The house of the sultan is surrounded by a clay wall, about twenty feet high, having two low tower-like entrances, one on the east, the other on the west. The eastern one is entirely guarded by eunuchs, of whom he has a great number, I suppose because the harem is on the eastern side. The whole of his house forms, as it were, a little town of itself; for in it there are five square towers, a small mosque, a great number of huts, and a garden, besides a house, which consists of one single room, used as the place for his receiving and hearing complaints, receiving visitors, and giving audiences to strangers. This room or house is nothing more than what we should call in our country a shed. Two large pillars support a beam, or bundle of long rods, plastered over with clay. These support the rafters, which are of the branches of the palm-tree; on the back part is an imitation of a fire-place, with a fire-screen before it; and on each side are two chairs, which are also plastered with clay, and coloured like mahogany. The ornament or figure on the back of these is the same as those seen on a number of chairs in England, and corresponds with that on the fire-screen. The walls are ornamented partly in the European and partly in the African fashion. There are two doors, one in the front towards the right, and the other in the left end of the house, and which leads through a small street of huts to a large hut, with two doors: passing through and within a few yards of it stands a large square clay tower, with an entrance in the west side. The interior of this is common in most of the great men’s houses in Houssa. It is in the shape of a dome, formed of eight arches springing from the ground; in the centre of which is a large bright brass basin, acting as it were in the place of a key-stone to the arches, which are turned by branches plastered over with clay. If I had not seen them constructing the arches and pillars of a mosque, I should have supposed them to be formed entirely of clay, as the wood in no part appears. The clay serves to keep the white ants from destroying the wood; they are ornamented in their fashion while the clay is wet, an operation performed with the fingers and a small square stick. From the arches, about one-third up, runs a gallery quite round the interior building, having a railing with pillars of wood, covered and ornamented with clay. There are three steps leading up to this gallery, from which every thing in the dome may be seen or heard. Passages also lead from it into small rooms, having each one small window, or square hole, some appearing to be used as store-rooms, and others as sleeping-rooms. The floor of the dome was covered with clean white sand. The height might be, from the floor to the brass basin in the centre of the arches, from thirty-five to forty feet. The air inside of this dome was cool and pleasant; and Bello told me he often used it as a place to read in during the heat of the day.