STRAW HUTS. 259 sent by Allah solely for the benefit of their (the true believers') pockets, and accordingly charged outrageously throughout the country for the above-mentioned commodities, about two shillings per pole, and ninepence per bundle of dhurra, being the prices demanded by the natives, and paid by the English authorities. Considering that each hut took about thirty-six poles and twenty bundles of straw to construct, the profit to the land in general must have been considerable.

For the benefit of future builders, I will endeavour to describe the huts, which were simplicity itself. A framework was made of poles about nine feet high, stuck into the ground so as to form a parallelogram thirty-two feet long by fourteen feet broad, and more poles were lashed across them at the top and half-way down. A puddled mud wall, eighteen inches high, was raised between the uprights, to keep the beasts and dust out, and the whole covered with straw matting. This last was made by a gang of natives out of the dhurra stalks we brought from the villages round.

Though it takes little time to describe them, it s 2