BANTU NEGROES 



O.")! 



centre. It is conijjosed of a vast framework of paliu-froiid stems or flexil)le 

 sticks lined inside with closely tied canework. Tliis framework of the 

 roof really extends uninterruptedly to tlie i^round. and round the edge of 

 the hut and its narrow verandah, if it has one. It is strengthened from 

 the ground upwards by a circle of poles which are placed })erpendicularly 

 in the ground all round the periphery of the house, and which fit into the 

 roof just where it begins to slo])e upwards towards the a]iex. The roof is 

 supported in the interior by tall, straight poles mad<' of the stems of the 

 wild date palm. In the fore part of the hut. near the main door, at 

 about an ecpial distance between the projection ovei' the jiorch and the 

 apex of the roof, there is a screen or partition wall with su})[)orts in the 

 centre made of these date-palm columns going right u[) to the roof. 



In all Uganda buildings of the old ty2)e (I am obliged to })ut in this 

 pi'oviso, because the Kaganda are changing their customs so rapidly, and 

 many of them are now building houses after the European style in bricks) 

 the palm-trunk column is an ever-present and picturesque feature. The 

 dwellings of kings and chiefs, churches, mosques, and schools are all 

 distinguished by this forest of smooth, straight, slender palm-trunks. 

 Their use enables the jNIuganda of the better class to give his roof a high 

 pitch and his dwelling 

 a stateliness which 

 makes it something 

 far superior to the 

 ordinary African hut, 

 1 10 we ver extensive 

 may be the ramifica- 

 tions of these low- 

 pitclied dwellings. Of 

 course the houses of 

 the peasantry are 

 greatly inferior in 

 appearance to those 

 of the gentle-folk, 

 and many of them at 

 a distance look like 

 untidy haycocks. The 

 thatch of the better 

 class of dw'ellings is 

 in itself a special 

 feature of Uganda and such countries to the west as follow Uganda 

 fashions. The thatch is extremely thick, perluips as much as a foot in 

 density. It is of fine long grass, and all over the front of the house, 



361. AN U(;ANI)A CKOWI) 



