282 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XL VII. 
dwellings in general did not consist of round conical 
huts, but of spacious oblong houses of clay, of con- 
siderable elevation. I was quartered in one of these 
structures, but found it rather close, and full of dust. 
The town presented an appearance of the utmost 
decay, only a few dwellings remaining in the centre 
of it; and the only remarkable objects were two 
palm-trees, one of which I had already observed 
from without: and I now assured myself that they 
were not date- trees, but belonged to the fan- shaped 
group of palms. But they were not bifurcated, and 
seemed not to belong to the Cucifera Thebdica, nor 
were they identical with the deleb-palm. At any rate 
they were the tallest specimens which I ever remember 
to have seen of the fan-shaped tribe, their height 
appearing more extraordinary on account of the 
small tuft of leaves, which was confined to the very 
top. The town itself presenting no very interesting 
features, I went out in the afternoon, and lay down 
for an hour or two, in the shade of one of those 
beautiful fig-trees which, fed by a large and deep 
swamp, surround the town on all sides ; but, the more 
pleasant was my day's repose, the more disagreeable 
was my night's rest, for, owing to these stagnant 
pools, the town is full of mosquitoes, and neither I 
myself nor any of my companions were able to get 
any sleep the whole of the ensuing night. 
We therefore rose very early in the following 
morning, long before day- break, and at four o'clock 
had already left the gate of the town behind us. 
