These blackened rafters of the roof the Makalangas
use as cupboards, sticking therein their pipes, their
weapons, their medicine phials, their tools, and their
pillows, and we soon found that this was the place to
look for all manner of curios; only the huts are so
dark that it is impossible to see anything when there
happen to be no holes in the walls. A low door three
feet high is the only point for admitting light and
a i r ; consequently the huts are not only dark but
odoriferous. Besides the walls, the Makalangas
construct a primitive sort of cupboard out of the
spreading branch of a tree tied round with bark fibre ;
this contains such things as they fear the rats may
spoil. They are very ingenious in making things
out of bark—long narrow bags for meal, hen coops in
which to carry their poultry about, nets to keep the
roofs on their granaries. Bark to them is one of the
most useful natural products that they have.
Umgabe’s kraal has as lovely a situation as can
well be imagined. It is situated in a glade, buried
in trees and vegetation, so that until you are in it
you hardly notice the spot. Huge granite mountains
rise on either side, completely shutting it in ; a rushing
. stream runs through the glade, supplying the
place with delicious water. Here is distinctly a spot
where only man is vile; and the great fat chief,
seated on the top of a rock, sodden with beer, formed
one of the vilest specimens of humanity I ever saw.
The aforesaid stream in its course down the
valley, just below the village, runs underneath a vast
mass of granite rocks, which form a labyrinth of caves
exceedingly difficult to approach. To facilitate the
entry the inhabitants have made bridges of trees, and
in times of danger from the Matabele they take refuge
therein; they take their cattle with them, and pull
down the bridges. In the interior they always keep
HUT AT UMGABE’S KRAAL WITH EUPHORBIA BEHIND
many granaries well filled with grain, in case of
accidents. Old TJmgabe was most unwilling for us
to go in and learn his tribal secret; however, nothing
daunted, with the aid of candles we effected an entry,
and a queer place it is. Granaries are perched in all