62 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



the spear, a short iron blade on a long wooden staff, usually 

 tipped with iron at the other end to stick into the ground, 

 when at rest. The shields are very curious. The leaf-shaped 

 wicker-shield is evidently old-fashioned. The more common 

 form is the small oval leathern shield of bullock-hide ; it has 

 a raised bump or boss punched in the centre. 



The women wear a few strings of beads, but the men are 

 inordinately fond of ornaments, especially the young warrior 

 dandies. Iron-wire twisted into a spiral coil round the neck 

 as a sort of collar, or round the leg as an anklet, is the 

 height of fashion. Those who are lucky enough to secure a 

 piece of ivory wear it, if from the tusk of a hippo, as a crescent- 

 shaped ornament fastened to the forehead, but if of elephant 

 ivory, then either as a bracelet or an anklet. In the last few 

 years cowrie shells have come into favour, and are worn strapped 

 round the chest or dangling from the shoulders. 



Pink beads are the accepted currency, but even this de- 

 pends on fashion. With the smaller pink beads we used to 

 be able, on my first journey, to buy food for the caravan. 

 These beads are everywhere refused nowadays, and the tra- 

 veller would not be able to buy a stick of firewood or a single 

 sweet-potato with them. The beads now in vogue are about 

 four times as large as the former sort. 



The Kavirondo hut consists of a circular mud wall of wattle 

 and daub, with a conical grass-thatched roof; and a narrow outer 

 verandah encircles the dwelling. The entrance is very low, and 

 is closed at night by a reed-screen, movable between vertical 

 posts, and securely fastened by a horizontal bar. The interior 

 of the hut is very dark. The hut not only shelters the whole 

 family, but the poultry, goats, and sheep, and occasionally a cow 

 as well. There is no ventilation of any sort. One would imagine 

 a dreadful state of ill-health from these, to Europeans, insanitary 

 conditions ; as a fact, the natives are most healthy, except for 

 such diseases as have been imported by passing caravans. 



Owing to the destruction caused by annually recurring grass- 

 fires for generations past, the want of wood is becoming yearly 

 more acutely felt by the traveller. The natives can manage to 

 cook their food by using the dried stems of Kaffre-corn or 

 maize or elephant-grass, but the firewood for a camp has to be 

 fetched from a considerable distance, and the traveller has to 

 pay accordingly. 



