132 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY and enjoyed the society of men as freely as do the EngHsh and American women of the present day. The Mohammedans of the desert may have preserved the custom of this freedom after it had been abandoned by the more cultivated Moslems of the towns, and may have felt that in doing so it was they, and not the orthodox, who had maintained the purer traditions of the faith. There is a hint of something of this sort in an argument which took place between Ibn Batuta and the leader of the caravan with whom he travelled — a rich man who possessed a house of his own in Aiwalatin. " The companionship of men and women in this country," urged the caravan leader, "is respectable and good. There is no harm attaching to it, and no unpleasant suspicions are aroused by this freedom of which you complain." But Ibn Batuta remained unconvinced. '* I was surprised at his folly," he says, " and went no more to his house, though he invited me several times.

From Aiwalatin to the capital of Melle was a twenty days' march, for which, Ibn Batuta says, it was hardly necessary to have a guide or companions, as the road was perfectly safe. He travelled himself with three companions. All along the road they found immense and very old trees, of which one would have been enough to shelter a large caravan. Many of the trees had hollow trunks, in which, during the rains, water accumulated, and they served as cisterns for the passers-by. Others were much used by bees to build in, and men took the honey. In one a weaver had established his loom, and was weaving when Ibn Batuta passed.

The country between Aiwalatin and Melle would seem to have been wooded and thickly interspersed with villages. Amongst the trees of the wooded country Ibn Batuta notes fruits ''resembling plums, apples, peaches, and apricots, but not quite like them." He also notes plantains ; and ground nuts, of which the oil was employed for many purposes, formed a prevailing crop. Spices, salt, beads, and aromatic gums appeared to be the currency of the smaller villages. Everything required for a journey was