None of the doors has either lock or key. The Fezzanee observed,
"Strangers may steal, but Fezzanees never. All the dates remain securely
on the trees until gathered by the owners." It must be observed,
however, that the anomaly of vast possessions being held by one man, who
can scarcely consume or utilise the produce, whilst others have not a
stone whereon to lay their heads, and depend even for a burial-place
upon charity, is not to be observed in this barbarous country.

The children of the Wady, up to the age of seven or eight years, go
about perfectly naked, which may partly account for the bronze-black
colour of their skins. The Tuaricks are generally fairer than the
Fezzanees, though some of these latter are fair as the Moors on the
coast, whilst others are black as very niggers.

We received a visit from the Nather, or civil governor of the Wady. He
is a Fezzanee, Abbas by name; and thankfully received the present of a
handkerchief. The Kaïd, or military commander, is a Moor from Tripoli.
Everybody seems interested about us, and there is a perfect flux of
visits. All the authorities around seem to make our arrival a holiday.
We are quite the fashion. The chaouch gets drunk in the evening on
leghma, furnished by the Nather, who wants to worm out all the news; and
there is little doubt that he has learned the whole truth, and a good
deal more. El-Maskouas, the Turkish officer employed in collecting
contributions for Mourzuk, arrived at the camp and brought letters from
M. Gagliuffi. He also told us that the Sheikh of Aghadez had not yet
returned from his pilgrimage to Mekka. The motions of all these desert
magnates are circulated from mouth to mouth as assiduously as those of
our Mayfair fashionables.