We Came To The Village Which
Had Been Visited On The 9th.
It consisted of about twenty houses, the most
of which need no other description than comparing them to the
Roof of a
thatched house in England, taken off the walls and placed on the ground.
Some were open at both ends, others partly closed with reeds, and all were
covered with palm thatch. A few of them were thirty or forty feet long, and
fourteen or sixteen broad. Besides these, they have other mean hovels,
which, I conceived, were only to sleep in. Some of these stood in a
plantation, and I was given to understand, that in one of them lay a dead
corpse. They made signs that described sleep, or death; and circumstances
pointed out the latter. Curious to see all I could, I prevailed on an
elderly man to go with me to the hut, which was separated from the others
by a reed fence, built quite round it at the distance of four or five feet.
The entrance was by a space in the fence, made so low as to admit one to
step over. The two sides and one end of the hut were closed or built up in
the same manner, and with the same materials, as the roof. The other end
had been open, but was now well closed with mats, which I could not prevail
on the man to remove, or suffer me to do it. There hung at this end of the
hut a matted bag or basket, in which was a piece of roasted yam, and some
sort of leaves, all quite fresh.
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Words from 190819 to 191093
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