214 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
the whole village with enormous caves and long under¬ 
ground passages, which should represent a place of 
refuge for the cattle and the women and children, in 
the event of any sudden attack being made. He had 
established a law to the effect that any man who took 
refuge below, instead of remaining above to repel the 
attack, was to be punished by death. 
The excavations were being executed in the follow¬ 
ing manner: a series of shafts from two to three feet 
in diameter were sunk some twenty to thirty feet, and 
these were connected, by underground tunnelling and 
excavating, until a succession of large caves and pas¬ 
sages were formed, the latter being about eight or 
nine feet wide and seven or eight feet high. As 
each excavation was completed, the surface of the 
original shaft-hole was filled in with earth and sticks, 
and a little point of ivory stuck into the ground, with 
the double object of marking the spot and acting as 
a charm. 
The whole of this laborious engineering was being 
executed with the aid of a single tool in the form 
of a crow-bar made out of the barrel of an old gun, 
and with this ineffective implement they managed to 
bore through the volcanic rock immediately underlying 
the surface-soil, specimens of which I brought away 
with me. The loose earth and rock debris were con¬ 
veyed to the surface from below by means of wooden 
boxes attached to long whip-like stems, of requisite 
length, tied together. At the time of our visit this 
stupendous undertaking, though considerably advanced, 
