f Guadnum; but it is so coarse and bad, as to have often
very little effect, sometimes none at all. It clogs and dirties the gun;
and for want of oil, they are often obliged to grease them with butter.

If we may except these crimes which they endeavour to commit under
night, these people never make a mystery of their actions. If any of
them are proposing to take a long journey, they inform the whole
village, who meet together to give their best advice to the traveller.
Every one puts in his word, even children of fourteen years, who speak
with as much confidence as an old man could do in proposing an affair of
importance. These conferences, which they hold together for the purposes
of either condemning or approving of one another's schemes, are
sometimes prolonged for a whole month. In the same manner they consult
about changing their encampment, or removing the camels to the
sea-coast. This last matter is always very long of being decided upon,
on account of the distance, and of what they must suffer in being
deprived of milk till the return of these animals. It is true, that, in
such cases, those who do not send away their camels supply those that
are in want, but it is always in the view of being fully repaid, as they
express it themselves. They never manifest such joy as on the return of
the flocks. They come back with their interior well filled with water;
and although it has contracted a taste and smell exceedingly
disagreeable, it is however so scarce, that they drink it with much
enjoyment.

Every person in Europe supposes that a dog would run mad if deprived of
drink. In the deserts of Arabia, where the heat is excessive, they never
drink any, and commonly live on excrement. The camels will subsist four
months without tasting a drop of water. The goats and sheep drink still
less. Indeed, if it were not for the horses, the Arabs would never go in
search of water; they would wait on that which falls from the sky. The
rains, which usually fall about the month of October, spread an
universal joy. They keep all their holidays at this period. You can form
no idea of this general happiness, having never experienced this want.

A husband cannot divorce his wife, without the previous permission of
the old men of the village, who never refuse it. The women are on all
occasions treated with the greatest contempt. They never assume the name
of their husband, but retain that which was given them at their birth.
The child