EARLIEST EXPLORERS. 
19 
maintained an army of 3000 liorse and a numerous 
infantry, partly armed with poisoned arrows. Gold, for 
which Timbuctoo had now become the chief mart, was 
lavishly employed in the ornament of his court and 
person. He displayed solid masses, larger even than 
the one at Ghana, and some of his ornaments weighed 
1300 ounces. The royal palace and several mosques 
were handsomely built of stone; but the ordinary 
habitations here, as in all Central Africa, were merely 
bell-shaped huts, the materials of which were stakes, 
clay, and reeds. 
A NATIVE HUT. 
