360 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
fortunately they have but Httle need for the practice of 
arms. They have little to do beyond attention to their 
personal adornments, and then, with spear and shield or 
musket, as the case may be, going round to waste the 
time in chit-chat with their friends. The making of the 
mzinga (beehives), however, affords a little employ- 
ment for some of the men. 
The people do not live together in villages, but each 
family has its own separate compound, two or three 
huts surrounded with a fencing of muale-frond stems 
constituting a family kraal. The hut, which is loosely 
put together, is of conical shape, the framework being 
made of muale stems, and the roof being thatched 
with the rind and leaves of the plantain. 
Marriage among the Wataveta resembles marriage 
everywhere else in Africa, and they are of course 
polygamists. 
One singular custom of theirs in connection with 
marriage I must relate. Brides are set apart for the 
first year as something almost too good for earth. 
They are dressed, adorned, physicked, and pampered 
in every way, almost like goddesses. They are 
screened from vulgar sight, exempted from all house- 
hold duties, and prohibited from all social intercourse 
with all of the other sex except their husbands. They 
are never left alone, are accompanied by some one 
wherever they may wish to go, and are not per- 
mitted to exert themselves in the least; even in their 
short walks they creep at a snail's pace, lest they 
should overstrain their muscles. Two of these celestial 
beings were permitted to visit me. Both were very 
elaborately got up and in precisely the same manner. 
Around the head was worn a band of parti-coloured 
