336 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
his returning to his own people, had he been disposed 
to do so; yet from youth to old age he had remained 
where he was. 
The Wataita receive strangers among them and 
treat them very civilly. Some Wakamba, for in- 
stance, were met with at Kisigau, who were evidently 
quite at home. 
The huts of the Wataita differ from those of the 
Wanika. A circular upright fencing of from two to 
three feet in height, with a small hole for a door, and 
covered with a cone-shaped, well-thatched roof of 
grass, looking like a large bee-hive; such is the hut in 
question. For the preservation of grain the Wataita 
make circular baskets of wicker-work, as large as their 
huts. Round these they build a fence, throw over it a 
roof of thatch, and the granary is complete. They 
weave very strong bags of the bark of the baobab 
and other trees, articles which are of the utmost 
service to them ; for they are bags, sacks, reticules, 
portmanteaus, and everything of the kind to these 
people. 
Marriage with them is not a very romantic affair, 
it being simply an arrangement by which a man in- 
duces the father of his fair lady to accept a certain 
number of goats or cows, and so much pombe, etc., 
in lieu of his daughter, that she may become his 
muche (woman), and I may add, his slave. The 
father accepts the price, and the man takes her to 
his home. Should she die childless, though it may 
be after having lived with her " mume (man) many 
years, the father must return the dowry! 
Altogether the Wataita are one of the most de- 
based of all the degraded peoples of this unhappy 
