28 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



doorways are protected by rude charms suspended from 

 the lintel, hares' tails, zebras' manes, goats' horns, and 

 other articles of prophylactic virtue. Inside, half the 

 depth is appropriated to the Ubiri, a huge standing 

 bedframe, formed, like the plank-benches of a civilised 

 guard-room, by sleepers lying upon horizontal cross- 

 bars : these are supported by forked trunks about two 

 feet long planted firmly in the ground. The floor is of 

 tamped earth. The furniture of the Iwdnza consists 

 of a hearth and grinding-stone ; spears, sticks, arrows, 

 and shillelaghs are stuck to smoke in the dingy rafter 

 ceiling, or are laid upon hooks of crooked wood de- 

 pending from the sooty cross-beams: the corners are 

 occupied by bellows, elephant-spears, and similar arti- 

 cles. In this " public " the villagers spend their days, 

 and often, even though married, their nights, gambling, 

 eating, drinking pombe, smoking bhang and tobacco, 

 chatting, and sleeping like a litter of puppies destitute 

 of clothing, and using one another's backs, breasts, and 

 stomachs as pillows. The Iwanza appears almost pe- 

 culiar to Unyamwezi . 



In Unyamwezi the sexes do not eat together : even 

 the boys would disdain to be seen sitting at meat with 

 their mothers. The men feed either in their cottages 

 or more generally in the Iwanza : they make, when they 

 can, two meals during the day — in the morning, a 

 breakfast, which is often omitted for economy, and a 

 dinner about 3 p.m. During the interim they chew to- 

 bacco, and, that failing, indulge in a quid of clay. It pro- 

 bably contains some animal matter, but the chief reason 

 for using it is apparently the necessity to barbarians of 

 whiling away the time when not sleeping by exercising 

 their jaws. They prefer the " sweet earth," that is to 

 say, the clay of ant-hills : the Arabs have tried it with- 



