12 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. I. 
This fellow went through numberless prayers and ceremonies, 
spitting in my hands, taking rose-water in his mouth, and sprinkling 
my face with it, reciting occasional prayers, and then washing his 
own mouth and hands in rose-water. After bottling up this sacred, 
fluid, he told me to drink it on a particular day, which he named, 
and I then should be as highly gifted as himself; thus concluding 
his instructions, which, of course, T did not think myself bound to 
observe. 
There are two grand markets held weekly, one on the sands 
behind the town every Tuesday, and the other on Fridays, about 
four miles distance, amongst the gardens of the Meshea <o.i*^ which 
form a stripe of about three or four miles in breadth, between the 
beach and the desert. 
In the town are Bazaars, which are open every day. These are 
streets, covered in overhead. The shops of merchants are ranged 
on each side, and are very small. Slaves and goods are carried 
about before the traders by auctioneers, who keep up a continual 
din, each calling the price last bidden. The Jews have a quarter 
of the town expressly to themselves, where they have their shops, 
and in which they are shut up every evening at sunset. This place 
is called Zanga t'el Yahood ^^:^\ UUliUj These people are much 
persecuted, yet they contrive to engross all the trade and places of 
profit. They are forbidden, as I before observed, to wear gaudy 
clothes, and are only allowed turbans of blue. 
Several houses set apart for the reception of merchants and 
their goods are called Fondook, ijJjSj^ and answer to the descrip- 
tion given of the Caravanseras of the East. There are a few 
schools at which reading and writing, though to no great extent, 
are taught in a very noisy manner. A knowledge of letters, how- 
ever, is by no means necessary to constitute a great man, or to 
advance him to any post of trust : of this there exists an example 
