100 
SKULLS ON THE PALISADING. 
our own gymnasiums, — such as jumping over sticks 
— shooting, with bolted arrows, partridge or pigeon, or 
teaching small birds to sing — making model guns out 
of cane, going off with a trigger and having a cloud of 
sand for smoke — copying our double-barrelled guns, and 
making them, with nipple, hammer, trigger, &c, out of 
mud, with cotton for the smoke. They had also made 
cross-bows; and generally they evinced great powers of 
imitation. Seeing the ingenuity of the little fellows, we 
could not help longing for the happy day that should 
introduce amongst them more valuable improvements. 
The habitations of the country have been described 
in the previous chapter. It only remains to add 
that there were no wells in the villages, water being 
carried from distant springs — that the dust was very 
annoying from the dances, &c. — that ground-nuts 
were not allowed to be roasted inside the bomah — and 
that outside the village human skulls and skeletons of 
hands (those of enemies killed in action) were stuck 
on the tops of the highest trees, or fixed on poles at 
the top of mounds. When the boundary of the vil- 
lage was to be enlarged, bare-poled trees for palisades 
were carried from the forest by Watusi, crying like 
jackals. On putting them into position, skulls of ani- 
mals (or human), broken stools or baskets, land shells, 
&c, were stuck upon them. 
On the 27th of June we had cries of "War, war !" 
In an instant the place was alive, and thirty poor- 
looking creatures, each with a bow and from four to six 
arrows, rushed out of the village, followed slowly by 
the sultan, carrying two spears. All got upon a mound, 
looking in the direction whence the noise proceeded. 
A party from a distance here joined them, and after 
