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another room. After having set down, he began to ask 
me many questions about my name, age, and country, 
and the place where I had studied. He then requested me 
to resolve him some astronomical problems, such as the 
longitude and the declination of the sun; his periodical 
revolutions; the precession of the equinoxes; the longi- 
tude and latitude of my country, and of my lodging in 
London, &c. &c. A conversation of this nature was 
not adapted to please me, as I did not know the purport 
of it; I answered therefore rather roughly, but the 
secretary wrote down every thing. I added a prediction of 
the two next eclipses of the sun and of the moon, and 
after having made a present to Sidi Ginnan and his clerk, 
they retired. 
During this kind of interrogatory, Hadj Edris was 
going from one room into another, and seemed to be 
very much agitated; and when I returned to my com- 
pany, I found all my friends divided in groups of four, 
saying prayers in my behalf. I was very sensible of 
the interest they took in my fate, and put the good-na- 
tured Hadj Edris at his ease, who joined the others in 
paying me most affectionate compliments. 
The following day we made a party of pleasure to 
one of Hadj Edris gardens in the country. As we dared 
not to play at any game or drink any liquor, and as mu- 
sic, and dancing did not suit the gravity of our char- 
acters; as they had not a sufficient knowledge of sciences 
to make them the topics of our conversation, and as 
there was no political news on account of the want of 
correspondence, couriers, and public papers, we were 
at a loss how to pass our time, and were reduced to the 
necessity of eating five or six times a day like Helioga- 
baJi, and to fill up the remainder of our time with drink- 
ing tea, saying prayers, playing like children, electing 
