XI.] DWELLINGS OF THE PEOPLE. 141 



form an oven. The only cooking utensils are earthen pots, December, 

 nearly every thing being prepared for eating by boiling. ^^'^^^ 



In the next division kids and lambs are kept, and the inner- 

 most one is used as a granary, where corn is stored in " lindo " 

 or bark bandboxes, with the lids carefully luted on with clay. 

 These lindo are often of enormous size, some being sufficiently 

 large to contain a dozen sacks. Smaller lindo are frequently 

 used as trunks for traveling. 



Light is admitted only through the door, which also provides 

 the sole means for the escape of smoke, and, as a consequence, 

 the rafters and walls are black and shiny, and the cobwebs with 

 which they are festooned are loaded with soot. Among the 

 rafters, walking-sticks, bows, spears, knobsticks, and arrows are 

 stored, to become seasoned by the smoke. 



As may be expected, these dwellings are infested with ver- 

 min, the worst being enormous ticks, the bite of which is so an- 

 noying that the Arabs believe them to be venomous, and often 

 to cause fevers. 



The main staple of food here — as indeed throughout Africa 

 —is ugali, a sort of porridge. It is made by boiling water, and 

 then mixing in flour and stirring until the mixture becomes a 

 stiff and heavy mass. It is then turned out, and the superflu- 

 ous moisture is allowed to drain away. 



Meat is so rarely obtained that it is most voraciously de- 

 voured. AVhen game is plentiful, however, they sometimes 

 exercise a little forethought, and smoke the flesh for keeping. 

 This process consists of cutting it into strij^s and placing these 

 on branches over a fire of green wood. 



The clothing of the Wanyamwezi is usually of cloth obtained 

 in trade ; but the poorer people have to^content themselves with 

 native cloth made from the inner bark of a species of fig-tree. 



The outer covering of this tree is stripped off in the rainy 

 season, and the trunk swathed with banana-leaves until the in- 

 ner bark becomes sufficiently soft and tender for manufacture. 

 It is then removed and steeped in water, after which it is laid 

 on a plank and tapped gently with mallets, usually made of 

 rhinoceros horn grooved on the face. At each tap the piece 

 of bark grows larger and larger, and, when finished, has some- 

 thing the appearance of a felted corduroy. 



