Having entered my quarters in the dark, I had no idea of their character; and it was not till the following day that I became aware of it. They consisted, as shown in the accompanying wood-cut, of a spacious courtyard containing nothing but a clay building, which comprised two apartments, besides a small granary, built of clay, but which was covered all round with straw at the setting-in of the rainy season, in order to protect it from violent rains. The clay hall had been built by Ábú, the elder brother and the predecessor of the present ghaladíma, who greatly surpassed the latter in warlike energy, and who fell in Zánfara during that unfortunate expedition against the Góberáwa, the preparations for which Mr. Overweg witnessed during his stay in Marádi, in the beginning of the summer of 1851. The principal apartment of this clay hall, supported by two massive columns, with an average temperature of 94°, was an excellent abode during the hottest part of the day, when it felt very cool and pleasant; but it was rather oppressive in the morning and evening, when the air outside was so much cooler. But in the courtyard there was not the slightest shade, all the trees in this quarter of the town, as well as the huts consisting of reed, having been swept away by a great conflagration the preceding year, a young kórna tree, which had been planted at a later period, only just beginning to put forth its foliage. The whole courtyard, also, was in a most filthy state, characteristic of the manners of the natives in their present degraded moral and political situation. The first thing, therefore, that I had to do, in order to make myself tolerably comfortable, was to cleanse out this Augean stable, to build a hut for my servants, and a shady retreat for myself. I was well aware that the latter, which it was not easy to make water-tight, would become useless with the first considerable fall of rain; but I entertained the hope that, before that time, I should be able to set out on my journey. [Illustration: 1. Entrance hut or parlour, furnished with two seats of clay and two couches of the same material. 2. Second hut, without couches. 3. Open courtyard, overgrown with grass. 4. Hut for my chief servant. 5. Clay hall, with a store-room at the back. 6. Small granary.]