o'clock; we did not enter the town,
but dined in the plains, and proceeding afterwards out of the main
road, we directed our course south-east, till we reached a most
beautiful and very extensive plain, called M'sharrah Rummellah.
This plain was covered with numerous and immense flocks of sheep
and horned cattle, and is many times more extensive than Salisbury
plain. We pitched our tents near a very extensive and populous
douar of Arabs. We departed the next morning at sun-rise, and
reached the plains of the river Seboo about two o'clock in the
afternoon; which plains are a continuation of those of M'sharrah
194 Rummellah; the army were engaged the remaining part of the day and
the whole night crossing the river Seboo, on rafts made of inflated
cow-hides, covered with planks and straw. The river is here about
twenty yards wide, but very deep and rapid; the Arabs had a long
and spacious sheik's tent pitched for the reception of the prince,
about forty feet long and fifteen wide, somewhat similar to the
hull of a ship reversed, having the long side open to the sun.
These tents are the palace of the sheik of the Arabs, and are
erected on great occasions only, such as that of the emperor, or a
prince passing through their territory. The plains of M'sharrah
Rummellah are one hundred and fifty British miles in circumference,
perfectly flat, without a stone, a tree, a hedge, or a ditch; with
the majestic river Seboo passing through the centre of the plain.
The soil of this territory, which, in the hands of Europeans, might
be made a terrestrial paradise, is a rich, productive, decomposed
vegetable earth, which extends, as we perceived from various
chasms, to the depth of several feet from the surface. It produces
incredible quantities of the finest wheat, of a hard grain, very
large and long, clear as amber, and yielding a prodigious increase
of flour, so that a saa of wheat[143] produces a saa and a sixth of
195 flour. The prince, Muley Teeb, seated on an eminence in this
spacious tent, resembled what we should imagine the patriarch
Abraham to have been, entertaining his friends; or Saul upon his
throne, with his javelin in his hand. He had twelve lanciers, six
on each side of him in a row, standing with their lances erect, the
Prince having one in his hand. It a