Bornou, like other countries that approach the Equinoctial, is much infested with different kinds of dangerous or disgusting reptiles, especially snakes and scorpions, centipedes and toads.
Of its beasts of burthen the variety is as ample as the numbers are abundant; for the camel, the horse, the ass, and the mule, are common in the empire.
The dog, with which the inhabitants pursue their game, appears to be their only domestic animal.
In the mountains of Tibesti, and perhaps in other parts of the empire, the herdsmen, probably for the sake of a more easy change of pasture, prefer a residence in tents to stationary dwellings; and those, it seems, are not manufactured, like the tents of the Zahara, from the camel’s hair; but are composed of the hides of cows, a more durable and impervious covering.
Through all the empire of Bornou the same mode of building, and with the difference of a greater or a smaller scale, the same form in the plan of the houses universally prevails.—Four walls, inclosing a square, are erected; within those walls, and parallel to them, four other walls are also built: the ground between the walls is then divided into different apartments, and is covered with a roof. Thus the space within the interior walls determines the size of the court; the space between the walls determines the width of the apartments; and the height of the walls determines the height of the rooms. In a large house the rooms are each about twenty feet in length, eleven feet in height, and as many in width.
On the outside of the house, a second square or large yard, surrounded by a wall, is usually provided for the inclosure and protection of the cattle.[19]
Such is the general plan of a Bornou house. For the construction of the walls the following method is constantly pursued: a trench for the foundation being made, is filled with dry and solid materials rammed in with force, and levelled; on these a layer of tempered mud or clay is placed; and in this substitute for mortar a suitable number of stones are regularly fixed. Thus with alternate layers of clay and stones the wall proceeds; but as soon as it has reached the height of six or seven feet, the workmen suspend its progress for a week, that it may have time to settle, and become compact; for which purpose they water it every day.
When the walls are finished they are neatly plaistered, both within and without, with clay or mud, tempered with sand; for the country furnishes no lime.
The roofs are formed of branches of the palm tree, intermixed with brushwood; and are so constructed as at first to be waterproof; but such is the violence of the wind and rain, that the end of the second year is the utmost period of their brief duration.[20]
Much less attention is given to the furniture than is bestowed on the structure of the houses; for the catalogue of the utensils is extremely short. Among the lower classes of the inhabitants it consists of the mats covered with a sheep-skin, upon which they sleep; of an earthen pot; of a pan of the same materials; of two or three wooden dishes, a couple of wooden bowls, an old carpet, a lamp for oil, and perhaps a copper kettle.