visit were reported in large numbers two
days' journey in the bush, and the villagers were then organising a party
for a hunt. Outside the village I came across the skull of a young