Arrival at Ghadames.--Welcome of the People.--Interview with the Governor, Rais Mustapha.--Distances of the route from Tripoli to Ghadames.--Geographical position of the Oasis.--First sight of the Touaricks.--Commence practising as Quack-Doctor.--Devotion of the Arabs.--Prejudices of the People, and overcome by the Rais.--Many Patients.--My House full of Touaricks.--The Sheikh of the Slaves.--Character of my Camel-Driver.--I make the tour of the Oasis.--Visit to the Souk.--Prejudices against me diminish.--First sight of Birds.--A young Taleb's specimen of Writing.--My Turjeman's House.--The Negro Dervish.--Touarick Camel Races.--A few Drops of Rain.--Various Visits, Conversations, &c., about Timbuctoo.--Prevalent Diseases, and my Medicine Chest.--Evening previous to the Ramadan.--Houses, Public Buildings, and Streets. GRADUALLY we neared the city as the day got up. It was dusty and hot, and disagreeable. My feelings were down at zero; and I certainly did not proceed to enter the city in style of conqueror, one who had vanquished the galling hardships of The Desert, in the most unfavourable season of the year. We were now met with a great number of the people of the city, come to welcome the safe arrival of their friends, for travelling in The Desert is always considered insecure even by its very inhabitants. Amongst the rest was the merchant Essnousee, whose acquaintance I had made in Tripoli, who welcomed me much to my satisfaction when thus entering into a strange place. Another person came up to me, who, to my surprise, spoke a few words in Italian, which I could not expect to hear in The Desert. He followed me into the town, and the Governor afterwards ordered him to be my turjeman, ("interpreter"). Now, the curiosity of the people became much excited, all ran to see _The Christian_! Every body in the city knew I was coming two months before my arrival. As soon as I arrived in Tripoli, the first caravan took the wonderful intelligence of the appointment of an English Consul at Ghadames. A couple of score of boys followed hard at the heels of my camel, and some running before, to look at my face; the men gaped with wide open mouths; and the women started up eagerly to the tops of the houses of the Arab suburb, clapping their hands and _loolooing_. It is perhaps characteristic of the more gentle and unsophisticated nature of womankind, that women of The Desert give you a more lively reception than men. The men are gloomy and silent, or merely curious without any demonstrations. I entered the city by the southern gate. The entrance was by no means imposing. There was a rough-hewn, worn, dilapidated gate-way, lined with stone-benches, on which The Ancients were once accustomed to sit and dispense justice as in old Israelitish times. Having passed this ancient gate, which wore the age of a thousand years, we wound round and round in the suburbs within