SCARCITY OF MEN IN AHEER. 
53 
I am told by our servants, who have been round 
to all the villages or towns in the neighbourhood of 
Tintalous for the purchase of ghaseb, that these 
places, small or large, are none of them equal to 
Tintalous, although the houses are much the same — 
bell-shaped huts, and the people are of the same 
character. What has greatly astonished our ser- 
vants is the fewness of the men ; indeed, in some 
villages they saw no other persons but women and 
children, and scarcely any children. What is the 
cause of this? It would seem that the men are 
consumed by the women. These women bear few 
children, and perhaps this may in part account for, 
if it be not produced by, their excessive licentious- 
ness. Yet the men are on the wing a great part of 
the year. The Kailouees, however, wherever they 
go, have their women at hand, and during a jour- 
ney many of them take two or three female slaves. 
How is this superabundant supply of the softer sex 
kept up ? If I am noticing a mere temporary phe- 
nomenon, the destruction of men in the razzias 
may account for the disproportion. Besides, the 
Kailouees are always imparting fresh slaves into 
their country. 
The poor people of Tintalous are fed chiefly on 
the pounded grains of the herb bou rekaba. It is a 
real Asbenouee dish. Overweg made a supper of 
it one evening. I tasted it, and find it has a very 
strong flavour of herbs; that is to say, what is com- 
monly imagined to be the flavour of herbs in ge- 
