242 WHERE LIVES PRIMITIVE MAN by hard mud which was constantly being renewed or replastered—frail barks indeed.

A feature of the Nuer country is the ability with which the men build their grass tukls or huts, particularly in the case of the kraals for the cattle. Owing to the plague of mosquitoes and flies in the night, it is essential for all cattle to be shut up within doors. These cattle-huts are of great size, and require considerable skill in construction. The men share this accommodation with the beasts, sleeping on a platform in the centre, on a soft mattress of ash, with a smoky fire of cowdung beneath them. It was apparent that the ash had not a beneficial effect on the skin, which in many cases was excessively coarsened and rough. The front-teeth of the upper jaw were generally knocked out, causing a characteristic protuberance and irregularity of the others.

It is the fashion to mix the milk of the native cow with a small quantity of the animal's urine, which is believed to act as a preservative, and, to my horror, I found that the milk puddings of which I had been partaking, and certainly, though unsuspectingly, noticed a slight unaccustomed flavour in, had been made with this milk.

Among the men there appeared no uniform method of hairdressing—the only dressing indulged in. Fashion evidently decreed no single style. In the case of the Mashonas of Rhodesia much the same conditions were observable, the varieties and comphcations of patterns being as remarkable as