THE VILLAGE OF KIBIRO. 173 



dition, and contains a number of huts crowded together. 

 They are constructed in the Wanyoro style, with partition 

 walls of bamboo, a raised sleeping-place for the head of the 

 family, the ground carpeted with hay, and the whole interior 

 swarming with fleas. Vast numbers of poultry abound every- 

 where ; they are a somewhat larger breed than the miniature 

 variety of the Aliiri, which, again, rival in diminutive size the 

 poultry of the Monbuttu. Multitudes of dogs, of a breed some- 

 thing like our greyhounds, and of a liver or liver-and-white 

 colour, prowl about the huts, apparently the property of nobody 

 in particular ; at any rate they are evidently uncared for, for 

 they are terribly lean, and frequently make forced loans from 

 the interior of the dwellings. Wherever there exists a suffi- 

 cient quantity of the sparse grass, large flocks of a fine breed 

 of sheep and of goats were grazing, and they seemed to enjoy 

 the vegetation that springs up on the saline soil of the hill- 

 slopes. I saw but one solitary cow. Cattle, indeed, appear to 

 be extremely rare in this district, or else do not thrive well ; 

 besides, the mountain pasturage would hardly suffice for feed- 

 ing cattle. 



Between the huts and the hamlets, and often, too, within 

 them, a few small trees grow separately, mostly Ficus lutea, 

 from the bark of which the people fabricate the well-known 

 bark cloth. These trees are not, however, expressly cultivated 

 here, but they are so easily propagated and grow so rapidly, 

 that a twig stuck in the ground only requires to be kept moist 

 to take root and shoot up immediately. Close by the margin 

 of the lake stands a single, tall, slender doleb palm, whose 

 crown is literally full of hanging nests of the weaver-bird, 

 belonging to the larger species, Hy pliant or nis aoyssinica, 

 which is so prevalent farther north about Wadelai. Here 

 too the bird gave evidence of its very quarrelsome disposi- 

 tion, for at the foot of the tree lay a great number of 

 destroyed nests and broken eggs, proving that serious com- 

 bats must often have taken place aloft. 



The vegetative covering of the hills is of a peculiarly poor 

 character, recalling that of steppe country and deserted arable 

 land. Trees are very scarce ; in fact, the sole representatives 

 of true foliaceous varieties were a couple of tamarinds in the 



