COOKERY. 
145 
Sidi-Aly, as dirty as their father, proceeded to knead it into 
a cake without yeast : one of them made a great fire of 
tamarisk wood, to heat the ground on the spot chosen for 
baking the cake : when it was considered sufficiently 
hot, they swept the place and laid the dough upon the 
earth ; the embers were then replaced upon it and covered 
with loose sand which had been heated for the purpose: 
when half-baked it was washed, broken in pieces, and 
thrown into a calabash, full of fat, the remains of the pre- 
ceding night's supper; a kind of sauce was now poured 
over it and a piece of a sheep recently killed was added. 
All the family and the priests partook of this stew, and 
when they had eaten sufficiently they brought me a small 
portion which remained, with a little sauce upon it ; this 
formed both my breakfast and dinner. On the succeeding 
days they gave me nothing but dates ; I represented to Sidi- 
Aly that they disagreed with me, owing to the complaint in 
my teeth, which prevented my chewing them without ex- 
periencing severe pain. Aly answered that he was sorry for 
it, but he had no meat to give me; that in this country 
dates only were eaten during the day and couscous at night : 
the remainder of the rice which had been given me at el- 
Arawan, was put into his tent, and the family ate of it 
without ever offering me any. At length, having no remedy, 
it was necessary to conform to this mode of living upon 
dates alone : but how much did 1 suffer ! I had soon a sore 
on the roof of my mouth, and fearing lest 1 should be again 
reduced to the dreadful state in which I had formerly been, 
I gave up eating these fruits, and determined to beg a little 
camel's milk from our neighbours, whom I found but little 
affected by my petition. Aly had several daughters whose 
young lovers were frequently coming to his tent ; sangleh 
was often dressed for their breakfast, but they never once 
offered me any, though they knew that it gave me such 
excruciating pain to eat the dates. In three days' time the 
VOL. ir. L, 
