14 TIMBUCTOO.

the surplus after the support of their own

famiUes is deposited in matamores ^y these are

stores to be used in time of scarcity : the mata- mores are about six feet deep. The king often

gives gold-dust, slaves, &c. to his favorites, but

the royal domains are never given. Lands not

very fruitful are common pastures. Moors pay no duties ; they say they will not bring goods if

compelled to pay duty, but the natives must pay;

the duties are collected by the king's officers, they

are four per cent, upon each article ad valorem.

At the gate of the desert, goods brought by

foreigners pay nothing, but goods brought in by the gate of the Nile, (which is the gate of

the Negroes,) pay a tax : another part of the

revenue is two per cent, in kind on the produce

of the land ; but the people of Barbary do not pay even this for what land they cultivate. The

property of those who die without heirs goes to

the king, but when a foreigner dies the king takes no part of his property ; it is kept for his rela-

tions. Timbuctoo beino^ a frontier town remits no revenue to Housa ; the king of Housa sends money to Timbuctoo to pay the garrison.

^ Subterraneous excavations, or rooms in the form of a

cone, which have a small opening Hke a trap-door ; when

these matamores are full of grain, they are shut, and the air

being excluded, the grain deposited in them will keep sound

twenty or thirty years. I have been in matamores in West and in South Barbary, that would contain 1000 saas of wheat,

or nearly 2000 bushels Winchester measure. They are from

six to sixteen feet deep, and of various conical forms.