indemnifying themselves for the losses he occasions them. All their prisoners are sold as slaves, and the money or goods arising from such sale appropriated chiefly by the kings of the country, In F ezzan the punishment for crimes is as in Tripoli, though hanging is not'»commonly practised, strangling being more to the Sultan’s taste. I f a man is found murdered, and the authors or instigators of his death are unknown or unconvicted, the inhabitants of the town, in or near which the body is found, are obliged to pay to the Sultan a fine of 2000 dollars. I f a corpse is. found on the desert with marks of violence on it, the people of the districts which border that desert must pay the requisite sum. Should the murderer return after a few months, he escapes notice, provided the penalty be paid; but this cannot be done either by the principal or his relations. Mukni was himself in this predicament some few years since, when he murdered the broker of the British consulate at Tripoli; the Bashawr affected to be ignorant of his flight, and after he had remained six months with the Arabs, allowed him to return to Tripoli, where he was as well received as if he had been an innocent man. The family of a criminal is. never involved in his punishment, that is to say, they are not dishonoured or disgraced; but if the convicted person is sentenced to lose his property, all his immediate dependants are reduced to beggary. A grand-daughter of the last rightful Sultan is at this moment a common, beggar; yet, while every one allows her to be noble, they are unable to relieve her, except with a little corn or some dates. The general appearance of the men of Fezzan is plain, and their complexion black; the women are of the same colour, and ugly in the extreme. Neither sex are remarkable for figure, height, strength, vigour, or activity. They have a very peculiar cast of countenance, which distinguishes them from other blacks; their cheek bones are higher and more prominent, their faces flatter, and their noses less depressed and more peaked at the tip than those of the Negroes. Their eyes are generally small, and their mouths of an immense width, but their teeth are frequently g ood: their hair is woolly, though not completely frizzled. The females bear children at 12 and 13 years of age, and at 15 or 16 their breasts fall, and they assume the appearance of old women;; in some few instances, however, they bear children until 35 years, of age. They are a cheerful people, fond of dancing and music, and obliging to each other. The men almost all read and write a little ; but in every thing else they are very dull and heavy: their affections are cold and interested, and a kind of general indifference to the common incidents of life marks all their actions: they are neither prone to sudden anger nor exertion, and are not at all revengeful. In Morzouk the men drink a great quantity of Lackbi, and are very good humoured drunkards. The Arabs practise hospitality generally, but amongst the Fezzanners that virtue does not exist ; they are, however, very attentive and obsequious to those in whose power they are, or who can repay them tenfold for their pretended disinterestedness. Their religion enjoins, that should a stranger enter while they are at their meals, he must be invited to partake; but they generally contrive to evade this injunction, by eating with closed doors. The lower classes are,' from necessity, very industrious, women as well as men; they draw water, work in the gardens, drive the asses, make mats, baskets, &c. in addition to their other domestic duties. Feople of the better class, or more properly who can afford to procure slaves to work for them, are, on the contrary, very idle and lethargic; they do nothing but lounge or loll about, inquire what their neighbours have had for dinner, gossip o o 2
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