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ead with wild date-palms, palmettos, or dwarf palms. The view of "Towering Atlas that supports the sky," now stands forth, vaster and more magnificent as you approach the capital, and is the only feature of surpassing interest on the journey; but it suffices to absorb all the attention of the traveller. As he gazes on the giant mountain, which seems to support with its huge rocky arms the frame-work of the skies, its head covered with everlasting snow, he forgets the fatigue of his painful route under an African sun; and, lost in pious musings, adores the Omnipotent being who laid the foundation of this solid buttress. Halfway is called "the Neck of the Camel," where there is a well in the midst of a scene extremely desert and dreary. Here all the donkeys of the party of merchants died from want of water. The water of this well is not permitted to be drunk by animals, in obedience to the solemn Testament of the Saint who dug it. The poor horses and mules were tied close up to the well, looking wistfully at the water when drawn for the biped animals, and snuffing the scent; but they were not allowed to taste a drop. Two horses broke loose and fought, their combat being aggravated by thirst, "See!" cried the Moors to the merchants, "the Saint is angry with you for having wished to give his water to horses." Our merchants, however, in defiance of the Saint (this invisible enemy of the lower creation) and of his supporters, got a supply of water, which during the night, and en marche the next day, they distributed to their steeds. The accommodation on the way, and at the capital is very bad, even the waiting-room near the palace, appropriated to the Christians, is but an old dilapidated shed, with one of its sides knocked out, or never filled in. "Everything," say our merchants, "is going to rack and ruin in the capital. The Emperor will not even repair his palaces, or the jealousies in which he keeps his women; money is his only pursuit and his God." Their residence in the capital was very disagreeable, all being cooped up in the Jews' quarter, and obliged to subsist on victuals cooked by these people, which made certain of them unwell, for some of the Barbary Jew's food is very indigestible. The presentation of the merchants to the Emperor was conducted as follows: At nine in the morning, they were admitted into a garden in presence of about two thousand imperial guards, all drawn up in file, looking extreme
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