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JOURNEY FROM 
had spread upon the ground for our seats ; the women to examine 
our dress more minutely, and the men to handle our sabres and 
fire-arms. 
The white linen of which our turbans and under garments were 
composed excited the greatest admiration in the former, while our 
double-barrelled guns, and pocket-pistols with stop-locks, were the 
objects of attraction to the latter. In a very short time the re- 
serve of both sexes would begin to wear away very rapidly, and the 
whole family of our host would crowd round us indiscriminately 
each trying to be heard above the other : one question after another 
poured in upon us from all sides, and either nobody waited for an 
answer, or the answer was given by half a dozen of the family 
at once, each expressing a different opinion from that ot his neigh- 
bour. At length, when no satisfactory conclusion could be formed 
upon the subject of their inquiry, they would wait to have the ques- 
tion formally answered by ourselves ; and the real use of every 
object which excited their curiosity was generally so different from 
all those which they had assigned to it, that the whole party, then 
waiting in silent expectation for the result, would burst out all at 
once into the loudest exclamations of surprise, and sometimes into 
fits of laughter, which laid them rolling on the ground, and left 
them scarcely strength to rise when we got up to take our leave. 
Among the numerous objects of attraction, our compass, tele- 
scopes, and watches, excited universal admiration ; and the reason 
why the hands of the latter should move round of themselves, and 
why the needle of the compass should always turn to the north- 
