72 
ed to remain in them. But their interior aspect is as 
disagreeable as that of every other African town* from 
the number of high walls of the houses, which always 
seem in a state of ruin. Many are actually propped up; 
almost all are without windows; and the few windows 
which are met with are not larger than a common sheet 
of paper. They are placed very high, and are general- 
ly either shut or covered with blinds, from jealousy. 
The doors have a shabby and mean appearance. 
Behind these high walls, we sometimes find houses 
whose inside presents something like beauty; but the 
general taste of the country requires that a mansion be 
composed of a court yard, surrounded with a colonade, 
which forms a kind of gallery, both above and below. 
By these galleries we reach their adjoining rooms, which 
usually have their light only from the door, and on this 
account the door is made rather large. The rooms are 
very long and very narrow, like those of Tangier. The 
ceiling, made of planks, is very lofty, and in common 
houses without any ornament. In other houses, the 
ceiling, the doors of the rooms, and the arcades of the 
court yard, are decorated with arabesques in relievo, 
and painted with various colours, even covered with 
gold and silver. The floors of all the rooms are of bricks, 
and, in rich houses, of flat square Dutch tiles, or of 
marble of different colours, placed in such a manner as 
to form designs rather pleasing. The stair- cases are 
very narrow, and the stairs high. The roofs of the 
houses resemble those of Tangier, and are covered with 
stamped earth, about one foot thick. This heavy load 
crushes the walls, without sheltering the houses from 
rain; and as they are made of bad lime, because the 
people are ignorant how to work it, they soon give way. 
Hence few houses are durable. Almost all the walls 
