Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/214

 as the cylindrical, are chiefly used by a branch tribe of the Marutse. If the walls of these are cemented at all, it is only on the inside, and they are rarely more than about eleven feet in diameter; their tops, however, are occasionally decorated with ornaments made of wood, grass, or straw.

The other description of huts, the gabled, have a low doorway generally in the middle, opposite the entrance to the courtyard, and their reed-roof projects, so as to form an eave that serves to throw off the rain. In the larger erections of this kind, the gable is supported by stakes, and the interior is divided by matting into two apartments, the larger being used for sleeping in, and the other as a reception-room. Any enclosure larger than usual would often be found to contain two of these huts. The more wealthy inhabitants sometimes have a detached granary as well, and chiefs not unfrequently provide themselves with an additional erection which serves as a consultation hall. As a general rule the courtyards are oval, and the principal building exactly faces the entrance.

I should say that two-thirds of the Marutse in Sesheke live in houses such as I have here described, under their chief Maranzian. The huts of the Mabunda people are in many respects not unlike them, but they are shorter and broader, with flatter roofs, and the courtyards in which they stand are quadrilateral instead of oval, composed of stakes about six feet high, driven into the ground five feet or less apart, and connected by a fence of reeds braced on to strong cross-poles.

Besides the three principal houses of the king’s residences, I noticed within the enclosure three