In Sool, every Stalkhouse has a Bobol Dome on top, which is where the Bobols stay at night; and each house has a water feeder and a full size Bobol Kiln in which to make Lava-smoke from powdered rock. Smoke and water are all the Bobols require: They used to live in the wild, feeding from volcanoes and hot fissures in the ground, but when the people of Sool learned how to make the same smoke irresistibly delicious by the inclusion of herbs and spices, the Bobols came eagerly to live with their human companions.
To the touch they feel like warm stone, ancient, wise and safe.  The Bobols can understand humans but they have their own language, their voices sounding like soft, flutey horns - nobody knows what they're saying - and they have a row of little beady black eyes encircling the tops of their heads, so nobody knows what they're looking at either. 
Everything, say the people of Sool.
From The Book of Wildergorn