Chap. XLIII. INDUSTRY PILLAGED. 
175 
spected, and nothing touched, from a cow to a fowl, 
grain only excepted, which was declared to be at the 
disposal of everybody. 
It was rather remarkable that the greatest part of 
the crops were still standing, although we had been 
lingering so long on oar road, and had given sufficient 
time to the people to secure them for themselves. All 
the grain consisted of the red species of holcus, called 
by the 136rnu people "ngaberi kerne," which grows here 
to the exclusion of the white species and that of millet. 
All the people of the army were busy in threshing the 
grain which they had just gathered at the expense 
of their friends, and loading their horses with it. 
Even the fine nutritive grass from the borders of the 
swamp, which, woven into long festoons, the natives 
had stored up in the trees as a provision against the 
dry season, was carried off, and, notwithstanding 
the express order to the contrary, many a goat, fowl, 
and even articles of furniture which had been left 
behind by the natives, fell a prey to the greedy host. 
The spectacle of this pillage was the more sadden- 
ing, as the village not only presented an appearance 
of comfort, but exhibited in a certain degree the 
industry of its inhabitants. In general each court- 
yard contained a group of from three to six huts, 
according to the number of wives of the owner. The 
walls of the dwellings, without a single exception, 
were built of clay, which in the courtyards of the 
richer people even formed the building-material of the 
