FIERCE WATCH-DOGS. 
163 
gave me a little of this water, which I found tepid and 
bad. I also observed a mausoleum, like that which we had 
seen the day before, and where the Musulmans again per- 
formed their devotions. Proceeding in the same direction, 
we met some wretched Moors, leading asses laden with 
forage; these men were badly clothed and walked barefoot. 
About noon we encamped in the fields under the shade 
of some date trees and not far from Mimcina, a large town 
of el-Drah, inhabited by Berber and Moorish husbandmen. 
This town, surrounded by walls twelve feet high, is situated 
between two chains of hills stretching east and west, the 
soil of which every where presents a reddish hue, without 
any trace of vegetation. 
As it was hot, and our people were not yet returned 
from watering the camels at the wells, my thirst became 
extreme, and I determined to visit the tents of the Berbers, 
pitched at a short distance from our own, to beg a little 
water. 
No sooner did I approach the camp than three large 
dogs rushed upon me, tore my garments and bit me in 
several places. I cried aloud to the Berbers for assistance, 
but these unfeeling wretches carelessly looked on or turned 
away with the utmost indifference: assailed by so many 
enemies I found the combat very unequal ; and, for fear 
of being torn in pieces, sounded a retreat, still sustaining 
some bites as I retired: the dogs carried off some pieces 
of my dress as trophies, and did not leave me till I w^as at 
a considerable distance from their tents. Heartily cursing 
the inhumanity of their masters, I returned sorrowfully to our 
own camp under the date- trees. The Berbers keep a great 
number of dogs to watch their flocks, and they are so ac- 
customed not to suffer the approach of any stranger what- 
soever to the habitations of which they are left in charge, 
that the fear of being devoured by them serves as a whole- 
some restraint upon the depredations of those robbers by 
M 2 
