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THE AUTHOR TORMENTED. 
necessaries of life^ and especially water^ although he had been 
handsomely paid beforehand ; the slaves were better off, for 
he did not prevent them from helping themselves when they 
wished — thanks to the wells at Telig however, there was 
no longer a scarcity. Fortunately the heat did not appear 
to me so great, nor was my thirst so tormenting as hereto- 
fore ; whether because we were in the neighbourhood of 
water, or because we were now advancing to the north, I 
know not ; whatever was the cause, I enjoyed some allevia- 
tion of my sufferings : a mortification, however, but of a dif- 
ferent nature was in store for me. 
The Moors of Aly's party, seeing that he had ceased 
to behave respectfully to me, were no longer under any re- 
straint ; they gave me ridiculous nicknames, calling me Ga- 
geba, from the name of the camel I rode on, and I was con- 
stantly exposed to their insult and raillery. Encouraged by 
my silence and patience, they set their slaves to follow their 
example, and the slaves were delighted to torment me ; they 
talked on no other subject ; they were continually ridiculing 
the form of my face ; and they carried their ill-nature so far 
as to throw stones at me when I turned my back. All this 
persecution was at the instigation of their masters, who 
often supplied them with branches of thorns to thrust into 
my face ; at other times they took little pieces of wood, and 
proposed that the slaves should drive them through my nose, 
as they do to the camels. These slaves, encouraged by the 
visible satisfaction of their masters, collected around me, 
laughing violently, capering, dancing, and showing me first 
the branch of thorns and then the piece of wood which 
they had been ordered to run through my nose. In this way 
I was tormented all the way from Telig to Tafilet. The 
Moors would often say with contempt, " Look at this slave ; 
I would rather have him than thee, so thou mayst think how 
little I value thee.^' This insolence was accompanied by 
immoderate laughter. When I was eating, these boors 
