The village contains some 400 souls, and throughout the country
the maximum would be about 500 spears, or 4,000 of both sexes,
whilst the minimum is a couple of dozen. It is pleasantly
situated on the left bank of the Mbokwe River, a streamlet here
some 50 feet broad, whose water rises 6 feet 10 inches under the
tidal influence. The single street, about half a mile long, is
formed by two parallel rows of huts, looking upon a cleared line
of yellow clay, and provided with three larger sheds--the palaver
houses. The Fan houses resemble those of the Mpongwe; in fact,
the tribes, beginning at the Camarones River, build in much the
same style, but all are by no means so neat and clean as those of
the seaboard. A thatch, whose projecting eaves form deep shady
verandahs, surmounts walls of split bamboo, supported by raised
platforms of tamped earth, windows being absent and chimneys
unknown; the ceiling is painted like coal tar by oily soot, and
two opposite doors make the home a passage through which no one
hesitates to pass. The walls are garnished with weapons and nets,
both skilfully made, and the furniture consists of cooking
utensils and water-pots, mats for bedding, logs of wood for seats
and pillows, and lumps of timber or dwarf stools, neatly cut out
of a single block.
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