compensation, regulated according to the circumstances o f the aggressor. The re is but one prison iff this extensive city, where the prisoner is not confined,but suffers the bastinado, or pays'afine, and is liberated. Robberies attended with personal violence, stealing cattle, or provisions, are capital crimes, and are thus punished by decapitation : T h e criminal sits down on the ground, and whilst a person engages his attention, b y pushing him on the back o r shoulder, the executioner seizes that opportunity o f striking o ff his head with a sabre, at which he is ve ry adroit. Strangling is seldom practised. Bastinadoing, when the crime is extremely aggravated, is sometimes practised till the criminal expires under the chastisement. A debtor may be arrested and sent to prison, but on p roving his insolvency, he is liberated, but still remains accountable to his creditors; and, in the event o f his becoming afterwards a man o f property, his creditors may claim and sue him to the extent o f the debt previously contracted. T he Diwan, when the K in g is in the town, sit in his presence round the throne, and examine capital culprits. T h e king n ever decides contrary to the opinion o f the Diwan, or E l Alemma Slaves may complain to the Alemma o f illegal severity re ceived from their masters, o f w ant o f food or cloathing, either o f w hich, i f substantiated, he is ordered to liberate him. A n ative o f Timbuctoo cannot be a s la v e ; he must necessar ily have been bom in another country, and these are gen erally captives taken in battle. T h e children o f slaves are inherited Manufactures o f Timbuctoo. 30 3 b y tliemasters o f their parents. Slaves o f different masters cannot marry without the consent o f the la tte r : the master o f a negress endeavours to purchase the negro to whom she is attached. It is asserted that until lately no Jews were permitted to enter the town, and various conjectures have been made as to the cause o f this interdiction. It is also reported that those Jews who do now resort thither, are obliged to become Mohammedans, the forms o f w hich religion they probably relinquish on their return to their native country ; but whatever may be the ostensible, I am inclined to think the true cause w h y the Jews are not admitted into Timbuctoo, is the extreme jea lou sy o f the individuals o f the Moorish factory, whose avarice induces them to exclude e ve ry person from sharing the ir emoluments whenever a plausible pretext can be found. T h e climate o f Timbuctoo is much extolled as being salubrious and extremely invigorating, insomuch that it is impossible for the sexes to exist without intermarriage; accordingly | is said, there is no man o f the age o f eighteen who has not his wives or concubines, all which are allowed b y the laws o f the country, which are Mohammedan; and it is even a disgrace for a man who has reached the age o f puberty to be unmarried. T h e natives, and those who have resided there any considerable time, ha ve an elegance and su a vity o f manners which is not observed on this side o f Sahara : they possess a great- flow o f animal spirits, and are generally so much attached to the country, that they in va riably return, when insurmountable difficulties do not prevent them. W ith regard to the manufactures o f different kinds o f appare at Timbuctoo, and other places o f the interior, th e y are made, for the most part, b y the women in their respective houses,
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