CHAP. XII. AERIVE AT A FORTIFIED VILLAGE. 333 



some, persons attend with large earthen jars of water, which 

 they sell in small quantities to parties who may be thirsty 

 while in the market ; while others cook and dispose of meat 

 ready dressed to those who may be hungry. Others, as in the 

 market here, dispose of cooked manioc and potatoes. There 

 was part of a bullock, cut up in small pieces, for sale in one 

 part of the market at this place. The samples of rice looked 

 exceedingly good. 



Having rested a couple of hours, we journeyed on, and 

 travelled through a country of low hills and wide valleys, 

 comparatively well cultivated, and thickly peopled. The 

 parts of the country not under cultivation were covered 

 with thick grass. Immense blocks of granite, or gneiss, rose 

 up in different directions above the surface of the ground, 

 and the sides and summits of the mountains often exhibited 

 a large extent of naked granite rock. As we advanced, the 

 houses seemed to improve. If not larger than those to the 

 eastward, they were better built. The walls were of mud or 

 clay, with doors and window-shutters of wood, and the roofs 

 covered with a neat, thick thatching of grass. They were sur- 

 rounded by fences, and sometimes shaded by trees, with en- 

 closed gardens or fields outside, planted with different kinds 

 of produce. This, together with the cattle feeding on the 

 plain, often gave to the whole, as seen from a distance, the 

 appearance of an English farm. 



After crossing six or seven swampy streams, where the 

 men seemed much afraid of crocodiles or serpents, we ap- 

 proached the place at which we were to sleep. It was an 

 ancient fortified village, standing on the summit of a hill, 

 with a deep ditch or fosse outside, the entrance being by a 

 narrow stone gateway, and the space within crowded with 

 houses. These were so irregularly placed, and so crowded 

 together, that my palanquin could scarcely be carried along 

 the passages between the houses to the place where I was to 



