The next day, when we wanted to cook the part we had saved, we were rather embarrassed by having neither gun nor flint to strike fire. I was then witness to an operation which I had never seen before, though I had heard of its being practised; the Moors took two pieces of wood, and rubbed them violently together, till they took fire, which was not for some time; the wood which they used was very hard. The camp had again changed its situation; it was a mile further to the east, near a rivulet called Rekiza. On our arrival, we were informed that Hamet-Dou was at war with the Oulad-Hamets, and that the latter, who were greatly inferior in number, were flying from their enemies. The cause of hostilities was this: the laratine slaves of the tribe of Oulad-Hamet had quarrelled with those of the king, and had ravaged their fields of millet; the slaves complained to their master, who went with his people to seize the flocks of the Oulad-Hamets, in order to make them pay for the damage done in his territory. All the women of the tribe came to implore the king’s mercy, and he restored the cattle without insisting upon any indemnification for the damage. So far from being thankful for the goodness of the prince, these wretches attacked Hamet-Dou’s people again, surprised them in their tents, and killed four of them; they met with a vigorous resistance, however, for they retired with the loss of seven men. This atrocious conduct on the part of the aggressors excited the indignation of the king; he swore that he would be revenged, and declared war against the whole tribe. The Oulad-Hamets, knowing that they should have nothing to gain in this contest, entered into a negociation, and the king pardoned them once more. The tribe of the Oulad-Hamets is the most perfidious of all the Braknas; they spare nothing, not even the people of their own tribe. When they meet travellers, they strip them if they can; and if chance conducts a stranger to their camps, he never escapes till he is plundered of every thing he has with him; of course care is taken to keep out of their way. Their atrocious character causes them to be detested by all the other tribes, and they are never spoken of but with horror.