e Hottentots, a priest is
said to sprinkle a new-married couple, I began to suspect that the
old lady was actuated by mischief or malice, but she gave me
seriously to understand, that it was a nuptial benediction from the
bride's own person, and which, on such occasions, is always received
by the young unmarried Moors as a mark of distinguished favour. This
being the ease, I wiped my face and sent my acknowledgments to the
lady. The wedding drum continued to beat, and the women to sing, or
rather to whistle during the whole of the night. About nine in the
morning, the bride was brought in state from her mother's tent,
attended by a number of women, who carried her tent, being a present
from her husband, some bearing up the poles, others holding by the
strings, and in this manner they marched, whistling as formerly,
until they came to the place appointed for her residence, where they
pitched the tent. The husband followed with a number of men leading
four bullocks, which they tied to the tent strings, and having killed
another, and distributed the beef among the people, the ceremony was
concluded."

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Park had now been detained a whole month in Ali's camp, during
which each returning day brought him fresh distresses. In the evening
alone, his oppressors left him to solitude and reflection. About
midnight, a bowl of kouskous, with some salt and water, was brought
for him and his two attendants, being the whole of their allowance
for the following day, for it was at this time the Mahometan Lent,
which, being kept with religious strictness by the Moors, they
thought proper to compel their Christian captive to a similar
abstinence. Time, in some degree, reconciled him to his forlorn
state: he now found that he could bear hunger and thirst better than
he could have anticipated; and at length endeavoured to amuse himself
by learning to write Arabic. The people, who came to see him, soon
made him acquainted with the characters. When he observed any one
person, whose countenance he thought malignant, Mr. Park almost
always asked him to write on the sand, or to decipher what he had
written, and the pride of showing superior attainment generally
induced him to comply with the request.

Mr. Park's sufferings and attendant feelings decreased in
intenseness from time and custom; his attempts, as the first
paroxysms ceased, to find the means to amuse and shorten the tedious
hours, is a fine picture, of human p