MATERIALS OF THE HOUSES. 
3 
with an interior courtyard, and various appendages 
and huts around on the outside. There is another 
house, and also a mosque built in the same style, but 
much smaller. Of the rest of the habitations, a few 
are stone sheds, but the greater part are huts made 
of the dry stalks of the fine herb called bou rekabah, 
in the form of a conical English haystack, and are 
very snug, impervious alike to rain and sun. There 
are not more than one hundred and fifty of these 
huts and sheds, scattered over a considerable space, 
without any order ; some are placed two or three 
together within a small enclosure, which serves as a 
court or yard, in which visitors are received and 
cooking is carried on. There is another little village 
at a stoneVthrow north. The inhabitants of these 
two villages consist entirely of the slaves and de- 
pendants of En-N oor. 
All around Tintalous, within an hour or two 
hours' ride, there are villages or towns of precisely 
the same description, more or less numerously 
peopled. At Seloufeeat and Tintaghoda, however, 
we saw more houses built of stone and mud. This 
may be accounted for by the fact that the inhabit- 
ants are not nearly so migratory as those of Tin- 
talous, who often follow in a body the motions of 
their master, so that he is ever surrounded by an 
imposing household. 
I must not omit mentioning an important article 
of furniture which is to be observed in all the 
