396 Roree in Khyrpoor. [No. 113* 



the doors. The roofs are surrounded by a light rail or ballustrade, and 

 have spouts to carry off water. The upper story has sometimes a wooden 

 balcony, supported on frail posts, and the houses of the rich are con- 

 tained in a walled court, along with buildings and sheds for servants. 

 The rooms have pannelled ceilings tastefully carved, as are the window- 

 frames and door posts. It forms the only ornament, and there is scarcely 

 any furniture ; coarse woollen carpets, and mats, supply the place of 

 tables and chairs ; some houses are constructed of burnt brick plas- 

 tered with clay ; when sun-dried bricks are used, they are not laid 

 horizontally, but in a sloping or diagonal direction, (v. Fig. 1,) and the 

 upper walls, which are extremely thin, are any kind of timber placed 

 without regard to regularity, with tamarisk twigs between them, and 

 plastered with clay, and chopped straw. Lime abounds every where ; 

 but it is not the custom in Roree nor other parts of Sind to white-wash 

 the outer and inner walls of houses, and they have a dingy uncomfort- 

 able appearance. The upright posts are chiefly tamarisk, fixed into 

 horizontal beams of the same, and set in a stone foundation to preserve 

 them from the depredations of white ants. Roofs are flat, and built of 

 slight timbers, covered with reeds, and when reeds are not procurable, 

 mats are substituted. The frame work is acacia, date, a whitish co- 

 loured wood called Bank or Buhan, and any other kind of timber ; the 

 acacia is scarce at Roree and Sukhur, and the date never used for door 

 posts and pillars. The people put on the rafters a layer of *teer, then 

 -fchupree, and thirdly a kind of reed called Gondnee (Typha), upon which 

 they spread a coat of fat yellowish clay (peela mutlee) mixed with 

 chopped straw and the sw r eepings of houses. Those who can afford it 

 mix wheat chaff wdth the clay, and when it is dry lay over it a compost 

 of cowdung and clay, to fill up crevices. Dry cowdung is sometimes 

 put on the reeds, and covered with chopped straw and clay ; a roof thus 

 formed is about a cubit thick ; the wood and reeds occupy eight inches, 

 cowdung the same, and clay two inches. The people assured me, that 

 a roof properly constructed will endure half a century, and resist for 

 twenty years the small quantity of rain which falls in Sind ; a roof 

 commonly stands ten years without requiring repairs, but the mats are 

 soon rotted by wet. The cost of building a good shop, of burnt brick 

 on the ground floor in Roree, is 400 or 500 Rs., and double the sum if 

 a story be added to it ; a large shop may be constructed of sun-dried 



* The upper stem of moonj grass called in India Sirkee. 

 t The thick part of the stem of moonj grass called in India Surkunda, 



