In Morzouk about a tenth part of the population are slaves, though many have been brought away from their countries so young as hardly to be considered in that light. With respect to the household slaves, little or no difference is to be perceived between them and freemen, and they are often entrusted with the affairs of their master. These domestic slaves are rarely sold, and on the death of any of the family to which they belong, one or more of them receive their liberty, when, being accustomed to the country, and not having any recollection of their own, they marry, settle, and are consequently considered as naturalized. All slavery is for an unlimited time, unless when a religious feeling of the master induces him to set a bondsman free on any great festival, on the occasion of a death, or, which not unfrequently happens, from a wish to show his approval of the slave’s services. It was, when the people were more opulent, the custom to liberate a male or female on the feast of Bairam, after the fast of Rhamadan. This practice is not entirely obsolete, but nearly so. The slaves are procured from the inland traders, or on those lawless expeditions I have already mentioned. Respecting the offspring of slaves, it may not be uninteresting to observe the regulations existing in Fezzan, which are, as far as I can collect, the same as in all Moslem countries. A Khādem خعدم, or negress, bearing a child by her master, cannot afterwards be sold, but must be maintained for the remainder of her life by him, or any person to whom he may marry her; and her child is free, and equally entitled to support. A negress having a child by any man but her master (even though the parties should be married), is the mother of a slave, she herself not being free. Should the female slave of one man be with child by the male slave of another, the infant so born becomes the property of the master of the female, and can, as well as its mother, be sold. A child, the offspring of a free woman by a slave, partakes of its mother’s state, and is free. It not unfrequently happens that masters allow family slaves to marry without liberating them; but their children are slaves, and can be sold, although it is not considered honourable so to dispose of them. These children, and, indeed, all those born in the country, are called Shushan شوشان. CHAPTER VIII. Arrangements for our Departure from Morzouk — Parting with the Sultan — Leave Morzouk to return to Tripoli — Sleep at Dgleim — Mode of conducting a Kafflé of Slaves — Arrival at Ghroodwa — Pass two Days at Sebha — Are joined by more Kafflés — Marriage of an Arab — Account of the Wadey Shati — Arrive at Temenhint — Zeghen Om el Abeed — Pass of Kenair — Pass over the five Days Desert to Sockna — Troubles at Sockna — Further Description of that Place.