HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 45 work and covered with dokn* straw. Tlie apex of the roof forms a basket, which serves as a nest for the black stork, which generally returns in the months of JMay and July from its migrations, and hatches its young in the nests it finds ready formed.

If no stork happen to build on one or the other of these " tukkoli," three or four ostrich's eggs are placed, by way of ornament, on a pole erected perpendicularly on the top of the roof.

Simple as is the construction of these houses, they may be said, on an average, to be very firmly built, so that a drop of water seldom penetrates during the heaviest shower in the rainy season, and they afford, at least, a dry place of shelter. From two to five of these tukkoli are generally built for one family, and the whole homestead is then hedged in with a fence of thorn ; an opening is left in this hedge for the gate, represented by a bush of thorn, which is taken away and replaced after entrance or egress from the enclosure. This is not done from any apprehension of thieves or of any other intrusion, but to keep the hungry camels, who would devour the house, in a short time, down to the very framework, at a respectful distance.

These thorn fences are a great inconvenience, and even dangerous to strangers, for, if they do not exactly shed blood, they will seldom enter them or quit them without leaving a portion of their * A general term for millet, whether panicum nitliaceuni, or holctis sjncata ; it is the /lolctis dochia of Forskael. Tr.