ks that I kept my eyes fixed on must
have knocked down six birds. I will practice with these things, and if
I ever get back home I will teach their use to our people. There are
almost as many waterfowl on our sea as there are here. I have seen it
almost black with them down at the southern end, where it is bordered
by swamps and reed-covered marshes."

"How do they catch them there, Jethro?" Chebron asked.

"They net them in decoys, and sometimes wade out among them with their
heads hidden among floating boughs, and so get near enough to seize
them by the legs and pull them under water; in that way a man will
catch a score of them before their comrades are any the wiser."

"We catch them the same way here," one of the fowlers who had been
listening remarked. "We weave little bowers just large enough for our
heads and shoulders to go into, and leave three or four of them
floating about for some days near the spot where we mean to work. The
wild fowl get accustomed to them, and after that we can easily go
among them and capture numbers."

"I should think fowling must be a good trade," Chebron said.

"It is good enough at times," the man replied; "but the ducks are not
here all the year. The long-legged birds are always to be found here
in numbers, but the ducks are uncertain, so are the geese. At certain
times in the year they leave us altogether. Some say they go across
the Great Sea to the north; others that they go far south into Nubia.
Then even when they are here they are uncertain. Sometimes they are
thick here, then again there is scarce one to be seen, and we hear
they are swarming on the lakes further to the west. Of course the
wading birds are of no use for food; so you see when the ducks and
geese are scarce, we have a hard time of it. Then, again, even when we
have got a boat-load we have a long way to take it to market, and when
the weather is hot all may get spoiled before we can sell them; and
the price is so low in these parts when the flocks are here that it
is hard to lay by enough money to keep us and our families during the
slack time. If the great cities Thebes and Memphis lay near to us,
it would be different. They could consume all we could catch, and
we should get better prices, but unless under very favorable
circumstances there is no hope of the fowl keeping good during the
long passage up the river to Thebes. In fact, were it not for our
decoys we should starve. In these, of course, we take