During the four or five days of my residence here, the weather has been comparatively temperate; at least, I have not felt the heat excessive. To-day has been close and cloudy: no sun in the afternoon: wind hot, _ghiblee_. I continue to be an object of curiosity amongst the people, and am followed by troops of boys. A black from Timbuctoo was astonished at the whiteness of my skin, and swore I was bewitched. The Ghadamsee Moors eat sugar like children, and are as much pleased with a suck of it. The young men carry it about in little bags to suck. The Rais is sometimes called _Bey_ by the people and sometimes _Sultan_, but by the low people, not the better classes. Here, as elsewhere, the lower classes are the more servile. _31st._--Went this morning to buy meat, but got some with great difficulty. Passed some Touaricks, who showed an excessive arrogance in their manners. They look upon the Ghadamsee people with great disdain, considering them as so many sheep which they are to protect from the wolves of The Sahara. Met several of the merchants I knew at Tripoli. They asked me how I liked their city, and if better than Tripoli. I always replied, _Haier_ (better). It is singular that though these merchants are so enterprising themselves in the interior of Africa, they cannot conceive of the possibility of a Christian coming so far from home into The Desert, and when I tell them I wish to go to Soudan, or Bornou, or Timbuctoo, they look at me with incredulity and say, "No, no, you cannot go so far, you will die, or the people will kill you." They have not the least idea of the courage and enterprise of European tourists, nor can they understand their objects. But these their objections may be founded in jealousy of us Christians. The following is a nice neat facsimile specimen of the writing of a young taleb and Ghadamsee Marabout, one of the best I have seen in The Desert. It is a bill of sale, consisting of gold--slaves, male and female--bullocks' skins--pillow-cases--elephant's teeth--senna--bekhour (perfume)--camels--sacks--and (I think) household slaves. [Illustration] The young taleb showed great consequence and presented me with the original. He observed that a metegal of gold is of the value of 33½ Tunisian piastres. I said, "Will you come to my house and I will show you an Arabic book (the Bible) containing the religion of the Jews and Christians?" _The Taleb_: "I, I enter the house of an infidel! God preserve me!" "Oh!" I observed, "you are afraid of me and my books--my books _will bite you_." Hereupon all the people present burst into a loud laugh, and the taleb looked quite crest-fallen.