136 DELAGOA BAY. 



rally stands by the door of every woman's hut, 

 denoting the sex of the occupant. 



The huts are round in shape, with conical 

 roofs ; the walls are usually four feet high, made 

 of canipo and mangrove poles, and a small 

 portico is always built over the entrance. The 

 inside is daubed with clay made with a red 

 earth mostly brought from the foot of the cliff 

 near Reuben Point, and which cakes so firmly 

 when mixed with water that I should suppose 

 it to be ant-hill sand but that the Kafirs all 

 deny it. From its colour it must be strongly 

 impregnated with iron, as also must the large 

 heavy red boulders brought from the same spot 

 and used here for building purposes. The roofs 

 are thatched with a reedy grass over a frame- 

 work of thin sticks projecting considerably over 

 the walls, so that the thatch often nearly reaches 

 to the ground, effectually keeping off the rain, 

 and forming a nice shelter for the fowls during 

 the heat of the day. The thatch is cut quite short 

 over the portico. Some huts have a wooden door, 

 but generally it is made of canifo like the walls. 



