VILLAGE OF DABAAB. — TOKULS. — KADL 183 one of the greatest crimes an Arab could commit, were he to hunt away or injure these birds. The wealthier adorn the tops of their tokuls with ostrich -feathers and eggs, or some such ornament, imd to each is attached another square hut (recuba) of straw or dried wood, serving as kitchen, abode, and sleeping-place for family and servants. The master of the house, and his wifc however, have their sleeping-place in the tokul, where also is kept everything that might perchance be ruined by rain ; this sleeping place is some three feet high, and of a length and breadth that six men might find room in it ; it is also surrounded by pales, on which are gratings woven of thin wood, and on these are fastened straw mats ; the whole structure, like those Ave saw at el Softre, is hung round witli thick woollen cloths. A little light gets in through the very small door of the hut, and were it not for this, all would be darkness inside. Nothing more than the usual household utensils, a few angarebs and mats, did we see ; the utensils consisted of a murhaka (millj, a burma (earthen pot), a gadda (wooden dish), and some water-skins.

Tlie Kadi, a man of at least eighty years old, and now ill with fever, sought by every means to impress on us his high dignity and sreat knowledge. He said of himself that he was most leiu-ned (ahlem), did and ought to know every thing, as he had been eight years in Mecca and two in Medina ; he also was proud of his knoAvledge that we Franks wrote from the left to right. He represented himself to my brother as a physician, who knew how to cure all diseases, but unfortunately had no medicines by him. All Kadis are penmen (faki, plur. fokra), and at once civil and religious judges: but, unluckily, it is the usual plan with them to decide the same point of law, one day one way, the next another ; in fact as it suits themselves, or as higher officials order them. We were entertained with honey-water, and many sweeter words, as to our country, our customs, and fine things, the latter of which they understand, even here, to ask for with the greatest greediness and importunity. Ere long the small hut vve were in was crammed with more than thirty men, the exhalations and heat of whose bodies caused such a stench and suffocating feeling, that remaining in it became most disagreeable. All who entered kissed most respectfully the Kadi's hand, and then came un to us and