houses of the Maleks have generally terraced roofs of beaten clay, This
manner of building is sufficient in a country where no great quantity of
rain falls throughout the year. Some of the houses of the peasants
are formed of trusses of cornstalks, and placed side by side in a
perpendicular position, and lashed together, with roofs of the same
materials. All the people sleep upon bedsteads, as they do also in
Dongola and Shageia: these bedsteads are composed of an oblong frame of
wood, standing on four short legs, the sides of the frame supporting
a close network of leathern thongs, on which the person sleeps; it is
elastic and comfortable.

Berber contains plenty of salt, which the natives find in some
calcareous mountains between the desert and the fertile land. In its
natural state, it is found mingled with a brown earth, with which the
stone of those mountains is intermixed. This earth the natives dilute
with water, which absorbs the salt and leaves the earth at the bottom;
they then pour off the water into another vessel, and, by exposing it to
the sun or fire, the water is evaporated and the salt remains.

The assemblage of villages which compose the capital of Nousreddin,
contains houses enough for a population of five or six thousand souls,
but I do not believe that the actual population of those villages is so
great.

The language is Arabic, perfectly intelligible to the natives of Egypt,
but containing some ancient words at present disused on the lower Nile;
for instance, the Berber calls a sheep "Kebesh."[39'

As to the climate, the difference between the heat at two hours
afternoon in the month of the vernal equinox, and at an hour before