[14]The dress of the greatest part of the people is composed of shirts of blue cotton, which is manufactured in the country; of a red cap, which is imported from Tripoli; and of a white muslin turban, which is brought from Cairo by the pilgrims who return through that City from Mecca. Nose-rings of gold are worn by the principal people as a mark of distinction.
Ben Alli.
[15]The country in the neighbourhood of the City of Bornou is fertile in Indian corn and rice. Of barley and wheat the quantity raised is small. A species of bean, which resembles the horse-bean of Europe, though larger, and of a darker hue, is a much more common produce. Gum-trees are thinly scattered. Cotton, hemp, and indigo, are also among the various produce of its soil.
Ben Alli.
[16]The country abounds in different species of fruit trees, but that which produces the date is not of the number.
Ben Alli.
[17]Horses and horned cattle, goats and sheep, and camels, are the common animals of the country.
Ben Alli.
[18]Giraffa is the name by which the camelopardalis is called in the old zoological books.—The description here inserted, seems to have arisen from a blended recollection of that animal, and of the hippopotamus, whose hide is extremely tough.
[19]In form, the houses are similar to those of Tripoli.