TREE-HOUSES. 537 



fastened together so as to make a conical-shaped hut, about six 

 feet in diameter at the bottom, and barely as much in height, so 

 that a tall man could hardly lie at full length even when occupy- 

 ing the very centre of it. The roof of the hut was made of grass, 

 and the sides were wattled with the same substance. As the hut 

 was always placed at one edge of the scaffold, the opposite edge 

 afforded a small landing or platform, about a foot or eighteen 

 inches in width. The only method of approaching these curious 

 huts was by means of notches cut in the trunk of the tree, the 

 owners not daring to trust to any less difficult means of ascent. 



"We now ask ourselves why the natives chose to live in such 

 small and inconvenient dwellings, when there was ample space 

 on the fertile ground for a village. Moselekatze was the cause. 

 His armed hordes, with their wonderful discipline, had swept over 

 the country, destroyed all military power, carried off the cattle, in 

 which consists the wealth of the South African, killed many war- 

 riors, and disarmed the rest. Under these circumstances, the wild 

 beasts began to increase in number and audacity, and the enfee- 

 bled members of the tribe were perforce obliged to abandon their 

 ordinary mode of life, and to reside among the branches where 

 the lions could not reach them. During the day they were toler- 

 ably safe, but at night they retired to the trees. 



In one of these aerial huts Mr. Moffatt passed the night, having 

 previously shot a rhinoceros, and put the hump into a deserted 

 ant-hill which was used as an oven. During the night the lions 

 came and did their best to devour the meat, the savory smell of 

 which attracted them on all sides. Fortunately for the travelers, 

 the oven was too hot for the lions, and although they growled 

 and snarled over it all night, they dared not attack it, and retired 

 in the morning. The chief food of the people who inhabit these 

 huts consisted of locusts and roots, for their cattle were gone, they 

 could not make fences wherein to inclose a patch of cultivated 

 ground, the lions had driven away the smaller game, and the few 

 weapons which had escaped Moselekatze were insufficient for the 

 slaughter of the larger and more powerful animals. 



