230 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



southern Africa visited by Dr. Anderson — the Maka- 

 lolo tribe. 



The women are the house-builders. It is all the 

 hard work they do, but they doubtless think it 

 enough. 



The house is begun by planting a circle of stakes 

 in the earth so that they will project nine or ten feet 

 aboveground ; reeds and weeds are next woven in 

 and out of the stakes, and a cylindrical wall is formed 

 by plastering the whole with mud made from ant- 

 hills, which, as you probably know, are of immense 

 size in Africa. This sort of material makes a very 

 smooth, firm, and even surface. The floor is plas- 

 tered as well as the walls ; this is a great improve- 

 ment on the floor of earth in most native huts, as it 

 can be kept clean and does not harbor insects. 



The central circular chamber being finished, a large 

 conical roof, shaped like the hats worn by Japanese 

 and Chinese coolies or workmen, is constructed. This 

 is, in fact, the hat the house is to wear. All the 

 workwomen place themselves about it where it is 

 made, lift it from the ground, and carefully set it 

 upon the circular tower they have built. 



As the rim of the great hat projects considerably 

 beyond the plastered cylinder, it is sujiported by 

 pillars consisting of stakes driven into the ground, 

 which are made into a partition reaching almost to 

 their summits by means of interlacing reeds and 

 plaster made of earth obtained from ant-hills. An- 

 other wall built upon stakes that meet and support the 

 extreme ends of the rafters, but only about half as 



