254 BEDOUIN MANSION. 



upon a number of native huts, situated on a ridge 

 of lava, which here, as in several other places in 

 the plain, protruded through the clayey soil. 



This encampment belonged to the tribe of my 

 Hy Soumaulee friends, and were the first huts of 

 the natives I had seen during my journey. There 

 were about twenty or thirty of them, but Ohmed 

 Mahomed, with great gravity, informed me that the 

 name of the city was Herhowlee, the plain around 

 being called Lukhee. On my expressing a wish to 

 see the interior of one of the mansions, a very 

 handsome nice-looking girl, to whom Ohmed 

 Mahomed applied, immediately assented, and took 

 me to her father's, I suppose, for on our arrival 

 there was no one to be seen but an old gentleman, 

 nearly blind. He was busily employed stirring 

 with a stick some kind of grain, which was boiling 

 in a red earthenware pot over the fire. The house 

 itself was exactly the same, as some I had seen at 

 Berberah, about twelve feet long by six in breadth 

 and height, consisting of a frame of bent twigs, over 

 which were thickly laid mats of the palm leaf, suf- 

 ficient to throw off the rain, whilst entire leaves of 

 the same tree, placed perpendicularly, closed the 

 farther extremity. The fire-place was a small circle 

 of stones, occupying the one-half of the entrance 

 end, and which portion was also protected by a 

 shielding of palm-leaves, whilst the other half was 

 left open to serve as a door. There was nothing- 

 like furniture in the place, except a flat stone reared 



