HOUSi. 41 HOUSA.

They did not see the town till they came within an hour from it, or an hour and a half; it stands in a plain. Housa is south-east of Timbuctoo, a much larger city and nearly as large as London. He lived there two years, but never saw the whole of it. It has no walls ; the houses are like those of Timbuctoo, and form irreo-ular lanes or streets like those of Fas or Marocco, wide enough for camels to pass with their loads. The palace is much larger than that ofTimbuctoo; it is seven or eight miles in circumference and surrounded by a wall ; he remembers but four gates, but there may be more ; he thinks the number of guards at each gate is about 50 ; it is in that part of the town most distant from the Nile. The houses are dark coloured and flat roofed. He thinks Cairo is about one-third larger than Housa ; the streets are much wider than those of Timbuctoo ; the houses are covered with a kind of clay of different colours but never white. They have no chalk or lime in the country.

GOVERNMENT.

If the king has children, the eldest, if a man of sense and good character, succeeds ; otherwise, one of the others is elected. The grandees of the court are the electors. If the eldest son * Rather south-east by east.