while the horses are in full speed, which has an exceeding pretty effect. The horses (who are trained to the practice), as soon as they hear the explosion, turn suddenly round on their haunches, and canter back to the place from which they started. The beach being of hard sand, is admirably adapted for these manoeuvres. More than half of the guards are black, and as they are all dressed differently, their appearance is very curious. N o uniformity is observed either in the shape or colour of their horses, whose bits are so severe, that they are seldom without raw and bleeding mouths. The stirrups (which act as spurs) are used so roughly as frequently to leave large gashes in the poor animal’s flanks. It is considered highly ornamental to brand the thighs of horses with lines and stars. The mode o f punishment at Tripoli (and, I believe, all other Mohammedan towns), is totally different from any of those practised by Europeans. Some crimes are considered capital by law; but many are rendered so by the whim of the Bashaw, in which case, hanging, decapitating, and strangling are used. The Moors are never employed as hangmen; but the first Jew who happens to be at hand has that office conferred upon him, and is obliged to accompany the culprit to the ramparts over the town gate, attended by the guards and mob, when he puts on the rope well or ill according to his ability, attaching it to a bolt fixed in the wall for that purpose. The unfortunate victim is then forced through an embrazure, and suspended by the side of the gateway, so as to be seen by all who enter or leave the town. When decapitation is the punishment, the head alone is exposed to public view. Torture is not unfrequently made use of; but as all punishments of that kind are confined to the dungeons of the castle, no one can or dares give any description of the nature of it. Theft (as
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