454 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
to show that the rectangular house was found there when the first Portuguese 
explorers arrived in West Africa. 
The native house of the White Nile, of Nyasaland and of Zululand is so 
similar in structure that in photographs taken in these different countries it is 
difficult to say to what part of East, Central or South Africa the building belongs. 
But although for an ordinary dwelling this round house is universal (except 
where a different style of architecture has been introduced by coast men or 
Europeans), rectangular buildings are made, especially for housing cattle or 
occasionally for providing a 
large dormitory for the un¬ 
married men, or a kind of 
shelter under which the elders 
of the village may gather. 
The houses are usually con¬ 
structed of these materials :— 
A wooden framework is made 
in a circle marking the size of 
the hut; it is composed of 
strong poles. Around these, 
split bamboos are bound trans¬ 
versely which are tied together 
tightly by wetted bark-rope on 
either side of the pole they 
clasp. The bamboo ribs are 
close together, and the structure 
resembles roughly the com¬ 
mencement of a huge hamper. 
In between the split bamboos 
mud is squeezed. This mud is 
usually made by women care¬ 
fully puddling it with their feet, 
and the mudding of the houses 
is nearly always done by women. 
In most of the houses of Nyasaland after roughly filling in the interval between 
the wattles by this thick mud a further coating of mud is plastered on both 
sides. This mudding is done right up to the top of the round wall. After the 
first coating the mud dries and cracks. The cracks are then filled up with more 
mud until the surface is fairly smooth. Sometimes cow-dung or a little lime is 
mixed with the outer coating of mud, and the floor may likewise be prepared 
with hard mud mixed with cow-dung. The level of the house is usually slightly 
raised above the surrounding ground. There is an outer circle of posts going 
partly round the house which eventually constitutes a verandah, and the floor 
of the verandah is also of hard mud raised about six inches to a foot above the 
ground. The Wankonde build rather a special type of house. The walls are 
not straight, but slope outwards from the bottom. The interstices between 
the neatly-bound wattles of bamboo are filled not with an indiscriminate mass 
of mud, but with round bricks of white clay, giving a much neater appearance 
to the houses. The style in which these Wankonde houses are built will be 
better understood by the accompanying illustration than by any further verbal 
description. 
When the walls' of the house are complete the roof is made. Usually this 
