ch town pays a certain sum, which is small;
but as the towns are numerous, it may be averaged to produce 4,000
dollars. Add to this his annual excursions for slaves, sometimes
bringing 1,000 or 1,600, of which one-fourth are his, as well as the
same proportion of camels. He alone can sell horses, which he buys
for five or six dollars, when half starved, from the Arabs, who come
to trade, and cannot maintain them, and makes a great profit by
obtaining slaves in exchange for them. All his people are fed by the
public, and he has no money to pay, except to the bashaw, which is
about 15,000 dollars per annum. There are various other ways, in
which he extorts money. If a man dies childless, the sultan inherits
great part of his property; and if he thinks it necessary to kill a
man, he becomes his entire heir.

In Mourzouk, about a tenth part of the population are slaves, though
many of them have been brought away from their native country so
young as hardly to be considered in that light. With respect to the
household slaves, little or no difference is to be perceived between
them and freemen, and they are often entrusted with the affairs of
their master. These domestic slaves are rarely sold, and on the death
of any of the family to which they belong, one or more of them
receive their liberty; when, being accustomed to the country, and not
having any recollection of their own, they marry, settle, and are
consequently considered as naturalised. It was the custom, when the
people were more opulent, to liberate a male or female on the feast
of Bairam, after the fast of Rhamadan. This practice is not entirely
obsolete, but nearly so. In Mourzouk there are some white families,
who are called mamlukes, being descended from renegades, whom the
bashaw had presented to the former sultan. These families and their
descendants are considered noble, and, however poor and low their
situation may be, are not a little vain of their title.

The general appearance of the men of Fezzan is plain, and their
complexion black. The women are of the same colour, and ugly in the
extreme. Neither sex are remarkable for figure, weight, strength,
vigour, or activity. They have a very peculiar cast of countenance,
which distinguishes them from other blacks; their cheek-bones are
higher and more prominent, their faces flatter, and their noses less
depressed, and more peaked at the tip than those of the negroes.
Their eyes are generally small, and their