216 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
and pure air invigorated one and the superb view made life 
a pleasure. The people did not at all disappoint me. 
They were one of the most thrifty tribes I had yet met 
with in Africa. Many were bordering on the negro type 
in their musculation, high cheek bones, and black color, 
while others were browner, and with more elongated and 
regular features, — Semitico-Hamitic. 
A long nose with a curved Jewish tip was very con- 
spicuous. The expression of their faces was rather pleas- 
ant, except in a few cases where the men painted them- 
selves with a red clay so as to present a diabolical 
appearance. Many of them wore caps made of goat-skins, 
with the hair attached, and which were also used as water- 
vessels; but the majority of them were bareheaded, and 
wore their hair done.up in long bushy puffs. Javelins as 
well as thrusting-spears, and round shields, often made 
of hippopotamus hide, were their weapons, offensive and 
defensive. 
The Amara guided us up a very steep passage between 
walls built against the rock, until we reached a strong- 
looking stockade made of large trees cut in sections, the 
branches as large as a man’s leg, interlocking with one 
another. Passing through a well-made gateway, we found 
ourselves in a large yard, at the other end of which was 
the chief's house, now to be placed at my disposal. The 
walls on three sides of the yard were made of stone, and 
along these were standing six huge bowls, shaped like 
water-barrels, made of plaited grass covered with clay, and 
filled with ground durrha and tobacco. The house was 
forty feet long and very wide, with a slanting thatched 
roof extending over tall wooden walls and reaching to the 
ground. 
I had to stoop to enter the one small doorway, and 
push aside the grass, after which I seemed to be in absolute 
