The better kind of houses in these Tanàla villages have the walls made of bamboo flattened and plaited together, while the poorer ones are of the leaves of the traveller’s tree. Every house is roofed with the latter material; in many of them the gable projects at the ridge twice as much as at the eaves, so as to make a kind of pent at each end. The gable timbers are frequently cut into a very exact resemblance to ox horns. In most of the villages money seems of little use to the people; they value beads or calico much more. Every woman and girl, and many of the men and boys, are decorated with beads, and these seem an important part of their property. Their religion seems to consist chiefly of charms; charms against guns, fever, crocodiles, etc. We purchased for a little cloth a charm against gun-shot; this consisted of three hollow tin receptacles resembling crocodiles’ teeth, joined together and filled with what looks like coarsely cut tobacco. The former owner tells us that this charm has such virtue that a musket ball is turned aside from the fortunate wearer. Many of the people carry shields, which are made of a circular piece of tough wood, about eighteen inches in diameter and covered with undressed bullocks’ hide. A handle is cut out of the solid wood at the back. The women in this Màtitànana valley carry a broad knife or chopper stuck in their girdles, and resembling in shape a butcher’s cleaver, with a short round handle; this is used for cutting up manioc and other roots. [Sidenote: A JUNGLE OF BAMBOO] At one point on our route we passed through a dense jungle of bamboo, requiring a bright look-out on the part of the bearers—and the borne as well—to avoid damage from the sharp-edged stumps underfoot, and the stems and tendrils overhead. But the effect of the numberless thickly set, smooth, jointed stems, like slender columns below, and the feathery canopy of delicate green above, was both curious and beautiful. At one little stream we passed some fine specimens of the _hòfa_, a screw-pine or pandanus, with the aerial roots in a cone-shaped mass, rising five or six feet above the ground. A very common tree about here is one with clusters of large leaves like those of a horse-chestnut, and with a hard mottled green fruit as big as a lemon, from which gum is made. In a small open space among the trees we passed by almost the only sign we had yet seen of anything like religious observances in the Tanàla country. This was an upright stake in the ground with a number of bamboos arranged round it, forming a cone-shaped erection; in front of this several stones were fixed. At this rude altar the heads of cattle, fowls, etc., are thrown as expiatory offerings; and here also the people come to pray for blessings which they desire, especially for children. We also passed on another day a long flat stone supported by several smaller ones, forming a sort of altar, and used for the same kind of offerings as those just described.