ARRANGEMENT OF DWELLINGS. 385 
usually occupying two, and sometimes three sides of 
a court, the other being closed by a palisade with a 
gate, and adorned by the shady and graceful banana and 
cocoa-nut. Some of these are neat, but they are generally 
small and huddled together, as if ground rent were high. 
In the interior, that is to say, above the Delta, and 
beginning at Adda-Mugu, the huts are all circular, and 
although small, the occupant does not stint him- 
self in number, as many are comprised in one 
establishment. The roof is constructed on the ground, of 
the stout, light and tapering ribs of the palm-branch ; 
the thatch, neatly woven like a fringe with grass, is 
wound round it, beginning, of course, at the bottom ; 
the whole is then placed and secured on the circular 
mud wall. There is but little ditference in any, whether 
in a capital city or a village — ^the residences of great 
chiefs or of the poorest peasant differ merely in the 
amount of huts composing the establishment, which 
always depends on the number of wives possessed by the 
occupier. They are all so nearly alike, that the description 
of one with which we were acquainted — that of a 
or broker — will give a very fair idea of the general 
domestic economy. 
This dwelling was divided into three courts, of 
irregular form and size ; apparently thrown together 
without any plan, being merely enclosures made by 
joining with a low wall the circular huts, which seem 
dropped by accident. Each contains usually but one 
room — sometimes, however, a small space is partitioned 
VOL. I. 
c c 
