treated him kindly, thinks himself entitled to be ever after a burthen on you, and to beg, or perhaps to steal, from you as long as he lives. The Tripoli money is the currency of Sockna, which occasions great losses to the people, who are obliged to pay their taxes to Mukni in Spanish dollars, which they buy at extravagant prices. The Bashaw’s coin is now almost worthless. I t is not the custom here to bury the dates, which in consequence are very fine, and free from sand; but they keep them in store-huts built for the purpose. I imagine that their being so exposed may account in some degree for the multitude of flies found here. All the houses are built on the same plan, having a small square court in the centre, from which a few steps lead to an open gallery, which is the principal room. The other rooms are on the ground- floor, and one or two open from the gallery; they have no windows;, but receive their light from the doors, which are all curiously chequered and striped with a kind of black paint made from burnt wool, mixed with gum-water. As they are composed of many rounded pannels of date-wopd, some appear like the backs of large old books. A little blaekish rat was brought to me, which was really very curious; it had a head resembling that of a badger, with the same peculiar marks by the side of the face; its tail was long, black, and rather bushy. Belford and myself contrived to make a cage for it out of a tin canister, and I discovered that it had the power of clinging to the bars, and climbing with its back downwards : it was very fierce, but I had great hopes of being able to bring it home, as well as three other animals, called by the Arabs Dthub which resembled lizards in many respects, but were much more clumsily formed, and slower in their motions: their tails were broad, and covered with scaly spikes, and they could hang by their fore paws, which they had the power of closing on any object; their head and nose much resembled those of the hawk’s- biU turtle, and to a certain degree, they changed their colour as cameleons do. I was rubbed this day with a mixture, which the Arabs consider excellent in cases of fever, and which really, though it made me very dirty, rendered my skin quite comfortable : it was composed of a small aromatic seed, the name of which I have forgotten, with lavender from Tripoli, and cloves, pounded together, and mixed with oil and vinegar ; it is rubbed over the whole body and head, until nearly dry. My doctress was a white woman of Tripoli, who, in fear of her life, had escaped from thence. About eighteen months before this period, the Bashaw, one evening, surprised his black wives and a party of their female friends, making merry, or in other words, very drunk and noisy, and playing all sorts of extraordinary pranks ; on sight of him they fled in all directions, leaving in his presence, his wife or wives, with this ’Tripoline woman and a Negress slave. The latter had her throat cut immediately in the presence of her mistress, the wives were threatened with death, and the white woman, named Sleema, the doctress above-mentioned, received five hundred bastinadoes; she was then allowed to depart, but the Bashaw afterwards thought proper to send after her, with an order that she should be strangled. She was fortunate enough to escape, and after wandering about for some time," attached herself to I .ilia Fatma, who was also exiled and given to Sheikh Barood, with whom she arrived safely at Fezzan. The poor woman, owing to severe illness, was on the brink of the grave during her stay at Morzouk, which made her determine on leaving the place, and braving every danger by a return to Tripoli. On my coming away, she put herself under my protection, and I promised to intercede with the Bashaw for her pardon. As she was emaciated and very weak, I allowed her to mount my camels, T T
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