240 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. VI. 
savages, and the Arabic is scarcely understood. The language 
spoken is Bornou. 
This being the resting-place of Kaffles from Bornou, Waday, 
and sometimes Soudan, provisions are always very dear, the in- 
habitants selling to the half-starved merchants, who arrive from 
those places, at whatever price they please. Corn is not to be pro- 
cured ; but gaphooly and barley, poor substitutes ! are sold at the 
rate of three quarts for a dollar. Dates are certainly very cheap, a 
camel load selling at about three quarters of a dollar. The people 
of Tegerry have not the custom of burying their dates as in Mor- 
zouk, but put them in bins built for that purpose in their houses, 
and cover or mix them with sand: others keep them on the flat 
roofs, as there is no fear of their being injured by rain. 
A few years ago this country was famed for the excesses com- 
mitted by the inhabitants, who robbed, and not unfrequently mur- 
dered, travellers. Even large Kaffles were not secure from them, 
until Mukni took several into slavery, and otherwise regulated 
them. 
It must be confessed, that the Arabs and Fezzanners have not 
the least compassion for the people on whom they may be quartered. 
A Fezzanner, if obhged to feed one man and horse for a day, con- 
siders himself cruelly treated, though he dares not complain ; but 
should he himself obtain an order from the Sultan to go to a distant 
place with five or six horsemen, he will eat at every cluster of 
huts, insisting on meat (which is extravagantly dear), for the whole 
party, and taking besides a few Hve fowls, or a sheep, and a dozen 
or two of loaves with him. 
As I made a practice of paying in money, trinkets, or cutlery 
for whatever we required, I was continually advised not to do so, 
but to avail myself of my order from the Sultan, which warranted 
my taking what I pleased. The people were indeed so accustomed 
