December 23rd. Thermometer 9°, wind easterly. This morning my curiosity was much excited respecting a very extraordinary fowl, of which the Shreef, Mohammed el Dthābi, last night told me some wonderful stories. He described it as being almost white, and above a foot and a half in height; very stately and dignified in its gait. He had brought a cock and a hen from Egypt, and what was most remarkable, though the cock crowed very loud, and unlike other cocks, the hen crowed also, and nearly as well as her mate. The eggs were very large, and an omelette, which he brought me, was composed of five of them, though, from its size, I really thought twenty would have been requisite. A very large crowd assembled to witness what would be my surprise at the sight of this creature, and while the Sidi went out to fetch it, each told me some curious story respecting it. At last it arrived, and Mohammed having begged that the way might be cleared, walked up to me with great importance, and opening his abba, set before me a goose, which waddled off with great dignity, hissing as it went; while I, to the great disappointment of the company, fell back and laughed immoderately. We rode out of the town to see the extraordinary ruins, so much spoken of by the commentators on Horneman’s travels, but which Horneman himself never saw or heard of, unless as two or three miserable mud edifices of the early Arabs. The one most esteemed by the Shreefs is an old Mosque, standing at about half a mile to the westward of the town. It is a large oblong building of evidently an early date, though certainly of Arab origin. The walls are built with a neatness now unpractised and unknown, of unbaked rough bricks, and strong binding clay. At the north-west corner is the Mouaden (or minaret), much dilapidated, but still of a height sufficient to command an extensive view of the surrounding country. The length of the Meseed inside is 135 feet, and its breadth is 90, immense dimensions for an Arab building, which has no cross walls to support the roof. It is quite open overhead, and nothing remains to give an idea of what it once was covered with. There are two niches for the Imaum; one is in a partition built partly across, near one end, for that purpose; the other is in the wall, and in the form of a pulpit, and I suppose has been used for the purpose of addressing the people when assembled on the plain below, a custom prevailing at Morzouk after Rhamadan, at Milood, and other feast days.