270 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLVl. 
served here great quantities of the grass called kreb 
or kasha, which I have before mentioned, and which 
constitutes a considerable part of the food of the 
poorer inhabitants. We passed several towns in a 
state of the utmost decay and entirely deserted ; and 
traversing a dense underwood, which we scarcely 
expected to see in the neighbourhood of a large town, 
reached at five o'clock the clay walls of Ngala. 
The interior of this town has a very peculiar cha- 
racter, and nothing similar to it is seen in any part 
of Negroland, although the place at present is in a 
great state of decay ; for all the ancient quarter of 
the town consists of clay houses, built on an impos- 
ing and elevated terrace. The palace of the gover- 
nor is indeed something quite stupendous for these 
regions, having, with its immense substructure, and 
its large and towering walls, the appearance of a large 
citadel. We were quartered in the extensive mansion 
of the gedado or delatu, in which Mr. Tully died ; but 
it, as well as the whole of the town, was in the utmost 
state of decay. The times of Meram, the beloved 
wife of the sheikh Mohammed el Amm el Kanemy, 
had gone by ; and the wealth of Ngala had been con- 
sumed by the slaves of the present sheikh and his 
vizier. The once magnificent palace of Meram itself 
is nothing but a large, desolate heap of ruins. 
The quarters, however, which were assigned to me 
-were in a tolerable state of repair, consisting, as they 
did, of an upper story, which afforded me sufficient 
protection against the numbers of mosquitoes which 
