168 JOURNEY FROM a large share in the explanation of the different objects of attraction.

He never omitted to beg for an exhibition of our chronometer, that he might have an opportunity of descanting upon the manner in which we regulated it, which he used to say was done by weighing the SU71*; and poor Sala, our attendant on such occasions, was always called upon to produce the quicksilver used for the artificial horizon, which never failed to excite the astonishment and delight which our dilettante Chaous had anticipated.

Having purchased a supply of corn for our horses, which is here deposited, as is usual in ISTorthern Africa, in cisterns or storehouses which have been excavated by the ancients, we left Zafffan, and continued our journey to Jedeed, where the tents were pitched for the night. This mode of preserving corn is frequently alluded to by ancient writers, and Varro has asserted that wheat thus preserved will keep for fifty years, and millet for more than a hundred f .

From Jedeed we proceeded on to Shuaisha, passing by Bennet Hadeed and Hamed Garoosh, where are the remains of some forts, * Shaw observes that this expression is used in the neighbourhood of Tunis, and indeed it is very common among the Ai-ab tribes in general.

t “ Quidam granaria habent sub terris, speluncas, quos vocant aious, ut in Cappadocia ac Thracia. Alii, ut in Hispania citeriore, puteos, ut in agro Carthaginiensi et Oscensi. Horum solum paleis substernunt : et cux’ant ne humor aut aer tangere possit, nisi cum promitur ad usum. Quo enim spiritus non pervenit, ibi non oritur curculio.

Sic conditum triticum manet vel annos quinquaginta : milium vero plus annos centum.”— (De Re Rustica, i. 57.)

See also Caesar (de Bell. Afric, cap. 25). “ Est in Africa consuetude incolarum, ut, in agris, et in omnibus fere villis, sub terra specus, condendi frumenti gratia, clam habeant, atque id propter bella maxime, hostiumque subitum adventum praessarent.”