304 
ARRANGEMENT OF HUTS. 
small on these occasions, and sometimes none are 
made ; you may thus have a large body of natives 
encamped very near you without being conscious of 
it. I have been taken by a native to a camp of 
about twenty people in a dense belt of reeds, which 
I had gone close by without being aware of their 
presence, although I could not have been more than 
three or four yards from some of them when I passed. 
It has already been remarked, that where many 
natives meet together, the arrangements of their 
respective huts depends upon the direction they 
have come from. In their natural state many cus- 
toms and restrictions exist, which are often broken 
through, when they congregate in the neighbour- 
hood of European settlements. 
Such is the custom requiring all boys and unini- 
tiated young men to sleep at some distance from the 
huts of the adults, and to remove altogether away 
in the morning as soon as daylight dawns, and the 
natives begin to move about. This is to prevent their 
seeing the women, some of whom may be menstru- 
ating; and if looked upon by the young males, it is 
supposed that dire results will follow. Strangers are by 
another similar rule always required to get to their 
own proper place at the camp, by going behind and 
not in front of the huts. In the same way, if young 
males meet a party of women going out to look for 
food, they are obliged to take a circuit to avoid 
going near them. It is often amusing to witness 
the dilemma in which a young native finds himself 
