198 
A Specimen Day 
a streamlet here some 50 feet broad, whose 
water rises 6 feet 10 inches under the tidal in¬ 
fluence. The single street, about half a mile long, 
is formed by two parallel rows of huts, looking 
upon a cleared line of yellow clay, and provided 
with three larger sheds—the palaver houses. The 
FAn houses resemble those of the Mpongwe; in 
fact, the tribes, beginning at the Camarones River, 
build in much the same style, but all are by no 
means so neat and clean as those of the seaboard. 
A thatch, whose projecting eaves form' deep shady 
verandahs, surmounts walls of split bamboo, sup¬ 
ported by raised platforms of tamped earth, win¬ 
dows being absent and chimneys unknown ; the 
ceiling is painted like coal tar by oily soot, and two 
opposite doors make the home a passage through 
which no one hesitates to pass. The walls are 
garnished with weapons and nets, both skilfully 
made, and the furniture consists of cooking utensils 
and water-pots, mats for bedding, logs of wood for 
seats and pillows, and lumps of timber or dwarf 
stools, neatly cut out of a single block. Their 
only night-light—that grand test of civilization— 
is the Mpongwe torch, a yard of hard, black gum, 
mixed with and tightly bound up in dried banana 
leaves. According to some it is acacia; others 
declare it to be the “blood’' of the bombax, which is 
also used for caulking. They gather it in the forest, 
especially during the dries, collect it in hollow 
