PICTURESQUE BUILDINGS 



which trade had made known to them ; and there 

 they founded small separate kingdoms. The history 

 of Lamu from that time onwards is somewhat 

 obscure, but it is known to have undergone many 

 vicissitudes ; it was captured by Tristan da Cunha 

 at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and con- 

 tinued to be under Portuguese rule, in spite of many 

 revolutions, for about one hundred and sixty years. 

 Civil war and internal dissensions of all kinds then 

 broke out along the whole of the East African coast, 

 and permanent peace was not secured until 1893.^ 



The first thing that strikes the traveller on 

 entering Lamu are the tall stone houses, built of 

 coral rock, and constructed after the Arab fashion, 

 round an open central courtyard. Many of these 

 houses have beautiful doors, handsomely carved, and 

 decorated with brass or iron knobs or handles. The 

 streets are very narrow, only sufficiently wide to 

 allow a loaded donkey or two men abreast to pass 

 at the same time. Most of the refuse is thrown out 

 into the road from the houses, so that the smell is 

 appalling. The narrowness of the streets only serves 

 to emphasise the heiglit of the houses, so that as one 

 walks along they appear to be nothing less than 

 " sky-scrapers." But the effect, on the whole, is 

 quaint and picturesque. 



Another sight, peculiar to Lamu I believe, cannot 

 fail to interest the traveller. A free-born woman, 

 when she goes out into the town, holds a kind of tent, 

 called "Shiraa," above her head. It is composed of 

 two cloths sewn together, with a stick attached 

 to each corner. If she has no servants or slaves, 

 she takes two sticks in each hand and thus stretches 

 1 The LandofZinj, by Capt. C, H. Stigand, p. 15. 

 32 



