In Mourzouk, The Luxuries Of Life Are Very Limited, The People Principally Subsisting On Dates.

Many do not, for months together, taste corn; when obtained, they make it into a paste called asooda, which is a softer kind of bazeen.

Fowls have now almost disappeared in the country, owing to the sultan having appropriated all he could find for the consumption of his own family. The sheep and goats are driven from the mountains near Benioleed, a distance of four hundred miles; they pass over one desert, which, at their rate of travelling, occupies five days, without food or water. Numbers therefore die, which in course raises the price of the survivors, They are valued at three or four dollars each, when they arrive, being quite skeletons, and are as high as ten and twelve, when fatted. Bread is badly made, and is baked in ovens formed of clay in holes in the earth, and heated by burning wood; the loaves, or rather flat cakes are struck into the side, and are thus baked by the heat which rises from the embers. Butter is brought in goat-skins from the Syrtis, and is very dear. Tobacco is very generally chewed by the women, as well as by the men. They use it with the trona (soda). Smoking is the amusement of a great man, rather than of the lower class, the mild tobacco being very dear, and pipes not easily procured.

The revenues of the sultan of Fezzan arise from slaves, merchandise, and dates.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 316 of 1124
Words from 85813 to 86066 of 309561