124 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
in fabricating houfes, are to be had for the labour of colledlmg 
or forming them. The fame may be faid of the thatch ; and 
the date tree, though perifhable, furnifhes the timber required. 
If a carpenter be employed, his time is not occupied in prepar- 
ing ufelefs ornaments. In the towns however, as Ghenne, 
AlTiut, Girgi, &c. the habitations are conftruded of better 
materials, with much more art, and are fome of them fump- 
tuous. 
Many confiderable iflands exift in the courfe of the Nile, 
but they are too frequently changing place, in confequence of 
new depofitions of mud, to admit of their being marked with 
permanent accuracy. 
The number of towns and villages which I diftinguiflied on, 
the Eaftern fide between Kahira and Affuan, amounted to about 
one hundred and fixty. 
On the Weftern, where the cultivable lands are more ex- 
tended, two hundred and twenty-eight. Yet they cannot be 
enumerated very accurately in pafllng on the ftream ; for there 
are many within the limits of the arable land on both fides, 
but principally on the Weft, which are not vifible from the 
river, and the names and numbers of which the circumftances 
then exifting did not permit me to learn from thofe to whom 
I could have recourfe for information. 
The 
