IN BUHU. 



399 



heart, hastily clearing off the fire they threw the pig body-hulk 

 on the glowmg stones, closely coTering it up with fresh green 

 banana leaves. In little over an hour we had served up to ns 

 a piece of pork baked to perfection, the most deliciously 

 flavoured I have ever tasted. When we had rested some time 

 after our meal their jubilation was further marked by a musical 

 performance given in one of their huts, and, as we were invited 

 to attend, I had an opiwrtunity of seeing the interior arrange- 

 ment of their houses. 



They were constructed of uneven strips of tree bark, roughly 

 set up side by side on the imlevelled ground, held in place by 

 narrow rinds of bamboo on each side, tightly tied together by 

 thongs at the gaps between each strip of bark. By these wide 

 chinks the pigs and dogs made the dwelling as much theirs 

 as the owuer^s. The roof was of palm thatch and badly put 

 on patches of bark. At both gables was a quadi'uuguiar hoi© 

 to serve as doorway and window, closed by a squarish piece of 

 bark hung by a thong through a hole in the wall above it 

 Between these openiugs there ran a central passage, full (its I 

 saw it) of pools of water. The space on each side of this 

 passage was ilivided off by low bark partitions into three or 

 four narrow stalls (across the top of which was piled their 

 store of wood logs) such as might be foimd in the worst 

 possible cowhouse ; while against the wall where one would 

 loc»lv for a manger was a small platform raised two or 

 three feet from the ground, to serve for seat or bed. The 

 fire was made anywhere which wiis for the moment most 

 convenient— in the ptissage, or in one of the stalls — the smoke 

 of>zing through the numerous chinks and by a small patch 

 raised in one of the rows of thatch. There was not in the 

 whole dwelling a single article of furniture or any decorative 

 artifice or a single device for affording convenience or comlbrt. 



To accommodate me with a seat to listen to the musical 

 " function,*' a large stone had to l>e brought in. The per- 

 formers, who were of both sexes, disposed themselves in the 

 passage on stones and logs. The men sang an improvised 

 song to their own vi^^orous accompaniment on the native Ufa , 

 or drum, to which the women, sitting on their heels, languidly 

 supporting their heads on their arms, which rested on their 

 knees, contributed an unchanging refrain at the end of every 



