THE EAST AFRICAN VILLAGE. 



365 



rough trunks of young trees planted in the earth, 

 neatly interwoven with parallel and concentric rings 

 of flexible twigs and withies : this is plastered inside 

 and outside with a hard coat of red or grey mud ; 

 in the poorer tenements the surface is rough and 

 chinked, in the better order it is carefully smoothed 

 and sometimes adorned with rude imitations of life. 

 The diameter averages from 20 to 25, and the height 

 from 7 to 15 feet in the centre, which is supported 

 by a strong roof-tree, to which all the stacked rafters 

 and poles converge. The roof is subsequently added, 

 it is a structure similar to the walls, interwoven 

 with sticks, upon which thick grass or palm-fronds are 

 thrown, and the whole is covered with thatch tied on 

 by strips of tree-bark. It has eaves which projecting from 

 two to six feet — under them the inhabitants love to sit 

 or sun shade themselves — rest upon horizontal bars, which 

 are here and there supported by forked uprights, trees 

 rudely barked. Near the coast the eaves are broad and 

 high : in the interior they are purposely made so low 

 that a man must creep in on all fours. The door- way 

 resembles the entrance to an English pig-sty, it serves, 

 however, to keep out heat in the hot season, and to 

 keep in smoke and warmth during the rains and the 

 cold weather : the threshold is garnished with a hori- 

 zontal log or board that defends the interior from inun- 

 dation. The door is a square of reeds fastened together 

 by bark or cord, and planted upright at night between 

 the wall and two dwarf posts at each side of the en- 

 trance : there is generally a smaller and a secret door 

 opposite that in use, and jealously closed up except 

 when flight is necessary. In the colder and damper 

 regions there is a second wall and roof outside the first, 

 forming in fact one house within the other. 



