The house which was appropriated for my residence not being quite finished, I had opportunity to observe the way in which the houses of this country are built. An excavation is made in the town itself to the depth of some feet, where a grey sand mixed with clay is found. This is made into bricks of a round form, which are baked in the sun. These bricks are similar to those used at Jenné. The young slaves carry them on their heads in calabashes, the way in which they also carry the mortar, which is formed from the same material. The builders, who are slaves, execute their work as cleverly as those of Jenné. I thought indeed that their walls were better constructed. Their doors are well made and solid; they are formed of planks joined with bars and nails brought from Tafilet. They fasten their doors by locks made in the country, without iron: even the keys are of wood[12]. Some Moors use iron locks and keys which they bring from the coasts of the Mediterranean. Locks are not used in the interior of the houses; but chains or bars supply their place. The roofs of the houses, none of which have more than the ground-floor, are, like those of the mosques, supported by rafters cut from the trunk of the ronnier, a tree which grows to a prodigious height on the banks of the river. I have seen some of these trees above a hundred and twenty five feet high. The trunk is split into four quarters, which are rounded off, laid upon the walls, and then covered with pieces of wood, mats and earth, like the roofs of the mosques. Each house forms a square,[13] containing two inner courts, round which are ranged the chambers, each of which is of a narrow oblong form and serves at once for a magazine and bed-room. These rooms receive light only from the door of entrance, and another very small door opening into the inner court. They have neither windows nor chimneys. The people of Timbuctoo have not adopted the practice, which is general in the Soudan, of lighting fires in their houses. Some of them build in the court a small hut of mats, in which during summer they live day and night; the chambers being too warm. A chamber similar to those I have above described was allotted to me; but I had well nigh been suffocated in it. I found it impossible to endure the heat, especially in the night. But what could I do in a country where there is not a tree to cast the least shade? My only refuge was a mosque which was the coolest and most airy place I could find. The east wind too, by raising clouds of dust, darkens the atmosphere and augments the heat. The inhabitants stay within doors during the heat of the day, and only go out in the mornings and evenings. The nights bring with them an oppressive calmness of the atmosphere, and if by chance there is a breath of air, it is felt like a burning vapour, and seems almost to scorch the lungs. I was continually ill at Timbuctoo.