BERBER ROBBERS. 
181 
Boubacar broke the pasty and his friend and I as well as him- 
self did justice to it. In the evening Jacob the Jew changed 
my shilling, which enabled me on the succeeding days to buy 
a little bread. The same day, being at the mosque, a Moor, 
whose father was recently dead, accosted me, and, slipping 
an eightpenny piece into the pocket of my coussabe, begged 
me to accept it for the love of God and the Prophet. 
On the 29th, Haggi-Le-Mekke gave me notice that 1 
must hold myself in readiness to set out for Fez. Unable, 
from the state of my health, to undertake so long a journey 
on foot, I made inquiries concerning the means of riding ; I 
was in fact swelled and weak. I was asked if I had dragmes 
sufficient to pay for a mule : I could have done so, but thinking 
it not prudent to confess it, I preferred pleading poverty, and 
hoped that the sale of my two blue pagnes of Soudan would 
produce enough. Three days previously I had confided them 
to a son of my host's for the purpose of sale, but I was now 
advised to carry them to the market of Boheim, whence the 
caravan was to set out; I repaired thither with the intention of 
seeing the bacha or governor, to ask assistance from him. 
On quitting Ghourland, I was accompanied by a mu- 
leteer mounted upon an ass ; this man was charged by Hag- 
gi-Le-Mekke to conduct me to Sidi-Habib-Benani, who re- 
sided at Boheim and was chief of the caravan going to Fez, to 
whom he gave me particular recommendations. On the road 
I was stopped by the Berbers going to the market, who, per- 
ceiving that I was a stranger, surrounded me to the number 
of twenty or thirty, saying all together, Who are you ? 
Whither are you going ?" They all pulled me by my dress 
and gave me no time to answer : at length they carried off 
my pagne and would have stolen my bag also, had I not on 
setting out intrusted it to my guide, who, mounted upon an 
ass, with a Berber behind him, had gone on before me, 
without troubling himself whether I was able to follow or not. 
Thfe thieves, not content with my pagne, were about to take 
