84 RAPACITY OF THE HASSANES. 
and pretending to take my part. This anecdote will give 
a correct idea of this class. Both these men were still 
with the camp on the 12th, when we were preparing to re- 
move. They had found a poor wretch, a haddad, or black- 
smithj and wanted to force him to give them a coussabe : the 
poor fellow had not one for himself, for he was naked ; they 
struck him, threatened him, and at last put a cord round his 
neck, and tied him to a camel to take him off with them ; 
but, at this moment, a marabout interfered, and obtained his 
release after many entreaties. When I inquired the cause 
of this cruelty, I was told that the hassanes always treat the 
zenagues, or tributaries, in this way when they want to ex- 
tort something from them ; they make them run to keep up 
with their camels, beating them unmercifully, and do not 
let them go till they get what they want. 
The artizans are always zenagues ; they are generally 
despised by the other classes, and perpetually exposed to 
the rapacity of the hassanes. When they have earned any 
thing by their labour, they giv^e it to a marabout to keep, 
for it would not be safe in their own hands. They are 
either shoemakers or smiths ; the shoemakers do all kinds 
of work in leather, make shoes, portfolios, saddles, etc. ; 
the smiths make locks, fetters, poniards, and other iron 
articles ; they are also goldsmiths, and are extremely in- 
genious ; though they have few tools, they produce astonish- 
ing pieces of workmanship. Those who employ them com- 
monly supply them with metal, and pay them with millet, 
milk, or stuff for clothing. 
It was eight o'clock when the camp broke up. We 
travelled six miles N. N. W., on a soil covered with iron- 
stone, and three miles over yellow sand. The tree named 
balanitis cegt/ptiaca, grows here in great abundance; the 
Senegal negroes call it soump. The Moors collect the fruit 
of this tree, from the kernel of which they make a kind of 
sangleh, which they rehsh much, because it is very greasy. 
