52 Wanderings in Eastern Africa 
In the front there are several stone houses, glaring 
with white plaster. Among them is the Furatha 
(custom-house), a far more respectable one than that 
of the capital. There are a few others of a like de- 
scription behind. Among the better class of buildings 
are the mosques, but many of these are in a very- 
ruinous condition. Most of the Niumba za mawe 
(stone houses) are rough unplastered buildings, un- 
sightly to the last degree. Many of them are the 
patched-up ruins of what were once superior build- 
ings, dating back to the time of the Portuguese. 
There are a goodly number of square one-storied 
houses, with walls of rough coral rag, held together 
with slime or mud for mortar, and covered with a 
high roof of palm leaves ; but here, as elsewhere on 
the coast, wattle-and-dab hovels constitute the resi- 
dences of the greater portion of the people. 
The lanes are narrow, crooked, and intricate, and 
are everywhere overhung with the long, low, irregular 
eaves of the huts, which often render it necessary for 
the traveller to stoop, and to exercise the greatest 
care if he would keep turban or hat in its place, and 
his head unbruised. Long poles project awkwardly 
from all sides and at all corners, as ill-looking as they 
are dangerous ; yet the natives never complain of 
them, or even seem to notice the nuisance. There is 
one ndia ku (broadway), leading half-way through 
the centre of the town towards the fort. It is some 
fifteen feet wide, and lined on either hand with shops, 
kept by Banians and Hindoos, and is anything but 
straight and clean. The town boasts a bazaar and 
two market-places, all of the same description as those 
of Zanzibar, though on a smaller scale. They are 
