All the routes are now considered unsafe. Rais assured me, he has applied to the Pasha for a few Turkish troops, but His Highness refused, on the plea of expense. The whole force of the Rais is not a hundred Arabs, and poor miserable fellows they are, with two or three horses placed at their disposal. With such inconsiderable means the Pacha presumes to hold in the heart of The Desert this important commercial city, and its dependencies of Seenawan and Derge! The French manage matters very differently in Algeira. Indeed, the united force occupying all Tripoli, with its wide-spread provinces of many hundred miles apart, does not exceed _five_ thousand men of all arms! Compare this to the hundred and thirty thousand men (including native troops) in Algeira, and be astonished at the different effects of the French and Turkish systems. . . . . To add to the Rais's embarrassments, the people are in ill-humour, whilst some hear the news with pleasure, and fancy they see in our present troubles the beginning of the end of Turkish rule in Ghadames. FOOTNOTES: [39] This book is said to be eternal as God himself, even UNCREATED. This is argued metaphysically from all the thoughts and volitions of Deity being eternal and immutable, and therefore the laws of the Koran have no relation to time or creation. [40] Most of the people here have heard of Scinde; but their knowledge of it is very imperfect. [41] I afterwards learnt it was--"You see these Christians are eating up all the Mussulman countries." [42] Strabo mentions the oasis:--"To the south of Atlas lies a vast desert of sand and stones, which, like the spotted skin of a panther, is here and there diversified by oases, or fertile grounds, like isles in the midst of the ocean." CHAPTER IX. CONTINUED RESIDENCE IN GHADAMES. The Ayed (little Festival of Moslems).--Ghadames a City of Marabouts.--Every Accident of Life ascribed to Deity.--Second Day's Feast, Swinging and Amusements of the People.--Death of the Sultan of Timbuctoo.--Various Terms employed for denoting Garden.--French Woman in The Desert.--Price of Slaves.--Time required to go round the World.--Stature of the Touaricks.--Oases of Derge.--Reconquest of the World by the Mahometans.--Tibboo Slave-dealer.--Touatee Silversmith and Blacksmith.--Assassination of Major Laing.--Tibboos compared to Bornouese.--The Touarick Bandit again.--First Encounter with the Giant Touarick.--Water of Ghadames unhealthy.--Manacles for Slaves.--Second Meeting with the Giant.--The Souafah, and Tuggurt.--Visit from the Giant.--Chapter in the Domestic History of Ghadames.--Serpents and Scorpions, the Banditti of The Desert.--Toys Prohibited.--The Wahabites.--How Moslems despise Jews.