134 
My friends of Fez knew my taste for collections of na- 
tural history, and were sensible of the attractions which 
this pleasure had for a soul awake to the beauties of 
nature; but the savages who accompanied me on my 
journey were not made to comprehend it. I took care 
not to show before them a taste which they blame in 
European travellers, I mean, love of research, ardor 
for the sciences, and zeal for discoveries; such a taste 
and liberality of mind are inconsistent with the silly 
gravity which was thought indispensable in the character 
of a prince of their religion. Such a turn of thought 
might be hurtful, and would almost always lead to fatal 
consequences. 
I was therefore obliged to sacrifice my real propensi- 
ty to the prejudices of the people who formed my es- 
cort, and to decline the opportunity of availing myself of 
the botanical riches of a ground covered with a thou- 
sand plants. I confined myself to the picking, careless- 
ly, about a dozen, which I took with an indifferent air, 
that could not offend their gross ignorance and imbe- 
cility.* 
We passed a great number of douars; the greatest of 
them contained about twenty tents; others had only four, 
five, and six; these tents are black, and ranged in a cir- 
cle; some of these douars had round them a hedge of bri- 
ars. Every tent is separate from the rest, about six or 
eight yards. These people are shepherds, and their 
wealth consists of the flocks which they bring up. Du- 
ring the summer they drive them on the high mountains 
which lie to the east, and during the winter they re- 
turn to the plains^ at night these flocks are taken 
* Notwithstanding these difficulties, the collections of Ali Bey 
are very numerous, though not sufficient to satisfy his taste for . 
natural history. 
