14 
MISSIONARY LIFE 
have mats suspended above the door and window 
places, which are dropped, like curtains, when they 
wish to close their houses, a thing seldom done 
in day-time. These houses, rude as they may 
seem, atford tolerable protection in a tropical 
dimate, when they are well built. As might be 
inferred, they are very damp in the rainy season^ 
and hence unhealthy to foreigners. 
The best-furnished houses it was my privilege 
to see in that country, among real heathens, have 
nothing more in them than a couple of country 
chairs, or blocks of wood to'sit upon, a couple of 
iron pots' for cooking, a wooden bowl and a spoon 
or two, and a rudely-constructed bedstead, a de- 
scription of which, with the bedding, will be given 
in another part of this hook. 
Immediately on the coast, and where they have 
mingled with white traders and missionaries, and 
had access to trading establishments, some of them 
have better furnished houses ; but everywhere are 
houses not so well furnished as those I have de « 
scribed. 
