THE WELL. 65 



It is necessary, however, to observe, that there 

 are no remains of ancient buildings, either in this 

 country or that of the Soumaulee, concerning 

 which the natives will not tell the same tale, 

 that they were towns once occupied by the Turks. 

 I was often told during my journey through the 

 Adal country of ruined houses built of stone and 

 lime, being in the neighbourhood, and my in- 

 formants invariably added that they had formerly 

 belonged to the Turks ; sometimes, as if correcting 

 themselves, explaining that they meant the Ferin- 

 gees, for that the old possessors had not been 

 Mahomedans but Christians. 



Proceeding to the well, we found the mouth of it 

 surrounded with a low fence of stones, about two feet 

 high. The shaft was about fifteen or sixteen feet 

 deep to the surface of the water, which is always 

 plentiful and sweet. At some little distance, their 

 extremities placed in the earth, were six upright 

 halves of the same kind of mill-stone we had just 

 before seen ; all of which, according to the state- 

 ments of the numerous slave-girls who were filling 

 their water-skins, had been brought from some 

 place among the hills by the torrents in the wet 

 season, so far according with the Sultaun's story, 

 and perhaps originating from the same sources of 

 information. 



The questions that naturally arise are, to what 

 people must we attribute these works of art, so supe- 

 rior to the capabilities of the present inhabitants 



VOL. I. F 



