452 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXVIL 
from home itself. I therefore, with cheerful spirit, 
made myself ready for my first audience, and leaving 
my other presents behind, and taking only a small six- 
barrelled pistol with me, which I was to present to 
the Sheikh, I proceeded to his house, which was 
almost opposite my own, there intervening between 
them only a narrow lane and a small square, where 
the Sheikh had established his " msid," or daily place 
of prayer. A'hmed el Bakay, son of Sidi Mohammed, 
and grandson of Sidi Mukhtar*, of the tribe of the 
Eunta, was at that time a man of about fifty years of 
age, rather above the middle height, full proportioned, 
with a cheerful, intelligent, and almost European coun- 
tenance, of a rather blackish complexion, with whiskers 
of tolerable length, intermingled with some grey hair, 
and with dark eyelashes. His dress consisted at the 
time of nothing but a black tobe, a fringed shawl 
thrown loosely over the head, and trowsers, both of 
the same colour. 
I found my host in the small upper room on the 
terrace, in company with his young nephew, Moham- 
med Ben Khottdr, and two confidential pupils, and, at 
the very first glance which I obtained of him, I was 
agreeably surprised at finding a man whose coun- 
tenance itself bore testimony to a straightforward 
and manly character ; both which qualities I had found 
so sadly wanting in his younger brother, Sidi A'la- 
w&te. Cheered by the expression of good-nature 
* For the whole genealogy of the Sheikh see Appendix VII. 
