The roof of his house is generally made a store; he goes up from the outside, removes part of the thatch, and puts in his corn. Bags of beans are hung up round and round on the pillars inside. Sometimes there are one or two pots filled with beans, and hermetically sealed with clay on the top to preserve such vegetables. There are no fenders or fire-irons to be seen. Tables are unknown, and chairs are hardly used at all, although men clever at wood-work make very small chairs of various forms. Implements of agriculture are stowed away in the house, so are the cooking utensils, the man’s bow and arrows, the sleeping mat already mentioned, and—our inventory is complete! Some part of the house may be occupied by live stock. The fowls are sometimes put up stairs in the store, and sometimes in a corner so as not to disturb the other members of the family! But laying-hens (mkolo) and fowls with chickens have very special privileges, and are not always confined to their corner! Another item of importance to the inmates of a native house is the rats. They swarm in all corners after dark. They nibble at the maize that is stored in the roof, and also at the feet of their lord and master below. As we sit in conversation with a number of natives we cannot help observing their feet. Very generally they are all nibbled round the sides, and, thick though the natives’ skin may be, we can see that many bites have reached the quick flesh. When a person dies in a house at night, if the death be unobserved, the body may be terribly eaten by the rats before morning. What is the meaning of tolerating these vermin? Leave that to the natives themselves. A great feast day will come. These rats will be caught in hundreds, and either eaten on the spot or laid up as stored provisions. Some natives set traps in the house even during the close season, but this is not nearly so profitable; for if one or two rats are caught during the night, the others will eat them, and the fondest expectation of “butcher meat” will be blasted. After calling attention to the fowls and the rats, we have done with the live stock. There are indeed “smaller cattle,” but they are too numerous to be specified. They are not a burden to the house itself, but are generally borne by the other inmates. We have often seen a native sit patiently while two or three others kept searching among his hair. A favourite remedy is to shave the head quite bare, and smear the head and the whole body with certain vegetable oils. D.—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.