We ran in haste to the wells, situated beyond the village, but could not draw water enough, having unfortunately no better bucket than an old leathern bag full of holes. My thirst being at length satisfied, I seated myself in the shade near the gate of the village; where many idle Moors were lying on their backs, waiting the call to supper: immediately upon perceiving me they rose with astonishment and asked each other, “Who is this man?” easily detecting me for a stranger by the costume I always wore, which was of Soudan stuff, and strikingly different from their own. They assembled round me and overwhelmed me with questions. I was never taken at first sight by the Moors of Tafilet for an Arab; they always treated me at once as a stranger; redoubled artifice was necessary to deceive them: but when I declared myself to have been taken prisoner while very young by the army of Bonaparte, they appeared satisfied, and congratulated me upon the good resolution I had formed of returning to my country At the gate of Marca, I met, by a singular accident, a Berber whom I had known at el-Harib: he received me with kindness, and immediately acquainted the assembly with my history. This Berber politely invited me to visit his humble cabin, of a single floor, where he seated me on a very clean mat, and his wife produced some dates which we ate together. She sat unveiled in a corner of a dark and dirty room employed in weaving a woollen wrapper. When we had eaten our dates, the Berber led me to the mosque, and introduced me to two sherifs, natural sons of the emperor: we found them at prayers: but no sooner had they finished than I was persecuted with questions; amongst others whether I had been circumcised either in the Soudan or at Alexandria: I replied that I was circumcised in my infancy previously to leaving my country, and I hastened to change the topic, these interrogatories being always distressing to me since they constrained me to repeated falsehoods. Fortunately my reply appeared satisfactory, and I took advantage of their discourse being directed for a moment to their pupils to leave them; they soon, however, sought me out at the gate of the village, where I was seated, placed themselves on the ground beside me, and displaying a New Testament in Latin and Arabic, asked me if I knew that book; I read a few passages to them, and they amused themselves with ridiculing the supposed credulity of the christians.