Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/319

 To the north succeed the two large Hudendoa villages of Miktinab and Filik, which are of some importance as market-places. To the south-east the Bazen peasantry, half converted to I lain, people the village of Elit, built at a height of 1,330 feet above the plain, on an almost inaccessible terrace half-way up the side of a granite mountain, scooped out at the top into a cultivated crater of quadrangular

shape. The "boiler" of Elit is probably a sinking of the soil, such as is frequently met with in rocks pierced with grottoes.

North of Elit and already on the slope of the Khôr Barka, is the village of Algaden or Algeden, whose houses are scattered amidst the overturned blocks on the sides of Mount Dablot or Doblut, which overlooks a vast horizon of hills and plains between the two rivers Mareb and Burka. Algaden lies on the route to Mecca taken by the Takruri pilgrims, who support themselves from village to