"It is not right to have more wives than one, because men and women are nearly equally in numbers, and if one man has two wives another man must go without even one." _The Marabout._--"Oh, if a man has money, he may have two, or three, or four?" "That is not a good religion which gives four wives to one man because he has money, and leaves another man without any because he has no money, or not so much money as his neighbour." _The Marabout._--"So it is," (as if convinced of the reasonableness of the thing). "Why has such an old man as Sheikh Makouran two young wives? This is against nature." _The Marabout._--"He plays; his time of work is past." I believe this unequal distribution of the women is a great check on population. It prevails to a greater extent amongst the Negro tribes. I am not of opinion that Central Africa is populous. I saw nowhere any populous districts myself. The wood used in the construction of buildings is that of the date-tree, which, apparently, grows stronger and tougher with age. Of this all the doors of the houses and the lighter works are made. Wood for fireing is brought in from The Sahara, but from a great distance. It is sold for three Tunisian piastres the camel-load. It is the common brush-wood, underwood, or scrub of The Desert, and is excessively dry, for withered and dead trees or shrubs are gathered. In seasons of rain The Sahara creates this wood quickly, it then perishes for want of rain. Sometimes wood for building is brought from Tripoli, _i. e._, deal-boards. Our caravan brought some doors for a mosque, made of deal. This evening was a grand celebration of divine worship in the house of the Rais, and a Marabout chanted verses from the Koran. His Excellency certainly gains the respect, if not the affections, of the pious. He is often said by the people to be a man who "fears God." I sat near the door listening. A fellow said to me, "You must sit farther off whilst the people are praying, it is unlawful to sit where you are." I took no notice of his impertinence. The Rais sent me yesterday, as the evening before, a very good supper. Being Ramadan, I stopped up till midnight talking politics with him. He is a native of a province, near Circassia, fallen under the iron rule of Muskou (the Russians). Having been in the Syrian campaign he was enabled to see the _feeding_ of the English soldiers and sailors, which quite astonished him. He observed, "The Emperor of Russia will never have good troops, he scarcely gives them anything to eat. It is not surprising they desert to the Circassians." The Rais has a great dread of the Russians absorbing the Ottoman empire: it is not an unreasonable dread.