The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, Vol. 1
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, Central -- Description and travel
and they show no shame in the presence of strangers. The child is
carried in a cloth at the back.
The habitations of the Wazaramo are far superior in shape and size to
those of K’hutu, and, indeed, to any on this side of Unyamwezi. Their
buildings generally resemble the humbler sort of English cow-house, or
an Anglo-Indian bungalow. In poorer houses the outer walls are of holcus
canes, rudely puddled; the better description are built of long and
broad sheets of Myombo and Mkora bark, propped against strong uprights
inside, and bound horizontally by split bamboos tied outside with
fibrous cord. The heavy pent-shaped roof often provided with a double
thatch of grass and reeds, projects eaves, which are high enough to
admit a man without stooping; these are supported by a long cross bar
resting on perpendiculars, tree-trunks, barked and smoothed, forked
above, and firmly planted in the ground. Along the outer marginal length
of this verandah lies a border of large logs polished by long sittings.
The interior is dark and windowless, and party-walls of stiff grass-cane
divide it into several compartments. The list of furniture comprises a
dwarf cartel about 4 feet long by 16 inches broad, upon which even the
married couple manages to make itself comfortable; a stool cut out of a
single block, a huge wooden mortar, mtungi or black earthen pots,
gourds, ladles of cocoa-nut, cast-off clothes, whetstones, weapons,
nets, and in some places creels for fishing. Grain is ground upon an
inclined slab of fine-grained granite or syenite, sometimes loose, at
other times fixed in the ground with a mud plaster; the classical
Eastern handmill is unknown in this part of Africa. The inner roof and
its rafters, shining with a greasy soot, in wet weather admit drenching
lines of leakage, and the only artifice applied to the flooring is the
tread of the proprietors. The door is a close hurdle of parallel
holcus-straw bound to five or six cross-bars with strips of bark. In a
village there will be from four to twelve “bungalows;” the rest are the
normal haycock and beehive hut of Africa. Where enemies are numerous the
settlements are palisaded; each has, moreover, but a single entrance,
which is approached by a narrow alley of strong stockade, and is guarded
by a thick planking that fits into a doorway large enough to admit
cattle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account