1907.] TRIPOLI. 201 



Such an operation as that, I have no doubt, would seem a httle 

 pecuHar to us. In a country, however, where water is so 

 scarce it seems a sinful thing to waste it, and so these servants 

 have been instructed to put the dishes into the sand for clean- 

 ing purposes. 



When this caravan came up it was really a very dirty, 

 tired-out looking company. Among them there was an Arab 

 bride from the desert who came up entirely enclosed in a palan- 

 quin on a camel, and, of course, we did not catch a glimpse of 

 her. She was surrounded by a guard, whose guns interested 

 me intensely. I do not know where they got those long guns. 

 They were so long as to be really peculiar, longer than anything 

 we see in England or this country. These men were carefully 

 guarding this bride. 



These caravans always start from a certain point in Tripoli 

 and return to that point eight or ten months afterwards. They 

 make trips into the far interior, covering hundreds of miles. 

 I witnessed the departure of three different caravans contain- 

 ing about three or four hundred camels, and I saw the return 

 of only one. It is largely by means of these caravans that 

 commerce is carried on with the people living in the desert 

 and in the interior. They go down into the Sahara for ivory, 

 gold, ostrich feathers, gum, wax, and other products, v/hich 

 they bring to the coast. The three most important things 

 which they get are gold, ostrich feathers and ivory. For these 

 they receive generally things that are made in England, and 

 which are transported in the same way to the interior. The 

 industry, however, which has brought Tripoli forward into 

 the notice of the world of manufacturing of late is the cultiva- 

 tion of a species of grass with which some of the hills are 

 covered. They are now trying to add to it. It is a species 

 of grass which grows there naturally, and which has been 

 found well adapted to use as paper pulp. A great many camels 

 make short excursions into the regions from which this comes 

 and bring these wonderful bales of grass, containing from 

 250 to 300 pounds to the city. It is baled by hand, in a very 

 primitive form, by native men. It is baled and pressed, and 

 then bound with iron. When it reaches the seaport it is im- 

 mediately shipped to England to make paper of. 



The gardens in Tripoli I ought to speak of because they 

 are of great interest. When one first arrives there one gets 



