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CHAPTER XVIII. 
Description of Ouschda. — Difficulties in continuing ray journey.— Detention by 
order of the sultan. — Departure from Ouschda. — Adventures in the desert — 
Arrival at Laraisch, and its description. — Departure from the empire of Mo- 
rocco. 
The village Ouschda, containing about five hundred 
inhabitants, is like all the other inhabited places which 
I met with on this side of the alcassaba of Temessuin, 
an oasis in the desert of Angad. Its houses are built 
of earth; they are very small, and. so low, that it is 
scarcely possible to stand upright in them. They are 
besides so dirty and full of vermin, that I preferred re- 
maining under the tent at the alcassaba, which is pretty 
large, and situated near the village. I passed a part of 
my time in a neat little adjoining garden. 
There is a spring about a mile from Ouschda, which 
furnishes abundance of very good water, and which 
serves to water the gardens and orchards round the vil- 
lage. These gardens have a very fine verdure and good 
fruit trees, among which the fig tree, the olive tree, the 
vine, and the date tree, are the most distinguished. 
This country produces most delicious melons; and 
the meat is superior to what any one can believe. No 
one can imagine how delicate the rriutton is in these 
deserts. The sheep are long and slender, have little 
wool, and find hardly any thing to eat; but it is a fact, 
that their flesh is perhaps the best in the world. 
Poultry is very scarce in this part; venison is never 
seen. There is hardly any thing else to be got in the 
town but flour, rice, and vegetables. 
From numerous observations of lunary distances and 
eclipses of satellites, Iwas enabled to ascertain with 
