Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/212

 cement. Meanwhile a low conical roof has been woven by the men, which is placed in position, and left to be cemented on by the women. The doorway, which generally faces the entrance to the enclosure, is a semi-oval aperture cut in the reeds, and finished off all round with a cement moulding. This completes the inner compartment.

For the outer building the foundation is made in precisely the same way; the trench is dug, but the reeds inserted are some two feet at least shorter than before; in consequence however of this being the wall which has to maintain the great burden of the roof, it is always strengthened by a number of peeled stakes driven in firmly against it at intervals of only a few inches apart, and when the whole has been thoroughly cemented over on both sides, the material of which it has been formed is quite undistinguishable. The doorway is cut so as to correspond exactly with that of the inner compartment, and is generally about six feet high and three feet wide. While the outer wall, ordinarily from forty to sixty feet in circumference, is being finished by the women, the men drive in the verandah-poles about a yard or a yard and a half away, and then proceed to put together the upper or principal roof, the lifting of which into position is the greatest difficulty of the whole; the operation is effected by about fifty men raising it from the ground by long levers and gradually getting it supported all round on a number of short stakes; these stakes are then replaced by longer ones, which in their turn are exchanged for others yet longer, until the roof has been elevated by degrees to such a height that its edge can be laid above the top of the inner roof; it is then driven