THE PALACE COURT. 9 



carrying water from the well. At a short distance 

 from these apartments, but within the enclosed 

 court, was a singularly constructed wooden building 

 that towered some six feet above the usual height 

 of houses in Tajourah, being the cabin of a large 

 bugalow, or native ship, wrecked in the bay, and 

 which had been elevated upon untrimmed trunks of 

 the date palm-tree.* A wall of matting carried 

 round these posts formed a convenient lower room, 

 which, with the cabin above, was usually apportioned 

 to strangers visiting the town. To this extraordi- 

 nary effort of native architectural genius, was 

 attached a small yard, separated by a mat screen 

 from the larger court ; and here, at a broken jar, 

 that stood in one corner, under the shade of a miser- 

 able looking henna-tree, the faithful of the house- 

 hold were always to be found at the stated times of 



* With respect to this wooden building, a recent traveller asserts 

 that it is made of the hull of a British ship, the Mary Ann, which 

 was attacked and burned during the night, in the port of Berberah, 

 more than twenty years ago. To paint the evil one blacker than he 

 really is, is not considered fair ; and I do not see why the treachery 

 and the violence of the inhabitants of a town nearly one hundred 

 and fifty miles distant should be thus attached to the people of 

 Tajourah without any foundation whatever. Another error that 

 demands a positive contradiction is the statement that the fops of 

 Tajourah are Soumaulee, with their hair stained red. One of the 

 principal distinguishing characteristics between the Dankalli, by 

 whom Tajourah is exclusively inhabited, and the Soumaulee of the 

 opposite coast of the bay, is this custom among the latter people to 

 change the natural colour of the hair, by a solution of quick-lime 

 applied to it. Any Dankalli doing this would be certainly assassinated 

 by his countrymen. 



