(;:)() 



BANTU NEGROES 



generally, two doorways, one o^tposite tlie otiier. Outside the front 

 doorway the roof is prolonged into a kind of })orch which o})ens out in a 

 gi'eat horseshoe shajx-. something like tlu^ old ''coalscuttle" bonnet. The 



360. THE "clothed BAGAXDa" 



doorway is fairly lofty— much more so than in any other tyjie of Xegro 

 house — but the door-posts, which are generally small tree-trunks encased 

 in a reed covering, con^•erge somewhat in their u}>per extremities, so that 

 the shape of the door is a very long o\'al. The interior of a chief's 

 house has the general level of the floor raised at least a foot above the 

 ground by a hard structure of clay smeared over with mud and cow-dung, 

 so that it is absolutely smooth, and in some })laces is shiny and black 

 with the polish of feet going to and fro. Other daises often rise in steps 

 above the level of the floor. The roof is relativelv verv hiifh in the 



