MERGE TO GYRENE.

481 soud was an Egyptian, and took every occasion to show his superiority, in point of civilization, over the Arabs and Moors of the west. He was particularly proud of his singing ; and as his lungs were nearly equal to his conceit, was never tired of displaying his fancied abilities to the utmost extent of his voice, not dreaming for a moment that any of his auditors could possibly be less amused with his efforts than himself. With this view, he always kept close to our side, adapting the pace of his horse to ours, and quavering without intermission. His voice was good, and had he been able to moderate it, and to use it only on proper occasions, would rather have cheered than annoyed us on the road ; for his songs had some subject, and were infinitely preferable to the tiresome monotony and endless repetition of two or three unmeaning words which had been so unmercifully dinned into our ears ever since we left Tripoly. The songs of the Arabs are however not always without a subject, as the examples which we have of their poetry in England will testify ; but we are obliged to confess that the greatest attempts at invention which we ourselves noticed in a journey of seven or eight hundred miles were nothing more than short allusions to what was going forward at the time, or to something which was in anticipation.

For instance, in ascending a hill, the song of our Arab companions would be — “ Now we are going up the hill — now we are going up the hill.” And in descending — “ Now we are going down — now we are going down.” Each sentence being repeated all the time the action alluded to was going forward, without the slightest variation of any kind. In approaching a town, the song would consist of something 3 Q