CHAPTER  XII

UP-COUNTRY JOTTINGS

When on my tours I arrived at a town where I was to»
remain a night, a house was selected for me by the chief.
It would always be one that was in the occupation of some
family. They immediately moved out and disposed of
themselves amongst their friends in other huts. The
contents of the huts usually consisted of two or three
lighted logs for the fire in the centre of the hut. Suspended
from the rafters was a cane palm grid about four or five
feet over the fire and upon this was put anything that
needed to be smoke-dried. More frequently than not the
ceiling of the house, which was made up of the mid¬
ribs of bamboo palm leaves put side by side, was not
only blackened by the smoke but had long stalactites of
congealed soot hanging down from jt, giving the place a
most filthy and disagreeable appearance. These " soot-
icles " were sometimes eighteen inches long, and might-
be counted by the hundred. They were exceedingly
unpleasant, because pieces of this sooty mass were con¬
tinually dropping down upon your books, papers and bed,,
falling into your plates, and upon your head. The people
rarely removed these things from some reason which I did