ed from the district of the Tibboos of
Bilma, and some of this is still sent to Tripoli. Bornou has also much
senna, but it does not pay the expense of forwarding it to Tripoli.

The relations of man and wife in Aheer are curious, if not
extraordinary. A woman never leaves the home of her father! When a man
marries a woman, he remains with her a few weeks, and then, if he will
not take up his residence in the town or village of his wife, he must
return to his own place without her. When a man sees a woman who pleases
him, he offers the parents a price for her--say, four camels. If the
parents agree that the price is adequate to the charms or the rank of
their daughter, the bargain is concluded. These four camels remain
always the property of the wife, with which she supports herself,
sending them to Soudan or to Bilma, fetching ghaseb or salt. Many of the
women have a large property obtained in this way. When their husbands
visit them, they give them something to eat, and they remain a few days
or weeks; and again depart to their own native towns, leaving the wife
with her property, and any chance lover. But the men marry two or three
wives, and so are constantly in motion, first going to visit one wife
and then another. Thus the male population of this country is kept in a
continually restless state of activity--roaming about here and there,
marrying another and another wife, if their means will permit them. The
women, of course, left in this way, and unrestrained by any high moral
motives, take as many lovers as they dare, or can secretly dispose of.
It appears that En-Noor always disapproved of this strange system, and
swore he would never marry a wife, because he should be obliged to go to
another town to reside there, and so be exposed to having an inferior
position, the authorities of the town of his wife pretending to exercise
jurisdiction over him. All his women have ever been slaves. His highness
is now living amidst his daughters and their children--the men who
married them being all away in their own native countries. A daughter of
En-Noor costs ten camels, and this is considered a very high price for a
woman. With two or three camels, a woman manages to support herself and
children. If the husbands of En-Noor's daughters be ever so poor, he
never gives them anything but a little food. They must come and reside
in his town. His highness passes all his evenings amidst this circle of
women--his female slaves, hi