140 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY himself at one of the public audiences, and promised when he did so to explain matters.

Accordingly, Ibn Batuta rose at the audience and said : '* Surely I have travelled in the different countries of the world, and I have known their kings ; but I have been in your country four months, and you have not treated me as a guest. What shall I say of you to the other kings ? " The Sultan replied : *' I have not seen you, nor known you." Then the judge and other important persons rose and said : '* He has already saluted you, and you have sent him food ! " After this the Sultan ordered him to be lodged at his expense, and on the distribution of gifts at the end of Ramadan did not forget him.

The customs of the town were very devout. Prayer was regularly said in private houses. There was a cathedral mosque to which all fashionable people went on Fridays, and it was habitually so crowded that the worshipper who was late could find no place. The practice of the rich was to send their slaves in good time to spread their seat in the place to which they considered themselves to have a right, and the slaves kept the place till the master arrived.

At this mosque one Friday Ibn Batuta had the pleasure of seeing vengeance fall on the head of one of the black officials of Aiwalatin, who had so offended him on his first crossing the frontier of Melle. ** I was," he said, "taking part in the prayers, when a Berber merchant, also a student and a man of letters, rose and cried : * Oh, you who are present in this mosque, be my witnesses that I accuse Mansa Suleiman ' (the Sultan), 'and I cite him before the tribunal of God's envoy, Mohammed.' Immediately there came from the Sultan's grated gallery messengers who approached the complainant, and asked : ' Who has committed an injustice ? Who has taken anything from you?' He replied: ' Mancha Djou, the governor of Aiwalatin, has taken from