Village Life in Pongo-land. 155 
props to defend it from the Nchu’u or white ants, 
and each has its mosquito bar, an oblong square, 
large enough to cover the whole couch and to reach 
the ground; the material is either fine grass-cloth, 
from the Ashira country, a light stuff called 
“ Mbongo,” or calico and blue baft from which the 
stiffening has been washed out. It is far superior 
to the flimsy muslin affairs supplied in an Anglo- 
Indian outfit, or to the coarse matting used in 
Yoruba. Provided with this solid defence, which 
may be bought in any shop, one can indulge one's 
self by sleeping in the verandah without risk of 
ague or rheumatism. The “ ben” always displays 
a pile of chests and boxes, which, though possibly 
empty, testify to the “ respectability” of the house¬ 
hold. In Hotaloya’s I remarked a leather hat- 
case ; he owned to me that he had already invested 
in a silk tile, the sign of chieftainship, but that 
being a “ boy” he must grow older before he could 
wear it. The inner room can be closed with a 
strong door and a padlock; as even the window- 
hole is not admitted, the burglar would at once be 
detected. Except where goods are concerned, the 
Mpongwe have little respect for privacy; the 
women, in the presence of their husbands, never 
failed to preside at my simple toilette, and the 
girls of the villages would sit upon the bedside 
where lay an U tangani in almost the last’ stage of 
dishabillL 
