This was the first opportunity I had of seeing Hammádi, with whom I had wished from the beginning to be on friendly terms, but was forced by the policy of my host to avoid all intercourse with him, and thus to make him my adversary, as he was that of the Sheikh. I had received a favourable account of his learning from different quarters; but his personal appearance was certainly not very prepossessing. He was of a stout figure, with broad coarse features, strongly marked with the small-pox, and of a very dark complexion, his descent from a female slave being his chief disadvantage. Sídi Mohammed was very anxious to get into the town, but El Bakáy, with his usual slowness, and perhaps this time longer detained by the interesting situation of his wife, made his appearance at a very late hour in the afternoon, and endeavoured to defer our departure till the next day; but his elder brother was too energetic to be thus put off, and having given sufficient vent to his dissatisfaction on account of the too great influence which Mrs. Bák (that was the name of El Bakáy’s wife) exercised over his brother, and asking me with an ingenious turn whether I knew who was more influential than sheikho Áhmedu ben Áhmedu and lorded it over his brother, he mounted his horse and sent his young nephew to tell his father that he was ready and was expecting him. Thus forced against his own inclination, the Sheikh at length disengaged himself from his family, and we went into the town in the company of a few horsemen who had come out to pay their respects to Sídi Mohammed, firing a few shots as we entered the place. Of course, in a town where no strong government is established, and where every great man exercised all the influence and power of which he was capable, due homage and tribute were to be rendered to this potentate of the desert who came to honour it with a visit. A musical performance took place in front of the house of the Sheikh, where he took up his quarters; and each foreign merchant prepared a gift, according to his wealth, by which to obtain the protection of this man, or rather to forestall his intrigues. These gifts were by no means small; and I felt a great deal of compassion for my friend ʿAlí ben Táleb, whose present, although by no means trifling, was sent back by Sídi Mohammed as neither adequate to the dignity of the receiver nor to that of the giver. I myself also found it necessary to make to this dignitary a respectable present. I gave him the finest bernús or Arab mantle which I had still left, besides a black tobe, and sundry smaller articles.