RURAL LIFE. 
Ill 
other countries. The Tibboos and Bornouese de- 
scribe the whole territory of Fezzan as Zoilah, a 
name derived from that of the ancient capital, 
Zoueelah. These double names have hitherto 
caused great confusion in laying* down unvisited 
places in the desert. If w^e can penetrate and 
explore the kingdom of Aheer or Asben, it will be 
doing a great service to geography. 
28^A. — I am studying rural life in the neighbour- 
hood of Mourzuk, as if it were to be my occupation. 
Scarcely a day passes that I do not escape from the 
crowded town and wander, either morning or 
evening, into the gardens, the groves, and the fields. 
The water raised by rude machinery from the wells 
is always dancing along in little runnels. The 
chattering of women crosses my path right and left. 
Groups of labourers or gardeners occur frequently. 
A man this day valued a date-palm at a mahboub, 
and I am told that the greater number are not 
worth more than a shilling of English money. To 
avert the evil eye from the gardens, the people put 
up the head of an ass, or some portion of the bones 
of that animal. The same superstition prevails in 
all the oases that stud the north of Africa, from 
Egypt to the Atlantic, but the people are unwilling 
to explain what especial virtue there exists in an 
ass's skull. We go sometimes to shoot doves in 
the gardens ; but these birds are very shy, and after 
the first shot fly from tree to tree and keep out of 
range. So we stroll about making observations, to 
