Savage Africa. 
25 
worked up into it, until the mass weighs from four to six 
pounds. 
Their houses are in most instances of the beehive shape, 
and furnished only with skins, rude mats, pottery of their 
own making, and weapons of war. In some cases the 
villages were numerously peopled, and arranged in streets 
crossing at right angles, or converging to the centre hut, 
which in such cases is that of the chief. Sometimes the 
chief is buried in his cattlti-pen, and after the grave is 
covered up, the cattle are driven round and round the 
pen for two or three hours, until all trace of the grave is 
obliterated. We are told of some curious habitations of 
different kinds in Central Africa. On one of the lakes, are 
floating villages. Logs, branches, and earth, are laid on the 
river plants, which grow in thick masses, and pushed away 
from shore. These masses are capable of bearing huts. 
Huts are then built upon the floating platform, which is 
itself moored to strong poles, until it suits the residents to 
move further down stream, when the poles are pulled up, 
and away the island floats to the next stopping-place. 
Cameron saw many huts built on piles driven into Lake 
Mohrya, and endeavoured to open communication with the 
lake-dwellers, but in vain ; their timidity and fear overcom- 
ing all desires for intercourse. Under the bed of the river 
Lufira, on the other hand, are to be found caves inhabited 
by a certain tribe, who find these catacombs to be a strong- 
hold and defence against assailants. 
The religions of these tribes, where any is practised, may 
be described as a kind of fetishism^ or system of charms, 
united to, or varied by, the superstitious fear of certain 
animals. In Wilson's " Western Africa " the following pas- 
sage occurs relating to the prevalence of fetish-worship 
among negro tribes. One of the first things which salutes 
