CHAP. VII. 
GENERAL ACCOUNT OF FEZZAN. 
277 
by any sort of entail or clause, against parting with family property. 
Houses are held in the same way as the lands. When grounds 
are leased, or sold, the price is generally proportioned to the num- 
ber of wells and date trees on the premises : it happens, however, 
not unfrequently, that the palms are the property of one man, 
while the land on which they grow belongs to another. The 
gardens are entirely cultivated by the paddle or hoe, and parcelled 
out into squares of about three feet, having little channels to them, 
for the purpose of irrigation. Much dung is used, and the sandy 
soil of old gardens almost assumes the appearance of earth. From 
the great labour requisite to keep these spots in order, it would not 
repay any non-resident to have lands in Fezzan ; though I am con- 
fident that such possessions would be respected, as there are many 
absentees who have large groves of palms, which their relatives, or 
tliose employed by them, keep, and render up an exact account of. 
The difficulty of finding willing, honest, faithful, or contented 
workmen, is very great ; and each master or agent is obliged to 
attend constantly to his own immediate property or charge ; some 
gardens, however, are, and have been, attended for generations, by 
the same family of labourers. 
The commerce is chiefly in slaves, and I have aheady given a 
Hst of such articles as are marketable. They have but few weights ; 
these are, the Kantar, JlXi, 150 lb. ; the Rottal, 1^ lb. ; the 
Oghia, ij^^], or ounce ; and the weights used in the purchase or 
exchange of gold, which was once the money of the country. The 
weights, with little scales, are generally kept in a small box. The 
largest is called Groowi, 33^ Mitgals ; the next is 13| Mitgals; 
another is 6 1 Mitgals, and is called Oghia, and weighs one dollar ; 
the smallest brass weight is 1^ Mitgal. 24 Kharoubas, or 
beans of the locust tree, weigh 1 MitgaL There are also three 
small weights of iron or lead, weighing 16, 8, and 4 Khoroubas. 
