288 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
hedge, confifting of dried branches of acacia and other thorny 
trees, which fecures the cattle, and prevents the flaves from ef- 
caping ; but which, as it takes no root, is never green, and has 
rather a gloomy afpedt. The materials of the village houfes 
require no particular defcription ; they are commonly of the 
form of the Siikteia^ when they rife above the appellation of hut, 
but the fubftance is the ftraw of the maize, or fome other 
equally coarfe and infecure. Tents are not ufed, except by 
the Meleks and great men, and thefe are ill-conftru£ted. In 
time of war materials to conftrud: huts are found by the fol- 
diers, and applied without great difficulty j and the Sarciiia belli 
of each man is a light mat adapted to the fize of his body. 
* The troops of the country are not famed for fkill, courage, 
or perfeverance. In their campaigns much reliance is placed on 
the Arabs who accompany them, and who are properly tributa- 
ries rather than fubjeds of the Sultan. One energy of barba- 
rifm they indeed pofTefs, in common with other favages, that 
of being able to endure hunger and thirft ; but in this particu- 
lar they have no advantage over their neighbours. On the 
journey, a man whom I had obferved travelling on foot with the 
caravan, but unconneded with any perfon, afked me for bread 
— " How long have you been without it?" faid 1. — " Two days,"**^ 
was the reply. — " And how long without water ?" — " I drank 
water laft night." — This was at fun-fet, after we had been march- 
ing all day in the heat of the fun, and we had yet fix hours to 
reach 
