10 MITFERES.

was considered as the fee by \yhich he held his bashawick. The Arabs who are the agriculturists of the before-mentioned plains, besides the corn exported, lay up immense quantities in subterraneous caverns, constructed by a curious process, well deserving the attention of the colonists of South Africa j these repositories are called mitferes , they are constructed in a conical form, and will contain from 00 to 2000 quarters of corn.

*" It is expedient, in their construction, to exclude the atmospheric air ; and the soil, in which they are constructed, should be essentially conservative, the air being never changed, is constantly of the same temperature, very dry, and not subject to the variations of humidity, which affect the external air; this, with other necessary precautions being observed, they will preserve tlie corn twenty or thirty years perfectly sound. In countries, (like that of the Cape of Good Hope,) subject to drought, inundations, or locusts, these mitferes, or catacombs are indispensable, as they preserve corn as a reserve stock, in the event of scarcity, or famine, produced by any of the before mentioned calamities, or providential visitations. It is more ** Genesis, xli. 9.— " And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea very much.'* I descended into a mitfere in the Arab province of Duquella, and remained there whilst tlie Arab explained to me the mode of constructing them ; this was near the douar of Woled Aisah (see the map) : it had just been emptied, and produced 3450 saas or quintals.