TREE-HOUSE IN CAFFRARIA.

In Caffraria, in Africa, there is an “inhabited tree,” which travelers thus describe: “It stands at the base of a range of mountains, due east from Kurrichaine, in a place called ‘Ongorutcie Fountain.’ Its gigantic limbs contain seventeen conical huts. These are used as dwellings, being beyond the reach of the lions, which, since the incursion of the Mantates from the adjoining country, when so many thousands of persons were massacred, have become very numerous in the neighborhood, and destructive to human life. The branches of the tree are supported by forked sticks, or poles, and there are three tiers, or platforms, on which the huts are constructed. The lowest is nine feet from the ground, and holds ten huts; the second, about eight feet high, has three huts; and the upper story, if it may be so called, contains four. The ascent to these is made by notches cut in the supporting poles; and the huts are built with twigs, thatched with straw, and will contain ten persons, conveniently.”

A view of one of these trees is given in the cut on the previous page. Other villages have been seen by travelers, built somewhat similarly to the above; but these were erected on stakes, instead of trees, about eight feet above the ground, about forty feet square, larger in some places, and containing about seventy or eighty huts. The inhabitants sit under the shade of these platforms during the day, and retire at night to the huts above.