The M’Garha sheikhs were, after the defeat of Waled Suleyman, all taken into the bashaw’s service; and are now amongst his most faithful and favoured followers. Abdi Zeleel ben Seffenusser, upon his submission, had been assigned some portion of his grandsire’s extensive lands at Sebha in Fezzan; and on his being ordered to repair with a certain number of camels to Mourzuk, and to accompany the Sultan of Fezzan into the negro country, he was reported to have delayed obeying the order: his enemies attributed his reluctance to disaffection and want of courage. The bashaw’s judgment was summary; and Hamet Ghreneim, the brother of my chaoush, was despatched with a letter to Abdi Zeleel, and orders to stab him while he read it, and return with his head. The M’Garha had five hundred miles to ride, previous to executing his bloody commission; and, by his account to me, it was the sixteenth of the same kind that he had been intrusted with: he seldom failed either in the execution or in receiving the reward, which always follows: “they were his master’s orders—with Bis milla! (in God’s name) he struck, and struck home!” His victim, in this case, was of more consequence than any of his former ones, and his reward would have been greater in proportion: Hamet was withal the descendant of the old enemy of his clan; but there was still some magic in the name of the Seffenusser. They were a race of heroes—cowardice could not be a crime for any of the blood to be guilty of; and the chance of being strangled on his return appeared to him preferable to assassinating Abdi Zeleel, and he determined on hesitating before he executed the bashaw’s orders. On arriving at the hut of the Arab chief, notwithstanding his fallen state, friends enough remained to warn him of his approaching fate: he met Hamet at the door, kissed the signet of the bashaw, and desired him to perform his office; adding, “You are a M’Garha, and an enemy to our house.” “I am,” replied the other, “and therefore not capable of assassinating a Seffenusser: if you are guilty, fly—mine be the risk.” Cowardice is ever visited in an Arab by the most disgraceful punishments; he is often bound, and led through the huts of the whole tribe, with the bowels and offal of a bullock, or some other animal, tied round his head; and amongst a people who only desire to be rich in order to increase the number of their wives, probably the greatest punishment of all is, that could even any woman be found who would receive him as a husband, which would be an extraordinary circumstance, no Arab would allow him to enter into his family with such a stain on his character as cowardice.