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frequently so considerable that I was obliged to shut my doors and 

 windows, put on more clothes, and have a pan of embers in the 

 room, there being no chimneys. 



Here are several squares, and about thirteen places of religious wor- 

 ship, namely, two convents, three monasteries, and eight churches, the 

 greater part of which, as well as of the whole town, is built of earth. 

 The mode of erecting the walls is as follows : a frame is constructed 

 of six moveable planks placed edge-wise, opposite each other, and 

 secured in this position by cross-pieces bolted with moveable pins. 

 Earth is put in by small quantities, which the workmen beat with 

 rammers and occasionally moisten with water to give it consistency. 

 Having filled the frame or trough, they remove it and continue the 

 same operation till the whole shell of the house is completed, taking 

 care to leave vacancies and put in the window-frames, door-frames, 

 and beams as they proceed. The mass in course of time becomes 

 indurated, the walls are pared perfectly smooth inside, and take 

 any colour the owner chooses to give them ; they are generally en-» 

 riched with very ingenious devices. This species of structure is 

 durable; I have seen some houses thus built that have lasted two 

 hundred years, and most of them have several stories. The roofs 

 are made to project two or three feet beyond the wall, in order to 

 throw off the rain to a distance from the base ; spouts might be a, 

 more effectual preservative against wet, but their use is little known 

 here. They cover their houses Avith gutter-tiles, but though the 

 country affords excellent clay and plenty of wood, very few bricks 

 are burnt. 



The population of this place amounts to full fifteen thousand 

 souk: perhaps nearer twenty thousand ; the clergy, including all 

 ranks of religious orders, may be reckoned at five hundred. They 

 are in general good members of society, free from that excessive 

 bigotry and illiberality which is the reproach of the neighbouring 

 ; colonies, and their example has so beneficial an effect on the rest of 

 the inhabitants, that I may presume to say, no stranger will be mo- 



