Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/199

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VISITING A FEEJEEAN FAMILY.
175

an invitation not to be ignored; it was accepted at once, and the man led the way along a path to where he lived. It was a hut of dried reeds lashed to a framework of poles, and stood with a dozen similar huts in the shade of a grove of cocoa-trees. The thatched roof was high and arched, while the sides were very low, and had no windows. There were two doors on opposite sides, but the door-way was so low that it was necessary to stoop almost double in order to enter. In front of the hut was a lot of bones and all manner of refuse, and a couple of pigs were lying across the door-way. They showed no inclination to move as the master of the house approached; but on catching sight, and possibly smell, of the strangers, they were up and off very quickly.

GOING TO CHURCH.—RIVER SCENE.

Inside the hut the floor was covered with plaited rushes, and there was a low partition of reeds dividing it into two nearly equal spaces; one of these was used as kitchen and sitting-room and the other for sleeping; but there was no furniture in either place beyond three or four of the wooden pillows already described. In one corner of the