Many Moors and negroes, impelled by curiosity, followed me in the streets. Some asked for snuff; in vain did I assure them that I had none, and never used any, they would not relinquish the attack, and they called me christian as the greatest insult they could offer me. Their vociferations were accompanied by threatening gestures. I began to fear that I should lose my temper, and that the affair might become serious. I hastened back to my lodging, into which my assailants followed me. An old Moor took pity on me, and reproached them for their behaviour, assuring them that I was a Musulman and a stranger, and under the protection of Kalif, who would be indignant at my being ill treated. He finally succeeded in dispersing them. I found a great difference between the inhabitants of this place and those of Timbuctoo, where I had been well received by the Moors. The people of El-Arawan, on the other hand, looked upon me with suspicion. They could not believe, that after having passed my youth among the christians, I should voluntarily forsake their customs and resume those of my kindred. Fortunately for me, some old men more zealous, or credulous, than the rest, declared that God would support me in the way of salvation, since he had inspired me with so astonishing a resolution. They added in Arabic, “Let us thank God, that he has returned among us.” These disagreeable occurrences induced me to appear more zealous than hitherto. I went regularly to the mosque, but, when I prostrated myself, like the disciples of the prophet, I offered up fervent prayers to God, thus endeavouring to atone for the painful sacrifice of my religion which I was outwardly compelled to make. El-Arawan is not a place of such active trade as Timbuctoo, whence all provisions for the former place are brought, Sansanding, which is twenty-five days’ journey to the west, being too far distant to afford supplies. I was told, indeed, by several Moors, that the journey occupied a month. El-Arawan sends, as I have before said, the salt of the mines of Toudeyni to Sansanding and Jamina, by caravans of Moorish merchants, who also carry tobacco, which is cultivated in Tafilet and Zawât. This town, though inhabited by the Moors of Zawât[16] and the different countries on the banks of the Mediterranean, has no market. I never saw so dull a place. In the interior of the town there are, as at Timbuctoo straw huts for the slaves. Bousbéhey, of which I have already spoken, is two days’ journey distant from El-Arawan, and the inhabitants of the latter place purchase cattle there, as in all parts of the interior of Africa there are no markets. Each family kills a bullock from time to time and cures the meat, by drying it in the sun. It is eaten with rice or couscous.