330 THE LAKE EE G IONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



supported by stout uprights, shelters a broad bench of 

 raised earthwork, where men sit to enjoy the morning 

 cool and the evening serenity, and where they pray, 

 converse, and transact their various avocations. A 

 portcullis-like door, composed of two massive planks, 

 with chains thick as a ship's cable — a precaution ren- 

 dered necessary by the presence of wild slaves — leads 

 into the barzah, or vestibule. The only furniture is a 

 pair of clay benches extending along the right and left- 

 sides, with pillow-shaped terminations of the same 

 material ; over these, when visitors are expected, rush 

 mats and rugs are spread. From this barzah a passage, 

 built at the angle proper to baffle the stranger's curi- 

 osity, leads into the interior, a hollow square or oblong, 

 with the several rooms opening upon a courtyard, 

 which, when not built round, is completely closed by a 

 "liwan" — a fence of small tree-trunks or reeds. The 

 apartments have neither outward doors nor windows : 

 small bull's-eyes admit the air, and act as loop-holes in 

 case of need. The principal room on the master's side 

 of the house has a bench of clay, and leads into a dark 

 closet where stores and merchandise are placed. There 

 are separate lodgings for the harem, and the domestic 

 slaves live in barracoons or in their own outhouses. 

 This form of Tembe is perhaps the dullest habitation 

 ever invented by man. The exterior view is carefully 

 removed from sight, and the dull, dirty courtyard, often 

 swamped during the rains, is ever before the tenant's 

 eyes ; the darkness caused by want of windows painfully 

 contrasts with the flood of sunshine pouring in through 

 the doors, and at night no number of candles will light 

 up its gloomy walls of grey or reddish mud. The 

 breeze is either excluded by careless frontage, or the 

 high and chilling winds pour in like torrents ; the roof 



