The women wore a loose cotton shirt under the baracan, and instead of the sandals were furnished with laced boots. They had as usual a profusion of rude ornaments, and charms to avert the evil eye, and were not at all anxious to keep their faces veiled or to avoid the society of strangers. A small looking-glass and a few strings of beads were received with delight by the fairer part of this community, and a knife, with a few flints, and some powder, were accepted very thankfully by the men. Our Chaous, who sometimes attended on these occasions, never omitted an opportunity of displaying his own knowledge, and took a large share in the explanation of the different objects of attraction. He never omitted to beg for an exhibition of our chronometer, that he might have an opportunity of descanting upon the manner in which we regulated it, which he used to say was done by _weighing the sun_[11]; and poor Sala, our attendant on such occasions, was always called upon to produce the quicksilver used for the artificial horizon, which never failed to excite the astonishment and delight which our dilettante Chaous had anticipated. Having purchased a supply of corn for our horses, which is here deposited, as is usual in Northern Africa, in cisterns or storehouses which have been excavated by the ancients, we left Zaffran, and continued our journey to Jedeed, where the tents were pitched for the night. This mode of preserving corn is frequently alluded to by ancient writers, and Varro has asserted that wheat thus preserved will keep for fifty years, and millet for more than a hundred[12].