Weaving was an also art perfected by the Somali people, they weaved mats from vegetable fibre and animal hair. Woodworking, weaving, pottery, leatherworking and smithing was done carried by the outcasts of the community also known as the 'Sab'. Culture Their staple foods are durra, bush fruits, milk and milk products and the flesh of camels, goats, cattle, sheep and game. Cattle, camels, sheep and goats, supply the milk and milk products on which the Somali primarily depend. Cattle and camels blood is collected by slipping a cord round the beast's neck and tightening it until the vein sufficiently swells to be readily pierced by a small arrow fired from a miniature bar.
Blood is often drunk mixed with milk or with honey.
The most favoured time of year for hunting is the dry season and so game makes a valuable addition to the diet. Owing to the lifestyle difference between the sedentary cultivators and the nomads, there are two types of huts. The easily transported collapsible huts which may be packed on the nomad's camel and the fixed cylindrical huts of the riverine agriculturists. The houses are prefabricated and portable structures, readily erected and dismantled. The erecting and dismantling of the houses is the responsibility of the women, and every wife owns her own house.