As the keen, evening air strikes chilly, the family huddle round the fire, and, shortly after eating, retirement to rest takes place. A 86° or higher temperature when the sun is up falls in the dark hours to 44° or less.
No lights are used in the houses. Lamps are unknown. How, then, is warmth gained during the cold night? People who wear no clothes by day are not likely to don pyjamas or fancy bedgowns. Civilisation has not touched them to the use of a blanket, like the Hausas.
When sleeping huts are built a broad shelf of mud is made to the wall. This is the couch of repose. Under it a fire is lit, and, every crevice of the doorway being closely covered, temperature soon rises. There is no ventilation whatever, so the smoke disposes of any mosquitoes and other insects, though I should say that the carbonic thickness of the atmosphere would alone effect the purpose. The marvel is for any soul to emerge alive. Asphyxiation seems certain. Yet I gathered from the Pagans that they enjoy the hours in comfort and tranquillity.
In the plot of ground in front of the huts small vegetables are grown: a kind of kitchen-garden and kept scrupulously clean. I have looked over dozens of plots without finding a single weed in any.
The farm land is not in the towns. It may be four to eight miles away. A man, riding a pony, goes to his farm in the morning when the sun has made its warmth felt and remains at work until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The pony is not tethered. A hobble-rope is put on two legs and the animal allowed to wander. A bell attached to the neck indicates its whereabouts to the owner, who occasionally has to penetrate through grass higher than himself to bring back the steed. The heavier work of the field, such as hoeing, is done by the farmer and his sons, whilst the ladies of the household assist at sowing and reaping and alone do the weeding. That arrangement applies both in the farm land and the compound adjoining the dwelling. But the feminine units are expected to walk to their tasks. The wife on domestic duty goes out with the food for her husband and for those of his other wives and sons and daughters who are with him on the farm.
The main crop is accha. There are also an inferior kind of guinea-corn known as magaragara, which grows about 4 feet high, douro, gwaza, doiya, tamba, risga and tobacco, which is smoked in long pipes by both men and women. In some parts the ladies do not smoke; they chew tobacco. Bees are kept in hives of mud, and though there are few flowers, honey is obtained plentifully.
A pony is not possessed by every farmer, and at first it is a strange sight that of a farmer walking to or from his ground with a string of four or five wives, the party in single file and absolutely no clothing on any of them.
The Hausa is a skilled agriculturist, who has nothing to learn in that respect from any white race. He, however, is distanced considerably by the Pagan, who tends his land cleaner. The soil is much poorer than that of the Hausa country and needs greater skill and effort for cultivation. At present the Pagan raises only sufficient for his own requirements, which besides the matter of food remain small. When he and his womenkind yearn for the gee-gaws of what is termed civilisation, and he wants money to purchase them, then he will make more use of the nearest Hausa market to transform his corn or other produce into cash. So far, the principal luxuries which attract most Pagans are matches and cigarettes. In some places the people are developing a taste for meat, for which, of course, money must be earned. Though sheep, goats and, in instances, cattle are bred, seldom are any killed for food. They represent a man’s wealth and in the owner’s view it would be rank heresy against political economy to consume them.
There is a large open space—three or four acres—in Bukuru town. Nobody farms the ground, nor is it used for individual purpose. There the people foregather for public celebrations, which take place at least twice a year. Events that prompt these assemblies are gleaning of the farm crops and other agricultural periods in the calendar. Then it is that the fashions of Bukuru can be seen in all their glory.
Clothing does not enter into the pageantry. Paint is the agent employed to enhance nature’s charms. Earth and tree-bark are ground into a red paste and with it the fair young dames cover between the ankle to below the knee, where a narrow white colouring marks the limit of the decoration. Only this; nothing more.