45 6 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
of his wives will occupy her own dwelling. There is often a large house built 
to be used in common by the unmarried men and boys of the village. Where 
this is not the case the mother will cause a small hut to be built near to her 
own to be occupied by her boy children when they are too old to share the hut 
with her. Girls will probably continue to use the mother’s dwelling till they 
are married. 
There is little or no order in which the village is built. A chief suddenly 
determines to found a new settlement. He starts with most of his people, 
selects a site, and houses are quickly run up with little or no relation to each 
other, but all tolerably close together. There is usually reserved, however, 
a large space of open ground more or less in the middle of the village. This 
is called in Chi-nyanja the Bzualo, and the place selected usually has a large 
and shady tree. If there is not, however (or if there is, in addition to the tree), 
a rough building may be run up with open sides and grass roof, under which 
shelter can be obtained from the sun during the daytime. In this open piece 
of common land all the public meetings and dances take place; and here 
the “ Milandu,” or judicial cases are tried by the chief or headman and his 
assistants. 
The vicinity of native houses is usually kept fairly clean. Much of the 
refuse is eaten up by village dogs, fowls, and goats, but apparently the natives 
from time to time carry it away into the bush. I do not mean to state that 
the lanes between the houses and their precincts are always clean, but they 
are seldom encumbered by such filth as one would see in any squalid Eastern 
town or village. 
Interspersed amongst the houses of the village are the Mikokwe or granaries. 
These are huge circular erections of basket-work plastered with mud outside 
and built on a raised platform, standing on short legs made of forked branches 
stuck into the ground. The platform is built in such a way as to make it 
difficult for rats to ascend to the granary. The roof is funnel-shaped and 
thatched. Henhouses of wicker-work are often built and are usually placed 
on a raised platform. Rough dove-cots are put up for the pigeons where 
these birds are kept. But the goats are either housed in a small house or hut. 
In any of the places where leopards are dangerous the goats and sheep are 
sheltered at night in pens made from stout planks placed side by side, with 
a roof of heavy logs. The goats are let in or out by removing one or more 
stakes. 
The planks of the goathouse are hewn, not sawn. The native, until taught 
by the European, had absolutely no idea of sawing wood, nor has he much 
notion of splitting by means of wedges. He quite ignores joinery in his 
furniture and all articles are hewn out of the solid block. This is the 
case with his wooden spoons and ladles, his pillows or head-rests, his wooden 
mortars, pestles, benches—all his simple implements and articles of furniture. 
Likewise when he wishes to obtain planks for any purpose they have to be 
adzed from logs of wood and are consequently very thick. 
Canoes are mere dug-outs. Certain trees of the forest, such as the Parin- 
ariums, are used for canoe making. A large party of men go to the forest not 
far from the river bank and there cut down one of these trees in such a way 
as to allow it to fall on a slope towards the water. Then they commence 
to hollow it out, partly by burning and partly by incessant chipping with 
their small adzes. The canoe is at last hewn into shape. If there are any 
cracks in it they are covered by patches of wood which may be fastened on 
