EL- ARAWAN. 
101 
to atone for the painful sacrifice of my religion which I was 
outwardly compelled to make. 
El-Arawan is not a place of such active trade as Tim- 
buctoo, whence all provisions for the former place are brought, 
Sansanding, which is twenty-five days' journey to the west, 
being too far distant to afford supplies. I was told, indeed, 
by several Moors, that the journey occupied a month. 
El-Arawan sends, as 1 have before said, the salt of the 
mines of Toudeyni to Sansanding and Janiina, by caravans 
of Moorish merchants, who also carry tobacco, which is cul- 
tivated in Tafilet and Zawat. 
This town, though inhabited by the Moors of Zawat* 
and the different countries on the banks of the Mediterranean, 
has no market. I never saw so dull a place. In the interior of 
the town there are, as at Timbuctoo straw huts for the slaves. 
Bousbehey, of which I have already spoken, is two days' 
journey distant from El-Arawan, and the inhabitants of the 
latter place purchase cattle there, as in all parts of the in- 
terior of Africa there are no markets. Each family kills a 
bullock from time to time and cures the meat, by drying 
it in the sun. It is eaten with rice or couscous. 
Though the great distance of Sansanding does not per- 
mit the inhabitants of El-Arawan to go thither for millet, 
they procure from that place more valuable articles, such as 
ivory, gold, slaves, wax, honey, the cloths of Soudan, and 
cured provisions. Rice is also transported thence in 
small quantities. Cowries, which are the current money 
of Soudan, do not pass at El-Arawan. There nothing cir- 
culates but gold and silver — neat pieces of the value of 
a mitkhal, in imitation of the money of Morocco. The 
gold mitkhal increases in value as you approach the coasts. 
El-Arawan is the point for the arrival of the caravans 
from Tafilet, Cape Mogador, Drah, Tawat, and the cities 
* It was the Moors of the tribe of Zawat, who assassinated Major 
Laing. 
