ARABS GHANA ^WANGARA. 
89 
Africa has yet attained. The palace, built on the 
banks of the river, besides being of a peculiarly 
solid structure, and having the luxury, little 
known in those regions, of glass windows, was 
adorned with elaborate works of painting and 
sculpture. Tamed elephants and camelopardales 
are mentioned as among the accompaniments 
which swelled the pomp of the sovereign's equi- 
page. The circumstance, however, which was 
considered as distinguishing him above all other 
African potentates, was a mass of native gold, 
weighing thirty pounds, which formed the orna- 
ment of his throne. Notwithstanding this splen- 
dour of the court, the nation in general appears 
to have been characterized by simplicity, and even 
by rudeness. The common people wore merely a 
girdle, composed frequently of the skins of wild 
beasts ; and it was considered as indicating a su- 
perior rank to have any farther covering. 
To the sovereign of Ghana was also subject 
Wangara, or the land of gold, considered proba- 
bly as the brightest jewel in his crown. The gold 
here, as over all the rest of Africa, is represented 
as entirely alluvial, and found chiefly in the beds 
of the rivers, or on the inundated ground after 
the water has retired. Wangara is represented as 
formed into a species of island, by branches of the 
Nile which surround it on all sides ; and which, 
overflowing during the rainy season, lay nearly 
