166 JOURNEY FROM had spread upon the ground for our seats ; the women to examine our dress more minutely, and the men to handle our sabres and fire-arms.

The white linen of which our turbans and under garments were composed excited the greatest admiration in the former, while our double-barrelled guns, and pocket-pistols with stop-locks, were the objects of attraction to the latter. In a very short time the reserve of both sexes would begin to wear away very rapidly, and the whole family of our host would crowd round us indiscriminately each trying to be heard above the other : one question after another poured in upon us from all sides, and either nobody waited for an answer, or the answer was given by half a dozen of the family at once, each expressing a different opinion from that ot his neighbour. At length, when no satisfactory conclusion could be formed upon the subject of their inquiry, they would wait to have the question formally answered by ourselves ; and the real use of every object which excited their curiosity was generally so different from all those which they had assigned to it, that the whole party, then waiting in silent expectation for the result, would burst out all at once into the loudest exclamations of surprise, and sometimes into fits of laughter, which laid them rolling on the ground, and left them scarcely strength to rise when we got up to take our leave.

Among the numerous objects of attraction, our compass, telescopes, and watches, excited universal admiration ; and the reason why the hands of the latter should move round of themselves, and why the needle of the compass should always turn to the north-