STRANGERS' FARE. ITT 
the host at whose house they alight sends them their meals ; 
they send for them at supper time^ but receive them in a 
very dark corridor. 
At eight o'clock in the morning, I vi^ent to my host's for 
my breakfast, and seated myself, as on the preceding after- 
noon, at the door, waiting for an invitation. The youngest 
son of the family soon came, and inquired very kindly if I 
had breakfasted; on my answering in the negative, he 
ordered a slave to bring me some dates and gruel made of 
barley-meal : this gruel is very thin, and serves for a beve- 
rage in eating the fruit ; with bread or couscous they drink 
nothing but water. With a stomach thus slightly supported 
the stranger is obliged to await the hour of supper, when a 
little couscous is given him ; this is the nourishment they 
provide for those who ask hospitality of them, and for their 
slaves. The masters drink with their breakfast a very 
thin gruel made of wheat flour, and dine upon new bread 
and the fruits of the season ; they have abundance of fine 
melons, of which they are very fond ; and the richer inha- 
bitants of Tafilet breakfast upon tea with bread and figs. 
At ten at night, the usual hour of supper, they eat couscous 
made of wheat flour, dressed with mutton or poultry, for 
they rear some domestic fowls. 
While sitting at the corner of a street 1 made acquaint- 
ance with a Moor, named Sidi-Baubacar ; who put some 
questions to me very prudently, and appeared to interest 
himself in my situation; he is a very mild and good man. 
He had travelled to Cape Mogador and to Morocco, and in 
the former town had had much intercourse with the christians, 
whom, in common with all other Moors, he detested. He 
shewed some taste for the sciences and was desirous of in- 
struction, had learned arithmetic, and was well acquainted 
with its first three rules, in which he could prove his calcula- 
tions. He was in the habit of writing upon a slate, which 
he brought to me, and we made some calculations together. 
VOL. II. N 
