a stick, whilst the former drew
a bow over a single string tied to another calabash. The bridegroom had
got hold of a brass kettle, with which he supplied his contribution to
the din. Preparations for supper were going on; and, the harmony
announcing this fact, idlers were coming in flocks from the distant
hamlets and the fields. Two new huts had been built, one for the bride
and the other for the bridegroom.

These marriages produce very few children, which may partly arise from
licentiousness, but chiefly, no doubt, from misery. I afterwards saw the
burial of an old lady, which ceremony set the whole town in motion. The
women screamed in crowds, and a great number of men went outside the
walls to see the body consigned to its last resting-place. Yusuf
pretends that the burial took place two hours after decease, which is
the ordinary practice here, although thirty-two hours are said to be the
proper time.

To the 21st of May I was occupied in preparing a short report on Fezzan,
with statements of the expedition and other necessary documents.

We have had a grand dinner at the house of the Greek doctor Paniotti.
The Bey, Bim Bashaw, his adjutant, the treasurer, and others were
invited. The French have boasted of the number of their dishes, but I
think the Turks beat them hollow in this particular. Besides two whole
lambs, fowls, pigeons, there were at least twenty made dishes, with
every variety of rich sweetmeat. Amongst the early fruits of the season
we had figs and apples. The dinner was not quite so merry as
Gagliuffi's, the champagne being absent.

We had a smart rain-shower in the morning, and in the evening also there
was a tempest of wind and lightning, and a little rain. The flashes were
very vivid, and lighted up the whole firmament.

The Tibboos persist in saying that there is plenty of water in their
country, abundance of rain, frequent springs; and some go so far as to
describe their streams as running a distance of from one to eight days'
journey. They acknowledge, however, that the soil of their country is
not very favourable to much cultivation of grain and fruit. Perhaps they
want to attract visitors, but are not likely to succeed at present.
Justly or unjustly, they bear a very bad character; and in Mourzuk, to
call a man a Tibboo is rather worse than to call a man a Jew in Europe.

_June 1st_, Post-day.--Letters, private and public, were forwarded. It
is now determined that we shall start for G