320 VILLAGES 



trunk from which it was taken by means of 

 transverse pegs driven into each side of what finally 

 becomes the gunwale. It is then dried in the sun. 

 Sometimes after being taken into employment 

 these crank shells warp and take on so extra- 

 ordinary an appearance that, on the occasion of my 

 having recently to cross a fairly vvdde Central African 

 river in one of these contrivances, a young Swahili 

 follower of mine got so frightened when he saw 

 his sole means of transport that he ran away, and 

 I had much difficulty in getting him to trust him- 

 self to it. 



Surrounding the circle of native dwellings, are 

 cultivated the various food-stuffs which form the 

 staple diet. Usually on each side of the path, 

 fringed with castor-oil bushes and " Feijao " beans, 

 you will see in its season tall millet canes, each 

 crowned with a dingy seed-vessel, an ineffective imi- 

 tation of the beautiful, snovsy-plumed spear-grass, 

 but full of nourishment, which accounts for its 

 dirty grey appearance. In among the roots, gourds 

 and pumpkins sprawl over the usually clean-hoed 

 ground, and, cut out of the expanse of millet 

 garden as it were, are small clearings in which 

 flourish tobacco, sweet potatoes, ground-nuts, 

 tomatoes, chillies, hemp, and manioc. Bananas 

 spread their cool green fronds in the outskirts, 

 and in some moist neighbouring hollow the more 

 transparent verdure of growing maize hints at a wel- 

 come occasional change in the negro's monotonous 

 diet. 



The native orders his annual planting somewhat 

 as follows. The ground for the new gardens 



