212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



leave out any of the principal ones. The native market where 

 they bring in their cows, goats, camels, birds, donkeys, and 

 all the various animals that they use in their native life and in 

 the desert, and these other things they sell or use in their 

 domestic life, constitutes a picturesque and most interesting 

 scene. They come in and establish their tents. These little 

 tents cover the entire place for more than a mile, and extend 

 back, perhaps a thousand feet on to the water. There are 

 not less than ten thousand of them, and it is a kind of county 

 fair, or an institution which takes the place of that same sort 

 of thing which we have in this country. The bartering, trad- 

 ing and selling which goes on among them is highly interest- 

 ing. They come in, with all their different kinds of animals. 

 I must say a word about the donkeys particularly. I have 

 seen them come in bearing burdens which I think the Society 

 for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would have found most 

 objectionable. They are most always overloaded. I never saw 

 a donkey that did not look absolutely pathetic. The poor little 

 things are no larger than a pony, and they go along with their 

 ears wagging, and with a most pathetic expression. I fear 

 they are subject at times to great abuse, but it is almost 

 impossible to see how they could get along without .them. 

 Of course, the camel is a common animal among them, but 

 the camel is more costly, and they are therefore much more 

 careful with them, and the same can be said of the Arab 

 horses. I think the life they lead could hardly go on without 

 them. Then when the event opens, and the location of the 

 tent has been fixed upon, the women establish a seat flat on the 

 sand, and the bartering and selling goes on. The costumes, 

 the manners and ways of the people, the intense interest which 

 they take in the transaction, all contribute to make a most 

 interesting scene. I never have seen such a really unique 

 combination before. 



I must hurry on. Tripoli, of course, as I think I said, is 

 located in a semi-tropical region. Through the day, as a rule, 

 the air is intensely warm, but about five o'clock in the after- 

 noon is the first time that one can go out with any comfort, 

 and it is then that the better class of ladies appear upon the 

 roofs, or in the shady places of the courtyards to take their 



