THE VILLAGE OF KIBIRO. 173 dition, and contains a number of huts crowded together. They are constructed in the Wanydro style, with partition walls. of bamboo, a raised sleeping-place for the head of the family, the ground carpeted with hay, and the whole interior swarming with fleas. Vast numbers of poultry abound everywhere; they are a somewhat larger breed than the miniature variety of the Aluri, which, again, rival in diminutive size the poultry of the Monbuttu. Multitudes of dogs, of a breed some-_ thing like our greyhounds, and of a liver or liver-and-white colour, prowl about the huts, apparently the property of nobody in particular; at any rate they are evidently uncared for, for they are terribly lean, and frequently make forced loans from the interior of the dwellings. Wherever there exists a sufficient quantity of the sparse grass, large flocks of a fine breed of sheep and of goats were grazing, and they seemed to enjoy the vegetation that springs up on the saline soil of the hill-* slopes. I saw but one solitary cow. Cattle, indeed, appear to be extremely rare in this district, or else do not thrive well; besides, the mountain pasturage would hardly suffice for feeding cattle.

Between the huts and the hamlets, and often, too, within them, a few small trees grow separately, mostly Ficus lutea, from the bark of which the people fabricate the well-known bark cloth. These trees are not, however, expressly cultivated here, but they are so easily propagated and grow so rapidly, that a twig stuck in the ground only requires to be kept moist to take root and shoot up immediately. Close by the margin of the lake stands a single, tall, slender doléb palm, whose crown is literally full of hanging nests of the weaver-bird, belonging to the larger species, Hyphantornis abyssinica, which is so prevalent farther north about Wadelai. Here too the bird gave evidence of its very quarrelsome disposition, for at the foot of the tree lay a great number of destroyed nests and broken eggs, proving that serious combats must often have taken place aloft.

The vegetative covering of the hills is of a peculiarly poor character, recalling that of steppe country and deserted arable land. ‘Trees are very scarce; in fact, the sole representatives of true foliaceous varieties were a couple of tamarinds in the