MERGE TO GYRENE.

449 question, in trying to collect from the existing remains how far they may have been conducive to the object we have attributed to them.

At something less than a quarter of a mile from the commencement of this ravine, the stream which flows down it is joined by another, issuing out from the rock on its western side, and a basin has been formed in the rock itself for its reception. In front of this third fountain there are considerable traces of building, which are however so much buried by the accumulation of soil, and encumbered with shrubs and vegetation, that nothing satisfactory can be made out from them.

The spot is now (like that in front of the fountain of Apollo) a favourite retreat for the sheep and cattle of the Bedouins who occasionally visit Cyrene ; and our appearance often put them to a precipitate flight, and the old women and children, who usually tended them, to a good deal of trouble in collecting them together again.

These annoyances (we must say, in justice to the sex) were borne for the most part very good-naturedly ; and we usually joined them in pursuit of the family quadrupeds with every disposition to assist them to the utmost. Indeed the Arab women in general, of all ranks and ages, are remarkable for patience and good nature ; and we have often seen both these qualities in our fair African friends, put to very severe trials without suffering any apparent diminution. Their greatest failings seem to be vanity and jealousy ; and these are surely too natural and too inconsiderable to merit any serious reprehension, more especially in a barbarous nation. Curiosity is at the same time, with them, as it is said to be with the sex in general, a quality in very extensive circulation ; and if we could have stopped 3 M >