202 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
the fame fentiment towards me ; but that he was neither obliged 
to injure me, nor excufed in doing fo. 
The Melek Ibrahim is a man of about fixty years of age, tall 
but not athletic, and chara£terifed by the roughnefs rather than 
the expreflion of his features. He has no beard, and the little 
hair which remains either on his head or face is grey. His 
manners and even the motions of his body are ungraceful, and 
without the eafe of fuperior rank, or the majefty of fuperior in- 
telledl:. Yet his underftanding feems clear and comprehenfive, 
and his fagacity not unworthy the ftation affigned him — one of 
the firft in the empire. He is indeed a bigot in matters of 
faith, but in all that concerns not the prevailing fuperftition, his 
judgment is cool, and little liable to error. He once held the 
reputation of integrity above the reft of his order, but his pre- 
fent riches render this charai^ter ambiguous. Generofity, how- 
ever, holds no place among his virtues. The uniform tenor of 
his life is governed by mean avarice ; and though the moft 
opulent man in the empire, except the Sultan, fo little does he 
poflefs of Arabian hofpitality, that the man ufed to be regarded 
as unhappy who went fupperlefs to his evening councils. He 
had never yet feen a Frank, and regarded me nearly as the 
Briti£h or French commonalty view the dwarfifh Goitres 
of the Alps. I could colle£t from his converfation that he 
looked on Europeans as a fmall tribe, cut off by the fmgularity 
of colour and features, and ftill more by their impiety, from 
the reft of mankind. 
When 
