AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 121 
parts, that some of the men wore shirts and trousers 
made of it. 
Beggars have a peculiar mode of exciting compassion ; 
they station themselves at the entrance to the market, 
and, holding up the rags of an old pair of trousers, they 
whine out to the passers-by, “ See ! I have no panta¬ 
loons ! ” The novelty of this mode of proceeding, and 
the request for a garment, which seemed to them even 
RECEPTION OF THE MISSION, FACSIMILE OF AN EARLY ENGRAVING. 
more necessary than food, made our travellers laugh 
heartily until they became accustomed to it. 
Hitherto the English had had nothing to do with any¬ 
one but the sheikh, who, content with wielding all real 
power, left the nominal sovereignty to the sultan, an 
eccentric monarch, who never showed himself except 
through the bars of a wicker cage near the gate of his 
garden, as if he were some rare wild beast. Curious, 
indeed, were some of the customs of this court, not the 
