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BANTU NEGROES 



round the inner fireplace. There are two fireplaces in the hut, concerning 

 which there is the most rigid etiquette. Strangers or friends who are not 



near relatives when visiting the hut do not go beyond the first fireplace, 

 which is near the door. It would be a great breach of good manners if 

 they sat at the second fireplace, which is very nearly in the middle of the 

 hut. The only people who are allowed this privilege are the brothers and 

 sisters of the hut-owner, his wives, and his unmarried sons and daughters. 

 The husbands of his daughters or the wives of his sons are not allowed to 

 go to the innermost fireplace. If these rules are transgressed, the person 

 offending has to kill a goat. All the occupants of the house then wear 

 small pieces of the skin of the sacrificed goat, and smear a little of the 

 dung on their chests. The furniture of a house usually consists of skins 

 for sleeping on, cooking-pots, water- pots, beer-pots, and big earthenware 

 vessels for containing dry grain. There is a large hollowed-out stone on 

 the verandah, together with a small, round, and smooth boulder, which 

 are kept within the right-hand porch, for grinding corn. 



Every full-grown man has a house to himself, and a house for each 

 of his wives. Usually the huts belonging to a single family are enclosed 

 within a fence of thorns and aloes. This, however, applies more to the 

 southern part of Kavirondo. In the north, and on the western slopes of 

 Mount Elgon, large and small villages exist within a single circle of 



