TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
165 
OTOws to a height of four or five inches. We had collected a few 
specimens, but the nature of our journey did not allow of our stop- 
ping to have them properly dried, and we afterwards found, on un- 
packing them at Bengazi, that the damp had destroyed them, toge- 
ther with some others which we had collected in passing through 
the Syrtis. 
The inhabitants of Zaffran are Bedouins, as are also all those of the 
other parts of the Syrtis ; for there is not a single inhabited town or 
village to be found between Mesurata and Bengazi. We found them 
hospitable and obliging, and never entered one of their tents with- 
out receiving a cordial reception : their simple fare of milk and dates 
was always freely offered, and our horses were regaled with a feed of 
corn which they usually found very acceptable. Fresh milk was 
not always to be had, but they were never without a good supply of 
leban (sour milk, or more properly butter-milk), and we were seldom 
unwilling to alight from our saddles to take a draught of this patri- 
archal beverage, which a long day’s hard riding through a country 
without roads, and under the influence of an African sun, made infi- 
nitely more palatable than will easily be imagined by those who can 
spare it for their pigs. 
We were often much amused on these occasions with the surprise 
which our appearance created, and at the contest between ill-re- 
pressed curiosity and the respect which our Arab friends were 
desirous of shewing to their guests. 
This struggle usually lasted till we had finished our repast, and our 
hosts would then begin to draw a little nearer to the mats which they 
