At five in the evening, when the heat was abated, I took a walk to the town of Mimcina, accompanied by a neighbouring Moor, who, being a friend of Sidi-Aly’s, had come to visit him and brought him a present of dates, which, by the invitation of the donor, we ate together. The chief of our Berbers strongly recommended me to this Moor, and charged him especially to guard me from insult and not to suffer me to be robbed of the pagne which I wore; a recommendation which gave me but an indifferent opinion of the people whom I was about to visit. The town is walled and surrounded by pleasant plantations of palm-trees. I observed under a shed near the gate a party of loungers, who, as soon as they saw me, crowded round me asking a thousand ridiculous questions, for they were already apprised that I was an Arab who had escaped from the christians. With some trouble I got quit of these impertinent fellows, and, penetrating into the town, I passed through a very narrow, winding, and dirty street; the walls of the houses are at least fifteen feet high and very badly plaistered. I was followed by a crowd of men, for the women were veiled and durst not look at me. I seated myself under a gallery, where many old men were collected together in conversation with one of our Trajacants, who had been in the town all day, and had already related part of my history to the assembly. Among the crowd was an aged Moor, who, having performed two journeys to Mecca, had acquired great preponderance over their counsels: this man talked to me a long time about the christians, and shewed me a fac-simile of the manner in which Christ is represented in Europe; he tried to chant in imitation of the priests whom he had heard at Tripoli in Barbary, and often repeated, striking his breast, _amen, amen_. He asked me if I was disposed to eat some dates, for which I thanked him. The Trajacant marabout told him that I was with a guide named Aly, who persecuted me in order to force me to sell my dress and purchase provisions for the journey; the old man appeared incensed at such perfidious conduct, and declared that such a person could not be a good Musulman. He inquired whether I would like a present of dates, which I accepted; and he immediately ordered those about him to provide me with a sufficient quantity to last till our arrival at Tafilet; and leading me to the mosque reiterated his orders. After the prayers, a great quantity of dates was brought to me, enough indeed to load an ass; but unfortunately they turned out to be spoilt and bad: these good people carried their complaisance so far as to carry them to our camp; bad as they were, Aly, the covetous Aly, received them with pleasure, and on that day behaved better to me than usual.