A MOEU VILLAGE. 313 



officer and fifty soldiers will certainly suffice to ensure order. 

 What sufferings these poor people must have endured ! 



Biti is situated outside the district of Kedeni, in the Morii 

 country, which includes Moru-Kodo, or " northern " Morii, and 

 Morii-Missa, or " southern " Morii, a distinct dialect being 

 spoken in each of these divisions. Although the language 

 is perfectly distinct, and belongs to the westerly group of the 

 languages of our province, the frisure, ornaments, weapons, 

 and dress, if one can speak of dress, are exactly identical with 

 those of the Kedeni. Most of the women are perfectly nude, 

 only some few of them hanging a small leafy twig from the 

 back of their girdles. It is curious to note that if one meets 

 a company of such belles dteolletfas carrying water, they cover 

 their faces with their disengaged hand. All that you see 

 in Africa seems to prove that modesty is only a product of 

 education. 



The village of Biti is rather straggling, and contains two 

 hundred and fifty to three hundred huts, together with their 

 granaries. The huts are usually built in groups of two and three, 

 surrounded by small fences ; they have bell-shaped roofs, and are, 

 on the whole, rather larger than those seen in Kederii. They are 

 constructed, however, in the same neat manner, and have small 

 square entrances, which can be closed by day from the outside, 

 and by night from the inside, by a kind of lid. From a hygienic 

 point of view, it would be interesting to know how much oxygen 

 is provided for the two or three persons to breathe who sleep 

 in these hermetically sealed huts, in which a fire burns. 

 Large baskets, plastered over with clay, placed upon platforms, 

 about three feet high, and covered with conical straw lids, serve 

 as granaries. Just now they contain reddish-white durrah and 

 dokhn, which constitutes the chief article of food, and is eaten 

 as porridge, served with vegetable sauces. Various species of 

 gourds and Gynandropsis thrive everywhere, and provide the 

 materials for these sauces ; yams and other roots also find their 

 way into the kitchen. The tobacco grown in this country 

 (mashirr, or Nicotiana rustica) has yellow flowers, and is very 

 strong. It is chewed as well as smoked, the former practice 

 having probably been introduced by the Danagla. Disorder 

 and dirt rule throughout the whole village, except near the 



