340 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXI1I 
smaller sheepskins cut in quadrangular pieces and 
sewed together, while the borders of the whole are 
left purposely very irregular, in order to pass the 
stalks, which describe the outward circle of the tent, 
through the projecting corners. These skins are 
spanned over three pairs of poles, the middle pair of 
considerable elevation, the remaining two not so high, 
and one of them, on the right of the entrance, being- 
forked, as represented in the accompanying woodcut, 
although, as far as I have become aware, the middle 
poles are not always the same, in some tents both 
joining at the top, in others seeming to stand apart. 
The whole character of these tents will be still better 
understood from the plate representing the Tawarek 
encampment at Amalelle in the next volume. 
