382 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXIII. 
plastered floors of the huts, while reed is still the pre- 
valent and almost exclusive material for the whole 
building. As for my own hut, it had the advantage 
of a contrivance to render the passage of the opening 
a little more easy, without diminishing the protection 
against the inclemency of the weather ; for that part 
of the front of the hut which intervened between the 
doorway and the floor of the hut was movable, and 
made to fold up. Each family has its own separate 
courtyard, which forms a little cluster of huts by it- 
self, and is often a considerable distance from the 
next yard. This kind of dwelling has certainly 
something very cheerful and pleasant in a simple and 
peaceable state of society, while it offers also the 
great advantage of protecting the villages against 
wholesale conflagrations, but it is liable to a very 
great disadvantage in a community which is threat- 
ened continually by sudden inroads from relentless 
enemies and slave-hunters. 
The storm luckily passing by, I walked through 
the village, and visited several courtyards. The in- 
habitants, who, at least outwardly, have become Mo- 
hammedans, go entirely naked, with the exception of 
a narrow strip of leather, which they pass between 
the legs and fasten round their waist. But even this 
very simple and scanty covering they seem to think 
unnecessary at times. I was struck by the beauty 
and symmetry of their forms, which were thus en- 
tirely exposed to view, and by the regularity of their 
features, which are not disfigured by incisions, and 
