178 
JACOB THE JEW. 
This man was somewhat of an enthusiast^ and conceived a 
friendship for me ; he spoke much of the knowledge of the 
Europeans^ which he considered as vastly superior to that 
of the Moors, and shewed me a watch to which he attached 
much value, because he was the only person in the country 
who had one. It was at his house that I saw the English 
pocket compass, which I formerly mentioned. He talked of 
Bonaparte and his campaigns in Egypt, asked if it was 
during his residence among the Musulmans that I was made 
prisoner, and said that he was at Tripoli about that time ; 
finally he inquired my iige ; as I was covered with rags, was 
ill, and my complexion scorched almost to blackness by the 
heat of the sun, I appeared older than I really was ; he had 
therefore no difficulty in believing that 1 was thirty-four 
years of age. 
On the 26th, I proposed to a poor Jew named Jacob, 
to purchase of me a shilling by weight, because, as this 
coin was not current in the country, and he was a smith and 
a worker in gold and silver, he could turn it to account in 
his trade. He required me, for this purpose, to come to his 
house, to satisfy his curiosity no doubt ; however the pro- 
posal also answered mine, for I knew not by what method to 
obtain admission to the interior of even one house. I 
entered then the humble dwelling of this Jew ; who con- 
ducted me through two small low rooms, very dark and ex- 
ceedingly dirty, into a third, somewhat larger, which re- 
ceived light and air only by a small opening in the roof : 
this opening is common to all the apartments in the interior 
of the house, the dwellings of the Jews being as simply con- 
structed as those of the Moors. 
Jacob, who did not possess a mat, was obliged to seat 
me upon the ground. He opened a closet, and fetched some 
nuts which he presented to me, adding a fine slice of melon 
and a large piece of wheaten bread, of the preceding day's 
baking. His wife and aged mother, seated beside me, exa- 
