THE CONGO IN 1863. 
89 
uprights, firmly planted, support on their forked ends a 
long strut-beam, tightly secured ; the eaves are broad 
to throw off the rain, and the neat thatch of grass, laid 
with points upwards in regular courses, and kept in site 
by bamboo strips, is renewed before the stormy season. 
The roof and walls are composed of six screens ; they 
are made upon the ground, often occupying months, 
and they can be put together in a few minutes. The 
material, which an old traveller says is of “ leaves 
interwoven not contemptibly with one another,” is a 
grass growing everywhere on the hills, plaited and 
attached to strips of cane or bamboo-palm ( B aphid 
vinifera ) ; the gable “ walls ” are often a cheque-pattern, 
produced by twining “ tie-tie,” “ monkey rope,” or 
creepers, stained black, round the dull-yellow ground- 
work ; and one end is pierced for a doorway, that must 
not front the winds and rains. It is a small square 
hole, keeping the interior dark and cool ; and the 
defence is a screen of cane-work, fastened with a rude 
wooden latch. The flooring is hard, tamped clay, in the 
centre of which the fire is laid ; the cooking, however, 
is confined to the broad eaves, or to the compound 
which, surrounded with neat walls, backs the house. 
The interior is divided into the usual “but” and “ ben.” 
The latter communicates with the former by a passage, 
masked with a reed screen ; it is the sleeping-place and 
the store-room ; and there is generally a second wicket 
for timely escape. The only furniture consists of mats, 
calabashes, and a standing bedstead of rude construction, 
or a bamboo cot like those built at Lagos,— in fact, the 
four bare walls suggest penury. But in the “ small 
countries,” as the “ landward towns ” are called, where 
the raid and the foray are not feared,- the householder 
entrusts to some faithful slave large stores of cloth and 
rum, of arms and gunpowder. 
The abodes suggest those of our semi-barbarous 
ancestors, as described by Holingshed, where earth 
mixed with lime formed the floor ; where the fire was 
laid to the wall ; where the smoke, which, besides 
hardening timber, was expected to keep the good man 
