MR PARK'S FIRST JOURNEY. 369 
ed by the Moors, who accosted him with their usual 
arrogance and insolence, requiring him to recite 
the Mahometan prayers, in imitation of the Jews, 
who, notwithstanding this conformity, and their 
general similarity to the Moors, are reckoned infe- 
rior to the Christians. Mr Park declared, that he 
could not speak Arabic ; when a Shereef from Tuat, 
in the great desert, sprung up, and swore by the 
Prophet, that, if he refused to go to the mosque, he 
would be one that would assist in carrying him ; 
when the Dooty, to whom he was conducted by the 
guide, interposed, and declared, that he was the 
king's stranger, and that he should not be injured 
while under his protection. At sunset, he was con- 
ducted into a neat hut, with a court before it, which 
was immediately filled with Moors, who clambered 
over the mud wall, in order to see him perform 
his evening devotions, and eat eggs. Mr Park as- 
sured them, that he had no objection to eat eggs, 
if they would give him eggs to eat. When a num- 
ber of eggs were brought by the landlord, they 
were muoh surprised that he could not eat them 
raw, imagining that Europeans subsisted chiefly on 
this food. But when the landlord discovered that 
a white man ate the same kind of food as other per- 
sons, he entertained him very kindly with plain 
substantial mutton. When the Moors had depart- 
ed, he requested him to write a saphie, for, said 
he, 44 if a Moor's saphie be good, a white man's 
vol. i. a a 
