SHIPWRECK OF M. DE BRISSON. 193 
injury in the fall than that of being dreadfully pricked by the 
thistles, which covered the whole surface of the ground. 
Toward evening, perceiving a thick smoke, I imagined 
that we were approaching some hamlet, where we should find 
something to eat, and, above all, something to allay our into- 
lerable thirst ; but I soon perceived that there was nothing 
but a few bushes, in Avhich our guide had taken up his lodg- 
ings. Exhausted with fatigue, I retired behind one of them, 
to wait for the relieving hand of death, but had scarcely ex- 
tended myself on the ground, Avhen an Arab of our company 
came and compelled me to get up to unload his camel. This 
insult I resented, and found afterward that it produced a good 
effect. 
I observed preparations making which threw me into the 
greatest inquietude, '-fhey made flints red hot in a large pan, 
raised a huge stone which lay at the foot of a bush, dug up 
the earth; and frequently repeating my name, they all burst 
into loud fits of laughter. Then calling me, they obliged me 
to approach the hole they had dug in the ground, Avhile the 
man whom I had beaten made different signs with his hand, 
often drawing it backward and forward against his throat, as 
if to give me to understand that he would cut it, or that they 
were resolved to serve me in that manner. In spite of my 
resolution, and the determination to defend myself, these ges- 
tures were very alarming ; but my apprehensions were con- 
verted into surprise, when I saw them take from the pit which 
I had approached, a goat's skin full of water, a small leather 
bag, containing barley meal, and a goat newly killed. By 
the sight of those provisions I was restored to my former 
tranquillity, though I was ignorant for what purpose the heat- 
ed flints were intended. At length I saw tliem fill with water 
a large wooden vessel, into which some barley-meal hac 
been put, and the red hot flints being thrown into the water, 
served to make it boil. They then made a kind of paste, 
kneading it afterward with their hands, and swallowed it 
without chevring. 
As for us slaves, we had nothing to eat but some of this 
paste, which was thrown to us upon the carpet used by our 
patron to put under his feet while he repeated his prayers, 
and at niglrt as a matress to sleep on. After kneading this 
leaven a long time, he gave it to me to distribute among my 
companions. It can scarcely be imagined how disagreeable 
it was to the taste. The water with which it was mixed had 
been procured on the sea-shore, and was afterward preserved 
17 
