It was noon when we passed the new village of Zawât, which belongs to the country of el-Drah. This village is peopled by the former inhabitants of the deserted ruins we had seen in the morning: the houses are of stone, with terraced roofs, and consist only of a ground-floor; they are ill-built and resemble the huts of the Bambaras. We crossed some fields which had been cultivated, and about half past twelve halted in a wood of date-trees, near a neat village, called el-Hamit. Nothing was to be seen on all sides but forests of date-trees majestically rearing their summits to the clouds. Under these trees the inhabitants of el-Drah cultivate wheat, barley, and some garden vegetables. They divide their land, the soil of which is a fine sand but fertile, into little squares, round which they raise dikes to receive and retain the rain-water, and when they have collected more than they want they convey the surplus by channels to the foot of the date-trees. Each landholder has in the middle of his field a well of clear and good water, sunk to the depth of twenty or twenty-five feet, in a hard sand mixed with small black and yellow pebbles; I remarked several having strata from fourteen to eighteen inches thick of red sand a little veined with grey and of the consistence of clay. Two posts fifteen feet high are erected, one on each side of these wells supporting a cross-beam, to which is fastened a long pole, bearing a weight at its hinder extremity to counterbalance the bucket which is attached by a piece of cord to the other; the water is thus drawn-up without much effort and serves to water their plantations. At the depth of about twenty-five feet are found rocks which appear to be of granite. Wood is very scarce in this country; the fuel consists only of dry palm-leaves and the trunks of dead trees: the timber used in the construction of their houses is that of the date-tree. The plough is used in this country, and it is drawn by mules or camels.