BENGAZI.

285 As these masses of rubbish also serve at the same time as general receptacles for the superfluities of the city, groups of half-famished dogs and myriads of flies are invariably collected about them ; in the midst of which are seen lying very contentedly, or rolling about for diversion, swarms of little naked children, regardless of either, which one might almost fancy Avere actually produced by the fertilizing qualities of these heaps of putrid matter, as the monsters of old are asserted to have been from the slime and the mud of the Nile. There is, however, nothing singular or peculiar to Bengazi in the scene which we have just described ; for every Arab town and village will be found, more or less, to present to us a similar spectacle.

Filth and dust, and swarms of insects of every description, must inevitably be the consequences of this continued neglect ; and we accordingly find that these several annoyances, together with the scattered groups of lean dogs and naked children, form the principal characteristics (in the estimation of their European visitors) of these enviable places of abode. We say, in the opinion of the natives of Europe, because an Arab or a Moor sees nothing remarkable in any of the objects here alluded to, and would consider it a mark of affectation or effeminacy to be annoyed at any similar objects or inconveniences.

In addition to the nuisances already enumerated, the open spaces in Bengazi are usually ornamented by pools of stagnant, putrid w'ater ; and that wEich is in the market-place is rendered more particularly offensive, from the circumstance of its being the common receptacle of the offal and blood of the animals which are