MODE OF BUILDING HOUSES. 
77 
into bricks of a round form, which are baked in the sun. 
These bricks are similar to those used at Jenne. The young 
slaves carry them on their heads in calabashes,, the way in 
which they also carry the mortar, which is formed from the 
same material. The builders, who are slaves, execute their 
work as cleverly as those of Jenne. I thought indeed that 
their walls were better constructed. Their doors are well 
made and solid ; they are formed of planks joined with 
bars and nails brought from Tafilet. They fasten their doors 
by locks made in the country, without iron : even the keys 
are of wood*. Some Moors use iron locks and keys which 
they bring from the coasts of the Mediterranean. Locks 
are not used in the interior of the houses ; but chains or 
bars supply their place. The roofs of the houses, none of 
which have more than the ground-floor, are, like those 
of the mosques, supported by rafters cut from the trunk of 
the ronnier, a tree which grows to a prodigious height on 
the banks of the river. I have seen some of these trees 
above a hundred and twenty five feet high. The trunk is 
split into four quarters, which are rounded off, laid upon the 
walls, and then covered with pieces of wood, mats and 
'earth, like the roofs of the mosques. 
Each house forms a square,t containing two inner 
courts, round which are ranged the chambers, each of which 
is of a narrow oblong form and serves at once for a ma- 
gazine and bed-room. These rooms receive light only 
from the door of entrance, and another very small door 
opening into the inner court. They have neither windows 
nor chimneys. 
The people of Timbuctoo have not adopted the practice, 
which is general in the Soudan, of lighting fires in their 
* Wooden locks and keys are also used in Egypt and Nubia, 
f See the plan of a private house. Plate 5, Figs. 4. 5. 
