TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
85 
saddles, stirrups, and bridles, and chaplets of beads, and rubbish of 
almost every description. 
The more useful offerings of vegetables and fruit may be sometimes 
observed in the collection * ; and the appetite of a saint, who has 
been dead fifty years, is often revived and miraculously exerted on 
these very tempting occasions. A large portion of food very soon 
disappears from the board of a living Mardbut, but the heaps which 
are consumed by a dead one of any celebrity are perfectly astonishing 
to unbehevers. 
The creduhty of the Arab has, however, no bounds ; and it rather, 
indeed, appears to increase, in proportion as the marvellous tale 
which is related is more inconsistent and extravagant. 
Marabuts are allowed the most unlimited freedom of access, from 
the palace and presence of the sovereign, to the tent of the meanest 
Arab ; and their persons are considered as sacred and inviolable, even 
after the commission of the most unjustifiable outrages. The last- 
mentioned privilege is not confined to the living ; for the tomb of a 
Marhbut is as inviolable as his person, and affords a sure sanctuary 
to the worst of criminals, in defiance of law and authority f. 
* It must be observed, that the opportunity of being buried in a mosque does not 
offer itself to many Marabuts — their tombs in genei-al are small, insulated buildings, 
surmounted with a single cupola, having nothing to recommend them, in’point of appear- 
ance, beyond the neatness and regularity which usually distinguish them. They are 
commonly built on eminences. 
•f A criminal who may not be forced from a Marabut, may, however, be starved in 
his sanctuary ; and this is often effected by surrounding the tomb with troops, thus pre- 
venting the escape of the prisoner, and the possibility of his being supplied with food 
An occurrence, however, took place at Bengazi in the year 1817, which serves to prove 
