Plate.
|   Explanation.

55 Village of Seluku (community of Sivu), with chief’s emone
    at the end facing up the enclosure.
56 Village of Amalala (community of Sivu), with chief’s emone
    at the end of the enclosure.
57 The same village of Amalala (photographed in the other direction),
    with secondary emone at the end of the enclosure.
58 Village of Malala (community of Sivu), with secondary emone
    at the end of the enclosure.
59 Village of Uvande (community of Alo), with chief’s emone at
    the end of the enclosure.
60 Village of Biave (community of Mambu), with chief’s emone
    at the end of the enclosure.
61 The chief’s emone in village of Amalala.
62 The chief’s emone in the village of Malala, at the other end
    of the enclosure.
63 A house in the same village.
64 A house in village of Levo (community of Mambu).

Communications.

The native paths of the Mafulu people, or at all events those passing through forests, are, like those of most other mountain natives, usually difficult for white men to traverse.  The forest tracks in particular are often quite unrecognisable as such to an inexperienced white man, and are generally very narrow and beset with a tangle of stems and hanging roots and creepers of the trees and bush undergrowth, which catch the unwary traveller across the legs or body or hands or face at every turn, and are often so concealed by the grass and vegetation that, unless he be very careful, he is apt to be constantly tripped up by them; and moreover these entanglements are often armed with thorns or prickles, or have serrated edges, a sweep of which may tear the traveller’s clothes, or lacerate his hands or face.  Then there are at every turn and corner rough trunks of fallen trees, visible or concealed, often more or less rotten and treacherous, to be got over; and such things are frequently the only means of crossing ditches and ravines of black rotting vegetable mud.  Moreover the paths are often very steep; and, indeed, it is this fact, and the presence of rough stones and roots, which renders the very prominent outward turn of the people’s big toes, with their prehensile power, such useful physical attributes.

Their bridges may be divided into four types, namely:  (1) A single tree thrown across the stream, having either been blown down, and so fallen across it accidentally, or been purposely placed across it by the natives. (2) Two or more such trunks placed in parallel lines across the stream, and covered with a rough platform of transverse pieces of wood. (3) The suspension bridge.  I regret that I am unable to give a detailed description of Mafulu suspension bridges, but I think I am correct in saying that they are very similar to those of the Kuni people, one of whose bridges is described in the Annual Report for June, 1909, as being 150