description given of them, must be curious. I despatched a man to catch me some, promising him a dollar if he brought four. One sort is black, and burrows in the ground; the other yellow, with a white belly and red eyes, and lives principally amongst the boughs o f the palm trees. Tuesday, Feb. 29th.—A man arrived from my friend, the Shreef Sadig, bringing two letters, one from himself, and the other froin his brother the Shreef Abd el Ateef. These letters contained many kind wishes that I might succeed in all my undertakings, and return to their country; and concluded by saying, that prayers had been offered up in their Mosque for my safety. Four ostrich eggs, and two skins of peculiarly fine dates, accompanied these kind epistles. "Never was I so much out of patience with any people as with the natives of this place ; night and day my door was surrounded, not by the poor alone, but by high and low. I really envied poor Belford his deafness, for had I too lost my hearing, I might have enjoyed a little peace. I f any o f these people obtained admittance, they sat down, andcould not be induced to move for an hour or two, all the time flattering and begging. Ill as I was, these tormentors never allowed me to dose my eyes. Belford, besides being deaf, understood but little Arabic, and could not assist me in keeping them off; consequently I was continually obliged to answer questions, to admit some, and to turn out others, and was thereby thrown into a fever far more severe than that which at first attacked me. The flies literally covered the walls, and fell by spoonfuls into all we eat or drank ; in fact, so many evils overwhelmed me at once, that I have ample reason to recollect Sockna, and the miseries I endured there are too strongly imprinted on my mind to be ever forgotten. I managed, in spite o f my weakness, the foregoing night, to go out with a man to see his wife, who was afflicted with sore gums. She was handsome, with large black eyes, and a complexion almost as fair even as that of an Englishwoman. I prescribed as well as I could, by advising her to bleed, and then to wash her gums with bark, which I gave her, and which, I afterwards heard, completely cured her. My fee was honey from Soudan, meat, and what was of far more value than all, about a gill of sweet milk. We heard this day of the arrival o f our friend Bouksaysa at Hoon, his native place, with a large Kafflé. M Wednesday, March 1st.—We were to have set out this morning; but, like true Arabs, our camel-men said their animals were ready, when they knew the contrary, and after being kept all day in suspense, we were obliged to defer our departure until the morrow. I know not how I should have managed to hire camels here, had it not been for my friend Lizari, who, while I was ill, took a great deal o f trouble on himself. I was very anxious to obtain the longitude of this place, and twice corrected the chronometer by equal altitudes ; but it went so badly, and stopped so often, that I gave up the attempt. I was this evening much amused by a boy who came from Hoon to see me, or rather to beg some money. H e was the person I mentioned, as having advocated slave-hunting so amusingly to Mr. Bitchie and myself, when we weré at that place: he came to the door and begged admittance, knowing that we were eating; some others also came begging at the same time, and wishing to turn him away; on which a vehement dispute arose as to who had the greatest right to my bounty. The boy said he came with me from Tripoli, the year before, in the same Eafflé, which they all agreed was no reason at a ll; hut when he added that Mr. Bitchie and I had given him some money, and that he was therefore my friend, and had a right to expect mote, all yielded to his superior claims. An Arab, when you have once
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