222 THE QUEENS' DUTIES. [chap. vii. 



it is marsliy and flooded, and the people live in houses 

 built on poles. 



It is very remarkable that between Chapupa's werft 

 (where the waggons were left) and Nangoro's, a 

 distance of 220 miles, we had not crossed a single 

 river-bed. There was the mark of one little rivulet 

 about four feet wide, near Otchikoto, and that was 

 literally all. I could obtain no answer from Nangoro 

 as to whether or not I might proceed. Chik, who was 

 our only medium of communication, put off everything 

 with a "to-morrow." We were so teased with his 

 procrastination, that we christened him "Mahuka," 

 which was his favourite word. I went to Nangoro's to 

 see his wives at work, threshing corn. They make 

 meal by pounding the grain in a stone mortar ; every- 

 thing was scrupulously clean and tidy. The granaries 

 are in shape and manufacture exactly like our common 

 bee-hives, though considerably larger, about four feet 

 in diameter; these are placed with the point downwards, 

 each in a rough frame-work on three legs, which raises 

 it a foot from off the ground ; into the bee-hive, the 

 grain is put, and the whole is thatched and plastered 

 over : in Nangoro's granary rows and rows of these 

 were standing. 



I have no fancy for tlieir houses ; they are so 

 absurdly small. They are circular, five and a half feet 

 across, and three feet high, with a conical thatched roof 

 above all ; the door is two feet high, and one and a 

 half broad. Nangoro sleeps in the open air under a 

 shed, as he is too fat to creep into one of these houses. 

 Each hut is occupied by an entire family : a husband, 



