No mutton to be had to-day, and was obliged to buy camel's flesh for dinner: found it pretty good. My turjeman and taleb both joined me. After dinner, the taleb began in his usual controversial spirit. He insisted, that "Any person who should make himself well acquainted with the Koran must become a Mussulman." "If the French teach their children to read the Koran, in order to learn the Arabic," said he, "they must conquer the Russians and the English." Not "εν τουτω νιχα[51]," but in or with _This Book_, say the Mussulmans, the world must be conquered. The Russians and the French, having recently made conquests in Mohammedan countries near them, (for the wars in Circassia are heard of here,) impress these people with fear, and fear is their ruling principle of government. Asking my taleb why the Mussulmans who had possession of _This Book_ did not conquer the world, he answered sharply, "The Mussulmans conquered the world once with the Koran, but now they have lost their faith, and are weak, and such is the will of God." The taleb then related a curious story about Ceuta. A certain marabout, who had seen the _Elouh Elmahfouth_ (‮الوح المحفوظ‬,) or "Book of Fate," which was let down to him to look at and read in, from heaven, went into the city, and offered Ceuta for sale at the low price of "_a loaf of bread_." The people said:--"Oh, the man is mad, let him go." But he continued the more to cry out, "Who will give me a loaf of bread for Ceuta?" At last he met a Christian, a Spaniard, who gave the Marabout a loaf of bread, and took possession of the city. This seems really an excuse for the loss of that strong fortress. But it is added:--"The Marabout having seen and read the future destiny of Ceuta in the _Book of Fate_, was determined to hasten the crisis, and placed it at once in the hands of the Christians." My taleb assures me that Mahomet was foretold and promised in our gospels, under the name of _Parakleit_, (_i. e._ ὁ Παράκλητος,), "The Comforter." He cited also the Koran, but would not write the passage; I had no Koran with me. But this is an advantage, for if I had had a Koran in my possession, I should only have excited the prejudices of the people against me, and should not have been able to have kept it from them. A traveller might take a translation advantageously, one without Arabic notes, or _Arabic_ words explained, which would soon excite their curiosity to know what it was. Speaking of the "_Ben Welleed_" and "_Wezeet_," my turjeman said:--"These are the French and the English; we are always at war with one another." It is the opinion of people here, that the French and English are always at war, and they are continually on the _qui-vive_ for a war breaking out between France and England, for they think then the English will drive out the French from Algeria, unmindful of what miseries such a war would entail upon themselves, crushed as they would be between the two great hostile Powers.