BENGAZI. 
285 
As these masses of rubbish also serve at the same time as general 
receptacles for the superfluities of the city, groups of half-famished 
dogs and myriads of flies are invariably collected about them ; in 
the midst of which are seen lying very contentedly, or rolling about 
for diversion, swarms of little naked children, regardless of either, 
which one might almost fancy Avere actually produced by the fer- 
tilizing qualities of these heaps of putrid matter, as the monsters of 
old are asserted to have been from the slime and the mud of the 
Nile. There is, however, nothing singular or peculiar to Bengazi 
in the scene which we have just described ; for every Arab town and 
village will be found, more or less, to present to us a similar spectacle. 
Filth and dust, and swarms of insects of every description, must 
inevitably be the consequences of this continued neglect ; and we 
accordingly find that these several annoyances, together with the 
scattered groups of lean dogs and naked children, form the principal 
characteristics (in the estimation of their European visitors) of these 
enviable places of abode. We say, in the opinion of the natives of 
Europe, because an Arab or a Moor sees nothing remarkable in any 
of the objects here alluded to, and would consider it a mark of affec- 
tation or effeminacy to be annoyed at any similar objects or incon- 
veniences. 
In addition to the nuisances already enumerated, the open 
spaces in Bengazi are usually ornamented by pools of stagnant, 
putrid w'ater ; and that wEich is in the market-place is rendered 
more particularly offensive, from the circumstance of its being the 
common receptacle of the offal and blood of the animals which are 
