it
well to refresh my jaded frame by a bath, which the prince had ordered
to be prepared in a small court behind my chamber. But I grieve to
say, that my modesty was put to a sore trial, when I began to unrobe.
Locks and latches are unknown in this free-and-easy region. It had
been noised abroad among the dames of the harem, that the _Furtoo_
would probably perform his ablutions before he slept; so that, when I
entered the yard, my tub was surrounded by as many inquisitive eyes as
the dinner table of Louis the Fourteenth, when sovereigns dined in
public. As I could not speak their language, I made all the pantomimic
signs of graceful supplication that commonly soften the hearts of the
sex on the stage, hoping, by dumb-show, to secure my privacy. But
gestures and grimace were unavailing. I then made hold to take off my
shirt, leaving my nether garments untouched. Hitherto, the dames had
seen only my bronzed face and hands, but when the snowy pallor of my
breast and back was unveiled, many of them fled incontinently,
shouting to their friends to "come and see the _peeled Furtoo_!" An
ancient crone, the eldest of the crew, ran her hand roughly across the
fairest portion of my bosom, and looking at her fingers with disgust,
as if I reeked with leprosy, wiped them on the wall. As displeasure
seemed to predominate over admiration, I hoped this experiment would
have satisfied the inquest, but, as black curiosity exceeds all
others, the wenches continued to linger, chatter, grin and feel, until
I was forced to disappoint their anxiety for further disclosures, by
an abrupt "good night."

We tarried in Tamisso three days to recruit, during which I was
liberally entertained on the prince's hospitable mat, where African
stews of relishing flavor, and tender fowls smothered in snowy rice,
regaled me at least twice in every twenty-four hours. Mohamedoo fed
me with an European silver spoon, which, he said, came from among the
effects of a traveller who, many years before, died far in the
interior. In all his life, he had seen but _four_ of our race within
the walls of Tamisso. Their names escaped his memory; but the last, he
declared, was a poor and clever youth, probably from Senegal, who
followed a powerful caravan, and "read the Koran like a _mufti_."

Tamisso was entirely surrounded by a tall double fence of pointed
posts. The space betwixt the inclosures, which were about seven feet
apart, was thickly planted with smaller spea