CONSTRUCTION OF HUTS. 
437 
erected for the same purpose in the middle of the room. The 
whole is so badly constructed that the wall cannot for any 
length of time support the roof, which is very heavy, and con- 
sists of untrimmed branches of trees covered with earth. 
The huts have in general but one door and no chimney, and 
when fires are kindled in them, which is the case every 
evening, the smoke is unbearable. For my part I always pre- 
ferred sleeping in the open air. These huts are entered by 
door-ways about five feet high and of the usual width, and 
they are closed by very weak and ill joined straw doors. Each 
inhabitant has several of these houses, and in his court-yard a 
little round store-house, made of earth and thatched with 
straw, in which provisions are kept. The villages in this part 
of the country are very dull and far from being so cheerful 
as those further southward. I was no longer amused by wit- 
nessing the dancing and merrimaking of the people. 
On the 3rd of March, at sun-rise, we set out and pro- 
ceeded five miles north-east. When we had advanced a mile 
and a half from Somou, we crossed a great marsh, where the 
water was knee-deep. In this marsh there are many fish and 
aquatic birds. In the direction of N. W. it forms a great 
lake and in the S. E. it is filled with high grass and weeds. 
We went seven miles further N. N. E. The soil, consisting 
of hard sand, was level and open. About noon, we arrived, 
much fatigued, at Kinana, a village containing about two 
hundred inhabitants, and surrounded by an infinite multitude 
of ronniers. 
On the 4th of March, at ten in the morning, after pro- 
ceeding two miles N. N. E. we turned to E. N. E., then 
again to N. N. E. having travelled altogether about ten miles. 
The aspect of the country was barren, being covered with 
volcanic stones and red gravel. About eleven o'clock we 
reached Kirina, a village surrounded by bombaces and bao- 
babs, containing a population of about five or six hundred. 
The inhabitants are, for the most part, rope-makers. They 
