96 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. III. 
stock of dates for our horses, and commenced keeping house on our 
own account. 
Our habitation was a very good one, and as all the large houses 
are built on nearly the same plan, I may, by describing this, give 
an idea of all the rest. A large door, sufficiently high to admit a 
camel, opened into a broad passage, or Skeefa ^ujX-. ; on one side of 
which was a tolerable stable for five horses ; and close to it a small 
room for the slaves, whose duty it might be to attend the house. 
A door opposite to that of the stable opened into the Kowdi 
or lai'ge square room, the roof of which, at the height of eighteen 
feet, was supported by four palm-trees as pillars. In the centre of 
the roofing was a large open space, about twelve feet by nine ; from 
this the house and rooms receive light (not to mention dust), and 
excessive heat in the afternoon. At the end of the room, facing the 
door, a large seat of mud was raised, about eighteen inches high, 
and twelve feet in length. Heaps of this description, though 
higher, are found at the doors of most houses, and are covered with 
loungers in the cool of the morning and evening. Our large room 
was fifty feet by tliirty-nine. From the sides, doors opened into 
smaller ones, which might be used as sleeping or store-rooms, but 
were generally preferred for their coolness. Their only light was 
received from the door. Ascending a few steps, there was a kind 
of gallery over the side rooms, and in it were two small apartments, 
but so very hot as to be almost useless. From the large room was 
a passage leading to a yard, having also small houses attached to it 
in the same manner, and a well of comparatively good water. 
The floors were of sand, and the walls of mud roughly plastered, 
and showing every where the marks of the only trowel used in 
the country — the fingers of the right hand. There are no windows 
to any of the houses ; but some rooms have a small hole in the 
ceiling, or high up in the wall. 
