All the houses are infested by multitudes of small ants, which destroyed all the animals we preserved, and even penetrated into our boxes; their bite was very painful, and they were fond of coming into our blankets. One singularity I must remark of Fezzan, which is that fleas are unknown there, and those of the inhabitants who have not been on the sea coast cannot imagine what they are like. Bugs are very numerous, and it is extraordinary that they are called by the same name as with us. There is a species of them which is found in the sands, where kafflés are in the habit of stopping; they bite very sharply, and fix in numbers round the coronet of a horse: the animals thus tormented often become so outrageous as to break their tethers. The revenues of the Sultan of Fezzan arise from slaves, merchandise, and dates. For every slave, great or small, he receives, on their entering his kingdom, two Spanish dollars. In some years the number of slaves amounts to 4000. For a camel’s load of oil or butter, seven dollars; a load of beads, copper, or hardware, four dollars; and of clothing, three dollars. All Arabs who buy dates pay a dollar duty on each load (equal at times to the price of the article) before they are allowed to remove it. Above 3000 loads are sold to them annually. Date trees, except those of the Kadi and Mamlukes, are taxed at the rate of one dollar for every 200: by this duty, in the neighbourhood of Morzouk, or more properly, in the few immediately neighbouring villages, the Sultan receives yearly 10,000 dollars. Of all sheep or goats he is entitled to a fifth. On the sale of every slave, he has, in addition to the head money, a dollar and a half, which, at the rate of 4000, gives another 6000 dollars. The trees, which are his private property, produce about 6000 camels’ loads of dates, each load 400 pounds weight, and which may be worth, at a low estimate, 18,000 dollars. Every garden pays a tenth of the corn produced; presents of slaves are frequently made, and fines levied; each town pays a certain sum, which is small, but as the towns are numerous, may be averaged to produce 4000 dollars. Add to this, his annual excursions for slaves, sometimes bringing 1000 or 1500, of which one-fourth are his, as well as the same proportion of camels. He alone can sell horses; which he buys for five or six dollars, when half starved, from the Arabs, who come to trade and cannot maintain them; and makes a great profit by obtaining slaves in exchange for them. All his people are fed by the public, and he has no money to pay but to the Bashaw, which, until the recent quarrel, was 15,000 dollars per annum. I have enumerated his general income, but there are various other ways in which he extorts money. If a man dies childless, the Sultan inherits great part of his property; and if he thinks it necessary to kill a man, he becomes his entire heir! All his people are on an allowance from him, out of what he takes from others, at about the