CHAP. XII. 
ARRIVE AT A FORTIFIED VILLAGE. 
333 
some, persons attend with large earthen jars of water, which 
they sell in small quantities to parties who may be thirsty 
while in the market; while others cook and dispose of meat 
ready dressed to those who may be hungry. Others, as in the 
market here, dispose of cooked manioc and potatoes. There 
was part of a bullock, cut up in small pieces, for sale in one 
part of the market at this place. The samples of rice looked 
exceedingly good. 
Having rested a couple of hours, we journeyed on, and 
travelled through a country of low hills and wide valleys, 
comparatively well cultivated, and thickly peopled. The 
parts of the country not under cultivation were covered 
with thick grass. Immense blocks of granite, or gneiss, rose 
up in different directions above the surface of the ground, 
and the sides and summits of the mountains often exhibited 
a large extent of naked granite rock. As we advanced, the 
houses seemed to improve. If not larger than those to the 
eastward, they were better built. The walls were of mud or 
clay, with doors and window-shutters of wood, and the roofs 
covered with a neat, thick thatching of grass. They were sur¬ 
rounded by fences, and sometimes shaded by trees, with en¬ 
closed gardens or fields outside, planted with different kinds 
of produce. This, together with the cattle feeding on the 
plain, often gave to the whole, as seen from a distance, the 
appearance of an English farm. 
After crossing six or seven swampy streams, where the 
men seemed much afraid of crocodiles or serpents, we ap¬ 
proached the place at which we were to sleep. It was an 
ancient fortified village, standing on the summit of a hill, 
with a deep ditch or fosse outside, the entrance being by a 
narrow stone gateway, and the space within crowded with 
houses. These were so irregularly placed, and so crowded 
together, that my palanquin could scarcely be carried along 
the passages between the houses to the place where I was to 
