192 



THE VILLAGE. 



situation, and circle of tall forest. Rendered in- 

 visible till near by screening tree, bush, and spear 

 grass, it is protected by a stout palisade of trunks, 

 and this, in directions where foes, human or bes- 

 tial, may be expected, is doubled and trebled. 

 The entrances, in the shape of low triangles, 

 formed by inclining the posts en chevron, lead to a 

 heap of wattle and dab huts, here square, there 

 round: they are huddled together, but where 

 space allows they are spread over a few hundred 

 feet. Goats, sheep, and black cattle, which, con- 

 trary to the custom of Guinea, thrive beyond the 

 coast, are staked near or inside the owners' habit- 

 ations. Prom the deep strong-flowing Rufu, 

 running purple, like Adonis after rains, with the 

 rich loam of the hills, and here about 80 yards 

 wide, a bathing-place is staked off, against the hip- 

 popotamus and the crocodile. Our Baloch, who 

 hold, with all Orientials, that drinking the element 

 at night impairs digestion, make of this an excep- 

 tion : and my companion, an old Himalayan, 

 thought that he could detect in it the peculiar 

 rough smack of snow water. The stream is navi- 

 gable, but boats are arrested by the falls below, 

 and portages are not yet known in East Africa. 



The villagers are cultivators, tame, harmless 

 heathen, to all but one another: unfortunately 



