XVIII.] 



UHIYA HUTS. 



241 



feet in height planted in the ground, and kept secure by a 

 couple of binders wattled in. To the head of each of these 

 stakes, which were about eight inches apart, a long, tapering, 

 flexible wand was tied. These were bound together at the top, 

 and horizontal rings of small sticks were fastened to them at 

 every three feet. In this stage the huts looked exactly like 

 huge bird-cages. The walls were then filled in with mud, and 

 the roof thatched with long grass, the eaves reaching nearly to 

 the ground. A couple of stout logs were planted on each side 

 of the door-way, and, with some extra sticks worked in and the 

 thatch trimmed, formed a sort of porch. 



June, 

 1874. 



HTJT9 IN TTHITA. 



In the interior, the floor, walls, and lower part of the roof 

 were plastered over smoothly with clay, while the remainder of 

 the roof was lined with a spiral wisp of grass, something after 

 the manner of a straw bee-hive. 



The only aperture by which smoke could escape or light en- 

 ter was the door, and at night this was most jealously kept shut, 

 and a whole family of six or eight people, together with fowls, 

 goats, dogs, and sheep, with a fire burning in their midst, remain 

 hermetically closed in until the morning. How they manage 

 to exist without a better supply of oxygen is a mystery to me. 



The granaries are circular, of hurdle-work daubed with clay, 



17 



