various products o f their respective countries, to barter for the European and Barbary manufactures. T h e houses o f T imbuctoo have, for the most part, no upper apartments: they are spacious, and o f a square form, with an opening in the centre, surrounded b y a gallery similar to the houses at Fas and Marocco; the y have no windows, as the doors, which are lo fty and wide, opening in the gallery before mentioned, admit sufficient light to the rooms when thrown open. T he walls o f the houses are erected thus: they put boards on each side o f the wall, supported by stakes driven in the ground, or attached to other stakes laid transversely across the wall, the intermediate space is then filled with sand, mud, and lime, and beat down with large wooden mallets till it becomes hard and compact: the cases are left on for a day or two; they then take them off, and move them higher up, until the wall be finished, which is generally erected to the heighth o f eight or nine cubits.* Contiguous to the house door is a building consisting o f two rooms, called a Duaria, in which visitors are received and entertained, so that the y see nothing o f the women, who are extremely handsome. T h e men are so excessively jealous o f their wives, that, when the latter visit a relation, they are obliged to muffle themselves up in eve ry possible way to disguise their persons; their face also is covered with their garment, through which th e y peep with one eye to discover their way . In various parts o f the city are spacious (fondaque) caravan- seras, b u ilt on a plan similar to that o f the houses, ha vin g a g a lle ry round the area, the access to which is by stairs : the * Three quarters of a cubit make one yard. rooms which surround and open into the gallery are v e ry numerous, and are hired b y merchants and strangers for themselves and their merchandize. These are p rivate property, an the rooms are let each for about twenty skiat, or two dollars per month ; the agent o f the proprietor o f the fondaque usually resides in some apartment, in order to accommodate the strangers with provisions and other necessaries, ha vin g messengers, or porters, who perform the domestic offices o f the house until the strangers become settled, and have leisure to provide themselves w ith domestics, or to purchase slaves from the market to cook their victuals, clean their rooms, and attend their persons, whilst they are employed in bartering and exchanging their commodities till the y have invested the whole in Soudanic produce, which they endeavour to accomplish b y autumn (September), in order to be ready for the akkabaah, either to proceed to Maroccq, Cairo, Jidda,* or elsewhere. T h e king, whose authority has been acknowledged at T im buctoo e ve r since the death o f Muley Ismael, Emperor o f Marocco, is the sovereign o f Bambarra ; the name o f this potentate in 1800 was W o o lo ; he is a black, and a native o f the country which he governs; his usual place o f residence is Jinnie, though he has three palaces in Timbuctoo, which are said to contain an immense quantity o f gold. Many o f the c iv il appointments at Timbuctoo, since the decease o f Muley Ismael before mentioned, and the consequent decline o f the authority * Timbuctoo, but more particularly Jinnie, carries on a considerable trade to Darbevta, a port in the Red Sea, in the country of Senaar, from whence they are transported to Jidda, and other parts of (Yemin) Arabia Felix ; among other articles is an immense quantity of the goldtrinkets of the manufcture of Jinnie already mentioned.
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