NOAH'S ARK 77 



of wooden posts, with a roof of bamboo poles, and 

 divided into four or five rooms within, and thatched, 

 both roof and walls, with banana-leaves ; there is 

 generally a projection from the roof, 3 feet or 4 feet 

 wide, forming a sort of porch over the doorway. 

 When the walls begin to give way, or the house 

 becomes for some other reason uninhabitable, it is 

 not uncommon to see the roof, supported on a dozen 

 pairs of black legs which appear beneath it, moving 

 about the hill-side to be fixed on to a new wall else- 

 where. It was amusing to watch the population 

 emerging from the huts in the morning. After a 

 great deal of crowing and clucking, some one inside 

 would take the trouble to open the door and let out 

 a dozen or twenty chickens, followed by as many 

 sheep and goats ; after a short interval five or six 

 children would appear, then the women, and last of 

 all, slowly and deliberately, the lords of creation. 

 The greatest number that I counted, exclusive of 

 live-stock, was seventeen from one hut ; considering 

 that there is always a fire burning in the house, and 

 that the close-fitting door, the only apparent means 

 of ventilation, is always tightly shut when the family 

 retires to rest, it is difficult to understand why they 

 ever come out alive at all. 



The men spend a good deal of their time in 

 hunting monkeys and small antelopes and hyraxes ; 

 these latter (the conies of the ' stony rocks ') are 

 very eagerly sought for, both for their meat, which 

 is considered a great delicacy (we found it rather 



