Though very fond of poetry, they are incapable of composing it. The Arabs, however, invent a few little songs, which the natives have much pleasure in learning; and the women sing some of the Negro airs very prettily while grinding their corn. The lower class and the slaves, who, in point of colour and appearance, are the same, labour together. The freeman, however, has only one inducement to work, which is hunger; he has no notion of laying by any thing for the advantage of his family, or as a reserve for himself in old age; but, if by any chance he obtains money, remains idle until it is expended, and then returns unwillingly to work. The females here are allowed greater liberty than those of Tripoli, and are more kindly treated. The effect of the plurality of wives is but too plainly seen, and their women in consequence are not famed for chastity. Though so much better used than those of Barbary, their life is still a state of slavery. A man never ventures to speak of his women; is reproached if he spends much time in their company; never eats with them, but is waited upon at his meals, and fanned by them while he sleeps; yet these poor beings, never having known the sweets of liberty or affection, are, in spite of their humiliation, comparatively happy. The authority of parents over children is very great, some fathers of the better class not allowing their sons even to eat, or sit down in their presence until they become men: the poorer orders, however, are less strict. There are no written records of events amongst the Fezzanners, and their traditions are so disfigured, and so strangely mingled with religious and superstitious falsehoods, that no confidence can be placed in them; yet the natives themselves look with particular respect on a man capable of talking of “the people of the olden time.” Several scriptural traditions are selected and believed. The psalms of David, the Pentateuch, the books of Solomon, and many extracts from the inspired writers, are universally known, and most reverentially considered. The New Testament translated into Arabic, which we took with us, was eagerly read, and no exception made to it, but that of our Saviour being designated as the Son of God. St. Paul, or Baulus, bears all the blame of Mohammed’s name not being inserted in it; as they believe that his coming was foretold by Christ, but that Paul erased it: he is, therefore, called a Kaffir, and his name is not used with much reverence. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.