44 TIEBOO MANNERS THE GREAT GONG. 
Here is a most extraordinary trait of the bar- 
barity of the Tibboos. It often happens that they 
are out foraging for twenty days without finding 
anything to eat. If they light upon the bones of a 
dead camel, they take them and pound them to 
dust ; this done, they bleed their own living camels 
(maharees) from the eye, and of the blood and 
powdered bones they make a paste, which they 
eat ! This is somewhat analogous to what Bruce 
relates of the Abyssinians cutting out beefsteaks 
from the rump of a live bullock. The Tibboos 
possess the finest maharees ; and the breed in the rest 
of the Sahara is always being improved or kept up 
by a constant supply from their country. 
I continue to supply his highness En-Noor with 
either tea or coffee every day. I sent him some 
early this morning. He is a greedy old dog, and 
will not buy a loaf of sugar because I will not give 
it him at the price of Mourzuk, and thus lose the 
freight. I hold out, and we have sold him none for 
the present. 
Overweg is making a small commercial lexicon 
of the things brought to the market of Kanou : a 
most excellent idea. I myself intend, if I go to 
Kanou, to make a list of all the things I find in the 
Souk, with some account of their produce and 
mode of importation into that mart. 
The great gong sounded throughout the village 
this afternoon, to give note of preparation to all the 
people, that every one of the males must be ready 
