y assumes the name of fakeer or
priest, and the building, and cemetery attached to it, becomes
a _zowia_ or sanctuary.]

The palaces of this country generally consist of a perfect square
wall, containing from two to forty acres of land, or more; for the
imperial palace at Mequinas covers about two square miles of
ground. At each corner of the square is a cubical building, with an
angular top, of green glazed tiles, having four windows, one in
each side; in the centre of the square is the palace, surrounded by
a colonnade one or two stories high. The pavement is either
tessellated or of chequered marble; some of the walls of the rooms
are also tessellated with arabesque, borders, the ceilings are
painted with gay colours, viz. scarlet, sky-blue, green, yellow,
and orange, in arabesque, and some of them are very elegant. The
houses of the opulent are diminutive imitations of the palaces. The
house of (_the Talb Caduse_) the minister of the Sultan Seedi
Muhamed ben Abd Allah at Marocco, is a building, elegantly neat.
Abd Rahamen ben Nassar's house at Mogodor, is well deserving the
investigation of an European architect, and his magnificent new
house at Saffee, is a model of a particular style of architecture.
Some of the houses of the princes and the military at Mequinas are
275 handsome buildings, and many of the houses of the opulent merchants
at Fas, who have their commercial establishments at Timbuctoo, and
other countries of Sudan, are extremely neat and truly unique,
having beautiful gardens in the interior, ornamented with the
choicest and most odoriferous flowers and shrubs; with fountains of
running water, clear as crystal, delectable to behold in this warm
climate, and such as are not to be seen in any part of Europe.

276

FRAGMENTS, NOTES,
AND
ANECDOTES;

_Illustrating the Nature and Character of the Country_.

INTRODUCTION.

In recording the following Anecdotes and Fragments the naked truth
is stated, without the embellishments of language, or the labour of
rhetoric, which the wiser part of mankind have always approved of
as the most instructive way of writing; and all such as are
acquainted with books will readily agree with me, that many