MAJOR LAING. 
79 
were far from being so kind and civilized as those who 
reside in the city. I had had an opportunity of observing 
their manners before I started ; for, they often came and 
begged of me, and made no scruple of rousing me out of my 
sleep. They are a class of men whom the Moors of a su- 
perior order call zenagues, (tributaries). They are very 
ignorant. Many of them do not know the first prayers of 
the Koran. They however observe religious ceremonies. 
A poor stranger like myself, unacquainted with their lan- 
guage, was in their eyes an object of contempt. 1 expected 
therefore to suffer much in crossing the desert. 
Sidi-Abdallahi informed me that he had hired a camel 
to carry me to Tafilet. The thirty thousand cowries' worth 
of cloth, the proceeds of the sale of my merchandise at 
Jenne, sufficed to pay for the camel. Sidi told me that he 
would keep my cloth and give my guide ten mitkhals of 
gold, or thirty piastres. 
I employed the remainder of the time I stayed in Tim- 
buctoo in collecting information respecting the unfortunate 
death of Major Laing, which I had heard mentioned 
at Jenne, and which was confirmed by the inhabitants of 
Timbuctoo whom I questioned respecting the melancholy 
event. I learned, that when within a few days' journey of 
the city, the caravan to which the major belonged was 
stopped, on the road to Tripoli, by the Tooariks, or as 
others alleged, by the Berbiches, a wandering tribe, near the 
Dhioliba. Laing, being discovered to be a christian, was 
cruelly attacked, and his assailants continued beating him 
with a club until they thought him dead. I conclude that 
the other christian, who was said to have been actually 
murdered, was a servant of the major's. 
The Moors belonging to the caravan raised Laing up, 
and succeeded in restoring him to animation. When he 
became sensible, they placed him upon a camel, but he was 
