92 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. III. 
stop, neither did the poor Negroes, who, with their wives and 
even httle children, plodded on the whole day, over a burning soil, 
sometimes for twenty, and often for sixteen hours, whenever want 
of water made a forced march necessary. Several of the smallest 
of the black children, though probably not more than four or five 
years of age, walked for many hours with great strength in the 
early part of the day, having but a few rags to cover them, and 
when unable to proceed further, were put on the camels for 
the remainder of the day. One of our party, a poor old man, 
totally blind, arrived safe at Morzouk from Tripoli. He had 
walked all the way over the rocks and plains, led by his wife, and 
was kept alive by the hope of once more hearing the voices of his 
countrymen. 
When we stopped for the night, it was generally so contrived 
that we should lie in some spot where bvishes might be found for 
the camels to browse upon ; but even though there might be no 
wood or herbage, a wadey was always preferred, as more shel- 
tered. Our tents were pitched, if the ground was sufficiently soft 
to admit the pegs, and our bales and chests so placed, as to form 
a shelter for those who had no tents ; affording a bulwark against 
the wind and sand. The little resistance offered by any intervening 
objects to the winds of the desert, renders them very powerful, 
and the stillness of the night, in blowing weather, is particularly 
awful. The tents are no sooner pitched, than the camels are turned 
out to feed on the thin and scattered bushes, and parties go to collect 
wood : the horses are hobbled, watered from the skins, and then 
fed. Should there be no wood, camels' dung is an excellent sub- 
stitute, as it burns like peat, and forms a very glowing fire. A 
hole is dug in the ground, and three stones so placed, as to support 
the little copper pot. Cusscussou or Bazeen is then prepared. 
The Sultanesses are no contemptible cooks, and they made every 
