VILLAGE OF DABAAB. — TOKULS. — KADI. 183 one of the greatest crimes an Arab could commit, were he to hunt away or injure these birds. The wealthier adorn the tops of their tokuls with ostrich -feathers and eggs, or some such ornament, and to each is attached another square hut (recuba) of straw or dried wood, serving as kitchen, abode, and sleeping-place for family and servants. The master of the house, and his wife, however, have their sleeping-place in the tokul, where also is kept everything that might perchance be ruined by rain ; this sleeping place is some three feet high, and of a length and breadth that six men might find room in it ; it is also surrounded by pales, on which are gratings woven of thin wood, and on these are fiistened straw mats ; the whole structure, like those we saw at el SofFre, is hung round with thick woollen cloths. A little light gets in through the very snuvll door of the hut, and Avei'e it not for this, all would be darkness inside. Notliing more than the usual household utensils, a few angarebs and mats, did we see ; the utensils consisted of a murhaka (mill), a burma (earthen pot), a gadda (wooden dish), and some water-skins.

The Kadi, a man of at least eighty years old, and now ill with fever, sought by every means to im])ress on us his high dignity and great knowledge. He said of himself that ho Avas most learned (ahlem), did and ought to know every thing, as he had been eight years in Mecca and two in Medina ; he also was proud of his knowledge that we Franks wrote from the left to right. He represented himself to my brother as a ])hysician, who knew how to cure all diseases, but unfortunately had no medicines by him. All Kadis are penmen (faki, j)liir. fokra), and at once civil and religious judges: but, unluckily, it is the usual plan with them to decide the same point of law, one day one way, tlu' next another; in fact as it suits themselves, or as liigher oilicials order them. We wei'o entertained with honey-water, and many sweeter words, as to our country, our customs, and fine things, the latter of Avhich they understand, even here, to ask for with the greatest greediness and importunity. Ere long the small hut we were in was eraniniod with more than thirty men, the exhalations and heat of whose bodies caused such a stench and suffocating feeling, that remaining in it became most disagreeable. All who entered kissed most respectfully the Kadi's hand, and then came uyt to us and