320 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. viir. 
treated him kindly, thinks himself entitled to be ever after a 
burthen on you, and to beg, or perhaps to steal, from you as long 
as he lives. 
The Tripoli money is the currency of Sockna, which occasions 
great losses to the people, who are obliged to pay their taxes to 
Mukni in Spanish dollars, which they buy at extravagant prices. 
The Bashaw's coin is now almost worthless. 
It is not the custom here to bury the dates, which in con- 
sequence are very fine, and free from sand ; but they keep them in 
store-huts built for the purpose. I imagine that their being so exposed 
may account in some degree for the multitude of flies found here. 
AU the houses are built on the same plan, having a small square 
court in the centre, from which a few steps lead to an open gallery, 
which is the principal room. The other rooms are on the ground- 
floor, and one or two open from the gallery ; they have no windows, 
but receive their Hght from the doors, which are all curiously 
chequered and striped with a kind of black paint made from burnt 
wool, mixed with gum-water. As they are composed of many 
rounded pannels of date-wood, some appear hke the backs of large 
old books. A little blackish rat was brought to me, which was 
really very curious ; it had a head resembhng that of a badger, with 
the same peculiar marks by the side of the face ; its tail was long, 
black, and rather bushy. Eelford and myself contrived to make a 
cage for it out of a tin canister, and I discovered that it had the 
power of clinging to the bars, and climbing with its back down- 
wards : it was very fierce, but I had great hopes of being able to 
bring it home, as well as three other animals, called by the Arabs 
Dthub L_^li, which resembled lizards in many respects, but were 
much more clumsily formed, and slower in their motions : their 
tails were broad, and covered with scaly spikes, and they could hang 
by their fore paws, which they had the power of closing on any 
