204 Life at Banza Nokki. 
“ walls ” are often a cheque-pattern, produced by 
twining “ tie-tie,” “ monkey rope,” or creepers, 
stained black, round the dull-yellow groundwork ; 
and one end is pierced for a doorway, that must 
not front the winds and rains. It is a small square 
hole, keeping the interior dark and cool; and the 
defence is a screen of cane-work, fastened with a 
rude wooden latch. The flooring is hard, tamped 
clay, in the centre of which the fire is laid; the 
cooking, however, is confined to the broad eaves, 
or to the compound which, surrounded with neat 
walls, backs the house. The interior is divided 
into the usual “but” and “ben.” The latter commu¬ 
nicates with the former by a passage, masked 
with a reed screen ; it is the sleeping-place and 
the store-room; and there is generally a second 
wicket for timely escape. The only furniture con¬ 
sists of mats, calabashes, and a standing bedstead 
of rude construction, or a bamboo cot like those 
built at Lagos,—in fact, the four bare walls sug¬ 
gest penury. But in the “ small countries,” as the 
“ landward towns ” are called, where the raid and 
the foray are not feared, the householder entrusts 
to some faithful slave large stores of cloth and 
rum, of arms and gunpowder. 
The abodes suggest those of our semi-barbarous 
ancestors, as described by Holingshed, where 
earth mixed with lime formed the floor ; where 
the fire was laid to the wall ; where the smoke, 
