Footnote 39:[ (return) ] Similar to the corn-market at Mogodor.
Footnote 40:[ (return) ] The m'hoad is no longer used in Barbary. There is a krube, of which sixteen are equal to a saa, which, when filled with good wheat, weighs 100 lbs. equal to 119 lbs. English weight.
MANUFACTURES.
The black natives are smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and masons, but not weavers. The Arabs in the neighbourhood are weavers, and make carpets resembling those of Fas and of Mesurata, where they are called telisse [41]; they are of wool, from their own sheep, and camels' hair. The bags for goods, and the tents, are of goats' and camels' hair; there are no palmetto trees in that country. Their thread [42], needles, scissors, &c. come from Fas: most of their ploughs they buy of the Arabs near the town, who are subject to it. Some are made in the town. These Arabs manufacture iron from ore found in the country, and are good smiths. They make iron bars of an excellent quality. They tan leather for soles of shoes very well, but know nothing of dressing leather in oil: the upper leather comes from Fas [43]; their wooden combs [44] and spoons come from Barbary; they have none of ivory or horn. No lead is brought from Barbary; he thinks they have lead of their own. The best shoes are brought from Fas.
Footnote 41:[ (return) ] Telissa, sing.; Telisse, plur.
Footnote 42:[ (return) ] To Fas they are brought from England through Gibraltar and Mogodor.
Footnote 43:[ (return) ] Leather is also imported from Marocco, and from Terodant in South Barbary.
Footnote 44:[ (return) ] Wooden combs are imported from Marseilles to Mogodor.
The country is well cultivated, except on the side of the desert. They have rice, el bishna [45], and a corn which they call allila [46], but in Barbary it is called drâh: this requires very rich ground. They make bread of el bishna: they have no wheat or barley. Property is fenced by a bank and a ditch. Dews are very heavy. Lands are watered by canals cut from the Nile; high lands by wells, the water of which is raised by wheels [47] worked by cattle, as in Egypt. They have violent thunder-storms in summer, but no rains: the mornings and evenings, during winter, are cold; the coldest wind is from the west, when it is as cold as at Fas. The winter lasts about two months, though the weather is cool from September to April. They begin to sow rice in August and September, but they can sow it at any time, having water at hand: he saw some sowing rice while others were reaping it. El bishna and other corn is sown before December. El bishna is ripe in June and July; as are beans. Allila may be sown at all seasons; it requires water only every eight or ten days. Their beans are like the small Mazagan beans, and are sown in March; the stalk is short, but full of pods. The allila produces a small, white, flattish grain.
Footnote 45:[ (return) ] El Bishna. This is the Arabic name for Indian corn.