So we will first take the nest of the Pensile Oriole, which is shown in the illustration, and which is an admirable example of the Hammock, being woven from long vegetable fibres intertwisted very much like the strings of the South American Hammock. And as if to increase the resemblance, the bird, whenever it can do so, will carry off hanks of cotton, linen, thread, or pieces of string, and weave them into its nest.
I have one of these nests, and, directly I saw it, was struck with its exact similitude to the Hammock of human manufacture.
There are many other birds in various parts of the world especially in Australia, which make their nests on exactly the same principle, though in slightly varied forms.
Also, in the insect world, there are innumerable examples of the natural Hammock, the most common of which is that made by the caterpillars of the Tiger-moth, and in which it slings itself while undergoing its changes from the chrysalis to the perfect state.
It is made of silken threads, interwoven so slightly that the chrysalis can be seen through them, and so exactly like the Hammock of the South American Indian that if a drawing were made and enlarged, one might easily be taken for the other.
Now we come to the Mat Bed, which is so much used in the warmer parts of the world, where the earth is dry, and the air so warm that nothing is required but the slightest possible protection from the soil.
In inland places, such as Southern Africa, the bed is made of long grass-stems laid side by side, and sewn together with a sort of twine. One of these beds in my collection is some three feet wide by seven feet long, and can be rolled up into a cylinder so compact and light that even a child could carry it.
Of course, when the Kafirs are on a journey, the women have to carry the beds, together with the heavy wooden pillows and other necessaries, the men carrying nothing but their weapons. I have a pair of figures made by a native artist, representing a Kafir man and woman on a journey, the woman staggering under her heavy burdens, the bed being included, and the man stepping lightly along, with nothing but his spears and knobkerries.