500 
THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 
merchandise belonging to* the Shereefs was sent 
by sea to Mesurata. 
After passing Tajara, a wretched village, com- 
posed of clay- walled huts, covered partly with ter- 
race, and partly with thatch, they encamped at 
night upon a sandy eminence, having piled their 
loads in a circle, lighted their fires, and spread 
their mats within it. The Shereefs supped, in a 
familiar manner, with Mr Lucas in his tent, on 
dried meat and balls of flower, dressed in steam, 
and served up in a large wooden dish. After the 
ceremony of washing, which every man performed, 
by dipping his hand into the water used by his 
companions, they took coffee, smoked, and lay down 
to sleep, in their clothes, upon the bare sand, with- 
out any other covering than their Alhaiques or 
blankets, from the heavy dews of night. The se- 
cond was spent in travelling among hills of loose 
and barren sands, where neither man nor beast, 
wood nor water, appeared, but the sand drifted 
over them with every gale. On the third day, 
they emerged from the desert of sand hills, into a 
hard stony soil, where a few fields vegetated in 
sullen stillness with meagre grain, while the white- 
thorn and Spanish broom appeared at a distance, 
with olive and date trees. On the 4th day, after 
travelling for Home time among rocky hills, varie- 
gated with plains of olive and date trees, they 
reached the ruins of Lebida, a Roman colony. 
