TOKULS. 25

stroke of the whip above the knees. The dromedary is callctl

hagihn ; the camel, the cliimmal, plur. chomal. We had, at dawn of morning, started on an inspection of this

ruined city, Damer, to see if any ancient remains were to be found :

but neitlier brick nor hewn stone did we see. The houses not yet crumbled into ruins were built of meteoric stone (top).* We made our way into a couple of such houses ; inside all was dark,

as windows there were none, but a few round or angular holes up

near the flat roofs, such as are in the sloping walls of Egyptian

temples. By these means greater strength is lent to the bad

material used in building, and this is evident in the high towers

or loam castles in the land of Barabra, and from the enduring

remains of the pylones of the temples. Any one who doubts the

durability of such loam ediHces may soon be convinced both of

this and the high national liking for them, by examining these old

buildings. We generally found in the houses two monstrous cla}'

jars, some six or eight feet high, such as are common also in

Greece, for the storing of grain, bread, &c. ; one bed-place for the

whole family, and a bench or settle, spread Avith mats, and raised some three or four feet from the ground. The other houses were

the common Ethiopian tokuls, to which was attached an oblong bower of wicker-work, a tolerably cool abode, and called a Recuba.

The tokul is formed by a circular loam wall, with a pointed roof

placed on it; and such huts, with little diiference, are to be found

in every part of Africa and certain parts of America— Guiana, for

instance, where, probably, tlie negroes introduced them. On enter-

ing one of these huts we were welcomed by a Turk from Bosnia,

who, with grave face, told my brother he possessed a certain herb

that would, in three or four days, perfectly cure broken bones

;

but he would not produce this wondrous plant, as he feared my

brother might steal his secret. We also here heard tliat at the

point of land where the Atbara runs into the Nile there was a vil-

lage called Kenisse (meaning Church or Christian ruins), where were many old buildings (bint gaddim), in which bricks might be

found. That in very early times the Christian faith spread widely

in -3ithiopia is well known, and we were about to start on a second

* The word for brick is top achmer, red stone, and may point to a manufac-

ture introduced by the Arabs.