Chap. LXIV. CHARACTER OF BARBARA. 
363 
this time, and sometimes almost insupportable in my 
narrow dirty hut. I remember in particular one 
miserable night which I spent.here, when, not being 
able to obtain a wink of sleep, I wandered about all 
night, and felt totally exhausted in the morning. 
Notwithstanding the swarms of mosquitoes, I after- 
wards preferred sleeping outside my hut, in order to 
inhale the slight refreshing breeze which used to 
spring up during the night. Unfortunately I had, 
to the best of my belief, long before broken my last 
thermometer, and was therefore unable, or rather 
believed myself unable, to measure the heat with 
accuracy, but it could certainly not be inferior to 
the greatest rate we had experienced in Kiikawa. 
The whole country round about the village is very 
bleak, consisting chiefly of black argillaceous soil, 
such as is common in the neighbourhood of large 
sheets of water, and scarcely a single tree offers its 
foliage as a shelter from the rays of the sun. 
I had also sufficient leisure to pay full attention to 
the trading relations of the inhabitants, which, at this 
time of the year, are rather poor ; for although a daily 
market is held, it is on a very small scale, and, besides 
sour milk and salt, very little is to be found. Even 
Indian corn is not brought regularly into the market, 
although so much agriculture is going on in the neigh- 
bourhood, and I had to buy my supply from strangers 
who by chance were passing through the place, while 
for one of my oxen I got only as much as forty ska, 
or measures of corn : of rice, on the contrary, which 
