like a christian. Sidi-Aly, my guide, was a short man, about four feet high, with a wrinkled face, black mischievous-looking eyes, a little grey beard, a rather long chin, and a large mouth, which rendered him still more hideous: this man ate by himself that he might appear to be a person of importance. Thrusting his dirty hands, the chapped skin of which resembled a crocodile’s scales, into a leather bottle, to take out some butter to put into our rice, he stirred our victuals about in this cleanly manner. Notwithstanding all the fine promises of protection which he had made me at first, I soon found how little he was to be trusted. He refused me the necessaries of life, and especially water, although he had been handsomely paid beforehand; the slaves were better off, for he did not prevent them from helping themselves when they wished—thanks to the wells at Telig however, there was no longer a scarcity. Fortunately the heat did not appear to me so great, nor was my thirst so tormenting as heretofore; whether because we were in the neighbourhood of water, or because we were now advancing to the north, I know not; whatever was the cause, I enjoyed some alleviation of my sufferings: a mortification, however, but of a different nature was in store for me. The Moors of Aly’s party, seeing that he had ceased to behave respectfully to me, were no longer under any restraint; they gave me ridiculous nicknames, calling me Gageba, from the name of the camel I rode on, and I was constantly exposed to their insult and raillery. Encouraged by my silence and patience, they set their slaves to follow their example, and the slaves were delighted to torment me; they talked on no other subject; they were continually ridiculing the form of my face; and they carried their ill-nature so far as to throw stones at me when I turned my back. All this persecution was at the instigation of their masters, who often supplied them with branches of thorns to thrust into my face; at other times they took little pieces of wood, and proposed that the slaves should drive them through my nose, as they do to the camels. These slaves, encouraged by the visible satisfaction of their masters, collected around me, laughing violently, capering, dancing, and showing me first the branch of thorns and then the piece of wood which they had been ordered to run through my nose. In this way I was tormented all the way from Telig to Tafilet. The Moors would often say with contempt, “Look at this slave; I would rather have him than thee, so thou mayst think how little I value thee.” This insolence was accompanied by immoderate laughter. When I was eating, these boors would come about me opening their mouths as wide as they could; then, with hideous grimaces they thrust their fingers into them to mimic me, and called out at last: “He is like a christian!”