My new hosts seemed so well disposed towards me that I expected an apartment at their house, but was disappointed, for, after breakfast, they recommended me to go and engage a lodging at the mosque, an edifice destined at once for the service of God and the reception of travellers. In fact, I there met with several strangers, who surrounded me and overwhelmed me with questions.
About two in the afternoon, I returned to the house of my host, to relieve the weariness which this importunate curiosity occasioned me, and was greatly astonished to find the same young men, who in the morning had expressed so much affection for me, now refuse me admittance. After having explained that they treated me thus on account of their women, they asked me if I wanted food, and, giving me about two ounces of bread with some dates, left me seated upon the ground at the door. After having taken this slight repast I returned to the mosque. About ten o’clock, the negro slaves came to call Sidi-Aly and his people to supper: as he would not allow me to eat with him, I received no notice; however, finding the time elapse, and being by no means disposed to lose my supper, I determined to seat myself at the door of my host’s house. The slaves, as they passed, inquired what I wanted; I answered that I had had no supper, and begged they would inform their master: they executed my commission, and returned saying, that I ought to have shared the supper of Sidi-Aly and his suite. I then described their misconduct towards me, at which they were indignant, saying, that he and his were infidels; and, desiring me to wait a moment, they brought me an ample quantity of bad barley couscous, with a small bit of beef. I afterwards went to sleep under the roof of the mosque, among the Moors, who were necessitated like myself to take refuge there. As the sons of Haggi-Le-Mekke had represented to me, no stranger is here admitted into the interior of the houses, lest the women, who are not allowed to see any other men but those of their family, might be exposed to indiscreet observation: consequently travellers obtain an asylum for the night in the mosques, and the host at whose house they alight sends them their meals; they send for them at supper time, but receive them in a very dark corridor.
At eight o’clock in the morning, I went to my host’s for my breakfast, and seated myself, as on the preceding afternoon, at the door, waiting for an invitation. The youngest son of the family soon came, and inquired very kindly if I had breakfasted; on my answering in the negative, he ordered a slave to bring me some dates and gruel made of barley-meal: this gruel is very thin, and serves for a beverage in eating the fruit; with bread or couscous they drink nothing but water. With a stomach thus slightly supported the stranger is obliged to await the hour of supper, when a little couscous is given him; this is the nourishment they provide for those who ask hospitality of them, and for their slaves. The masters drink with their breakfast a very thin gruel made of wheat flour, and dine upon new bread and the fruits of the season; they have abundance of fine melons, of which they are very fond; and the richer inhabitants of Tafilet breakfast upon tea with bread and figs. At ten at night, the usual hour of supper, they eat couscous made of wheat flour, dressed with mutton or poultry, for they rear some domestic fowls.
While sitting at the corner of a street I made acquaintance with a Moor, named Sidi-Baubacar; who put some questions to me very prudently, and appeared to interest himself in my situation; he is a very mild and good man. He had travelled to Cape Mogador and to Morocco, and in the former town had had much intercourse with the christians, whom, in common with all other Moors, he detested. He shewed some taste for the sciences and was desirous of instruction, had learned arithmetic, and was well acquainted with its first three rules, in which he could prove his calculations. He was in the habit of writing upon a slate, which he brought to me, and we made some calculations together. This man was somewhat of an enthusiast, and conceived a friendship for me; he spoke much of the knowledge of the Europeans, which he considered as vastly superior to that of the Moors, and shewed me a watch to which he attached much value, because he was the only person in the country who had one. It was at his house that I saw the English pocket compass, which I formerly mentioned. He talked of Bonaparte and his campaigns in Egypt, asked if it was during his residence among the Musulmans that I was made prisoner, and said that he was at Tripoli about that time; finally he inquired my age; as I was covered with rags, was ill, and my complexion scorched almost to blackness by the heat of the sun, I appeared older than I really was; he had therefore no difficulty in believing that I was thirty-four years of age.
On the 26th, I proposed to a poor Jew named Jacob, to purchase of me a shilling by weight, because, as this coin was not current in the country, and he was a smith and a worker in gold and silver, he could turn it to account in his trade. He required me, for this purpose, to come to his house, to satisfy his curiosity no doubt; however the proposal also answered mine, for I knew not by what method to obtain admission to the interior of even one house. I entered then the humble dwelling of this Jew; who conducted me through two small low rooms, very dark and exceedingly dirty, into a third, somewhat larger, which received light and air only by a small opening in the roof: this opening is common to all the apartments in the interior of the house, the dwellings of the Jews being as simply constructed as those of the Moors.
Jacob, who did not possess a mat, was obliged to seat me upon the ground. He opened a closet, and fetched some nuts which he presented to me, adding a fine slice of melon and a large piece of wheaten bread, of the preceding day’s baking. His wife and aged mother, seated beside me, examined me with insatiable curiosity; they appeared mild and timid, but nevertheless, addressed several questions to me relative to the countries inhabited by the christians. I observed in this room two large sacks of corn for the family provision, some fowls, and a dog, the guard of the house: in one corner was collected the dirt of several days’ sweeping. After partaking of the Jew’s hospitable collation I took leave of these good people. A negro slave had accompanied me, fearing, he said, lest these infidels should insult me. Jacob desired me to return on the following day, when he would change my piece of money; for, my visit having been made on Saturday, no business could be transacted. The Moors, inquisitive and troublesome, were far less generous; they offered me nothing but their bad dates, and even of these they were liberal only because they could not themselves consume their superfluity.
On the 27th, I accompanied Sidi-Boubacar to a market, which is held three times a week near a village called Boheim about three miles N. of Ghourland: Boubacar mounted a fine mule, and myself an ass, destined to carry the provisions on our return.
This market is held in a beautiful spot surrounded by palm-trees; it contains many clay huts for the accommodation of the dealers in stuffs, mercery, and spices, and the butchers. The Berbers and Arabs from the adjacent villages come hither to sell their merchandise: they bring cattle, corn, fruit, and green vegetables, and in return purchase the stuffs of the merchants. As I expressed a desire to take a particular survey of the market, my companion ordered one of his people to attend me, assuring me, that if, as a stranger, I was found there alone, the very clothes I had on would be stolen. I was astonished at the variety of articles exhibited in this market. I saw there great abundance of fine herbs, cabbages, turnips, onions, peas, and dried beans, indigenous fruits, such as raisins, white and black currants, pears, nuts gourds, and melons of a fine sort; green lucern for the horses, and many productions of Europe; also fowls and boiled eggs; I bought half a dozen of the latter for the value of six farthings of our money. I observed sheep of an astonishing size, covered with very fine white wool.
Water sellers, with their full bottles, walked to and fro in the market, with a little bell to give notice to all who wished to drink, for the heat here is most oppressive. There is no scarcity of wells in the market, but they are very deep, and as strangers have not ropes to reach them, much water is sold, though it is rather brackish. I beheld asses and mules laden with the productions of nature and industry arriving from all quarters, and might easily have fancied myself transported into a well stocked European market. I bought some figs and raisins for my refreshment, together with a small wheaten loaf worth a sous. The Jews are the principal brokers: there are merchants established here who purchase from individuals the woollen goods manufactured at home, store them, and export them to other markets. No money is current here, except that of Morocco and Spain; the coin of other European countries is taken by weight. After traversing the great desert, almost deprived of the necessaries of life, the pleasure which I experienced in contemplating a market so richly furnished is indescribable, but I was obliged to return to the village with the slave to whose care Sidi-Boubacar had consigned me, and this man, when his purchases were completed, was unwilling to stay any longer.
On the 28th, Sidi-Boubacar, who was become much attached to me, sent me an invitation to his house, where he waited to receive me. He seated me on a fine carpet, spread in the court, under a little shed, and then requesting me to wait a moment, he went for a friend of his, a Moor of distinction. Soon afterwards a slave brought, upon a very clear copper waiter, a meat pasty fried in butter, and a fine slice of melon, bought on the preceding day at the market of Boheim: Sidi-Boubacar broke the pasty and his friend and I as well as himself did justice to it. In the evening Jacob the Jew changed my shilling, which enabled me on the succeeding days to buy a little bread. The same day, being at the mosque, a Moor, whose father was recently dead, accosted me, and, slipping an eightpenny piece into the pocket of my coussabe, begged me to accept it for the love of God and the Prophet.