mencement of the journey. My chaouch, Mohammed
Souweea, preceded me on his great horse, murmuring some Arab ditty, and
I followed hard on my little donkey. The desert assails the walls of
Tripoli, and in half an hour we were in the Sahara sands, which here and
there rise in great mounds. I should have liked to have pushed on to
some considerable distance at once; but the habits of the country are
dilatory, and one must conform to them. In a couple of hours we came to
the chaouch's tent, where he had a wife, five children, and seven
brothers, one of whom was blind. He, too, was to go through the sad
ceremony of parting with his family; and he burst into tears when they
surrounded and embraced him. I am sorry to say, however, that before
this affecting scene was concluded, a quarrel had began between the
blind man and the chaouch's wife, about two Tunisian piastres which were
missing, she accusing him of theft and he indignantly repelling the
charge. These Easterns seem to have minds constructed on different
patterns from ours, and are apt to introduce such petty discussions at
the most solemn moments; but we must not, therefore, be hasty in
concluding that there is any sham in their sorrow, or affectation in
their pathetic bewailings.

They brought in a bowl of milk, and as the chaouch still continued to
caress his children, I left him to pass the night in his tent, and
pushed on to Wady Majeeneen, where my portion of the caravan had already
encamped. Mr. F. Warrington, with my German colleagues, were a little in
advance. The horses of the Pasha's cavalry were feeding around; for when
the first belt of sand is past, the country becomes an undulating
plain--a prairie, as they would call it in America--covered with patches
of corn herbage. Here and there are fields of barley; and a few Arab
tents, with flocks and herds near at hand, give a kind of animation to
the scene.

Next day (21st) it rained hard; but we went on a little to overtake Drs.
Barth and Overweg, whom we found in company with Mr. F. Warrington, Mr.
Vice-consul Reade, and Mr. Gaines the American consul. One of Mr.
Interpreter Moknee's wives had also come out here, to have some
settlement with her husband about support before she let him go. The
gentleman has two wives, both negresses; and had already made an
arrangement for the other, who has several children, of six mahboubs per
month. First come, first served. The second wife, who has two children,
only