TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 81 and between which are heaps on heaps of filth of every description. The house of the king is separated from those of his subjects by a mud wall about nine feet high, and stands nearly in the centre of the town ; that of his son, and some of the chief men are similarly inclosed, but the walls of the latter are not so high. Two wells situate within the wall at the east end of the town, of tolerably good water, supply the inhabitants with that necessary article in sufficient abundance. The ground, to the extent of half a mile all round the town, was cleared, and bore the marks of cultivation. A few large shady evergreen trees, scattered over this plain, relieves the otherwise fatiguing prospect of such ah extent of arid surface. At a short distance to the south, lay a large Bushreen town, called Barra Cunda, which might contain from one thousand to one thousand five hundred inhabitants, and was surrounded by a slight stake fence, interwoven with thorny bushes, which is the only defence the followers of Mahomet in this country adopt. This arises from their not engaging in war, and never meeting with any other attack from an invading army than on their provisions, with which they are in general abundantly supplied, being more industrious and more abstemious than the Pagans ; a large proportion of whose corn, rice, &c., goes in the G