204 CONSTRUCTION OF HUTS. CHAP. VIII. 



the possession of clothes creates a demand for soap ; give 

 a man a needle, and he is soon hack to you for thread. 



This being a time of monrning, on account of the illness 

 of the chief, the men were negligent of their persons, they 

 did not cut their hair, or have merry dances, or carry 

 spear and shield when they walked abroad. The wife of 

 Pitsane was busy making a large hut, while we were in 

 the town : she informed us that the men left house-building 

 entirely to the women and servants. A round tower of 

 stakes and reeds, nine or ten feet high, is raised and plas- 

 tered ; a floor is next made of soft tufa, or ant-hill material 

 and cowdung. This plaster prevents the poisonous insects, 

 called tampans, whose bite causes fever in some, and 

 painful sores in all, from harbouring in the cracks or soil. 

 The roof, which is much larger in diameter than the 

 tower, is made on the ground, and then, many persons 

 assisting, lifted up and placed on the tower, and thatched. 

 A plastered reed fence is next built up to meet the outer 

 part of the roof, which still projects a little over this 

 fence, and a space of three feet remains between it and the 

 tower. We slept in this space, instead of in the tower, as 

 the inner door of the hut we occupied was uncomfortably 

 small, being only nineteen inches high, and twenty-two 

 inches wide at the floor. A foot from the bottom it mea- 

 sured seventeen inches in breadth, and close to the top 

 only twelve inches, so it was a difficult matter to get 

 through it. The tower has no light or ventilation, except 

 through this small door. The reason a lady assigned for 

 having the doors so very small was to keep out the mice ! 



The children have merry times, especially in the cool 

 of the evening. One of their games consists of a little girl 

 being carried on the shoulders of two others. She sits 

 with outstretched arms, as they walk about with her, and 

 all the rest clap their hands, and stopping before each hut 

 sing pretty airs, some beating time on their little kilts of 



