This struggle usually lasted till we had finished our repast, and our hosts would then begin to draw a little nearer to the mats which they had spread upon the ground for our seats; the women to examine our dress more minutely, and the men to handle our sabres and fire-arms. The white linen of which our turbans and under garments were composed excited the greatest admiration in the former, while our double-barrelled guns, and pocket-pistols with stop-locks, were the objects of attraction to the latter. In a very short time the reserve of both sexes would begin to wear away very rapidly, and the whole family of our host would crowd round us indiscriminately each trying to be heard above the other: one question after another poured in upon us from all sides, and either nobody waited for an answer, or the answer was given by half a dozen of the family at once, each expressing a different opinion from that of his neighbour. At length, when no satisfactory conclusion could be formed upon the subject of their inquiry, they would wait to have the question formally answered by ourselves; and the real use of every object which excited their curiosity was generally so different from all those which they had assigned to it, that the whole party, then waiting in silent expectation for the result, would burst out all at once into the loudest exclamations of surprise, and sometimes into fits of laughter, which laid them rolling on the ground, and left them scarcely strength to rise when we got up to take our leave. Among the numerous objects of attraction, our compass, telescopes, and watches, excited universal admiration; and the reason why the hands of the latter should move round of themselves, and why the needle of the compass should always turn to the northward, must have been canvassed among them for many months afterwards. Why a man or a camel could be seen distinctly through a tube, when they could scarcely be seen at all, at the same distance, without it, will afford equal matter for speculation: and the next European who may visit the tents of our friends will probably hear an account of these wonders so much disfigured by misrepresentation, and so much exaggerated by the enthusiasm of Arab fancy, as will lead him to doubt whether they ever saw what they are describing, or to believe that they are telling him some whimsical story which has no better foundation than those of the Hundred and one Nights or the description of a Mahommedan Paradise. We found the men of Zaffran active, healthy, and well made, and the women pretty and well-behaved; the dress of the former consists merely of a coarse baracan, with a red cap, and sandals of camel’s hide.