His Dress Consisted Of Red Boots, Richly Embroidered With Gold, Yellow Silk Trousers, A Crimson Velvet Caftan With Gold Buttons, A Silk Benise Of Sky Blue, And A Silk Sidria Underneath.

A transparent white silk barraca was thrown lightly over this, and on his shoulder hung a scarlet bornouse with wide gold lace, a present also from the bashaw, which had cost at least four hundred dollars, and a cashmere shawl turban crowned the whole.

In this splendid array they moved on, until, as they approached the gates of the town, the dancing and singing men and women met them, and amidst these, the shouts and firing of the men, who skirmished before them, and the loo! loo! of the women, they entered Sockna.

They found that houses were provided for them in the town, but the kafila bivouacked outside the gates. It had always been their intention to halt at Sockna for three or four days, and here they expected to be joined by a party of Megarha Arabs, whom their sheik, Abdi Smud ben Erhoma, had left them for the purpose of collecting together. Hoon and Wadan were also to furnish them with another quota.

The house of Major Denham consisted of a court yard eighteen feet square, and a small dark room, leading out of it by two steps. The court, however, was the greater part of the day shaded, and here on a carpet, the major received his visitors. The Arabs, as they arrived, were all sent to him by Boo Khaloom, and their presentation has a form in it, not much in character with their accustomed rudeness: they all come armed with their long guns, and the same girdle which confines their barracan, contains also two long pistols; the chief enters, and salutes, dropping on one knee, and touching the stranger's right hand with his, which he carries afterwards to his lips; he then says, "Here are my men, who are come to say health to you." On receiving permission, they approached Major Denham one by one, saluting in the same manner as their chief, who continued to remain at his side; they then sat down, forming a sort of semi-circle round the major, with their guns upright between their knees, and after a little time, on the sheik's making a signal, they all quitted the presence.

Boo Khaloom at this time became so alarmingly ill, that their departure was of necessity postponed. He requested Major Denham to prescribe for him. All the fighis' (writers,) and marabouts in Sockna, were employed on this occasion by the friends of Boo Khaloom; and one night the tassels of his cap were literally loaded with their charms. Boo Khaloom assured Major Denham, when alone, that he had no faith in such things, and smiled when he said his friends would think ill of him, were he to refuse; his faith was, however, stronger than he chose to acknowledge; for entering one morning unexpectedly, the major found him with a dove, that had just been killed and cut open, lying on his head, which, as he assured him, was, because a very great marabout had come from Wadan on purpose to perform the operation. Major Denham was nevertheless still more surprised to find him seated on a carpet, in the centre of the little court yard of his house, in the middle of the day, with five of his hordes round him, which had been brought from the tents by his order. The major was convinced, that this was some superstitious idea of the mystic influence which his horses were supposed to have upon his fate, and on expressing his surprise, he made him sit down and told him the following story.

"Sidi Mohammed, praise be to his name!" said he, "was once applied to by a poor man, whose speculations in trade always turned out disadvantageously; his children died, and nothing flourished with him. Mohammed told him, that horses were nearly connected with his fate, and that he must buy horses before he would be fortunate. 'If I cannot afford to keep myself,' said the man, 'how can I feed horses?' - 'No matter,' said the prophet; alive or dead, no good fortune will come upon your house until you have them.' The poor man went and purchased the head of a dead horse, which was all his means enabled him to do, and this he placed over his house, little dreaming of the good fortune, which by this means he was to enjoy. Before the first day passed, to his extreme surprise and joy, he saw a bird, with a chain attached to its neck, entangled with the horse's head; and, on mounting to the housetop to extricate the bird, he found it one of the greatest beauty, and that the chain was of diamonds. He was not long in discovering the bird had escaped from the window of the favourite of a certain sultan, who, on its being restored, gave the poor man the chain as his reward, and by means of which he became rich and happy. Now," said Boo Khaloom, "I dreamt of this story last night, and that I was the poor man."

During their stay at Sockna, the marriage of the son of one of the richest inhabitants, Haji Mohammed-el-Hair-Trigge, was celebrated in the true Arab style. There is something so rudely chivalric in their ceremonies, so very superior to the dull monotony of a Tripolitan wedding, where from one to five hundred guests, all males assemble, covered with gold lace, and look at one another from the evening of one day until daylight the next, that we cannot refrain from transcribing it.

The morning of the marriage-day, (for the ceremony is always performed in the evening, that is, the final ceremony, for they are generally betrothed, and the fatah read a year before,) is ushered in by the music of the town or tribe, consisting of a bagpipe and two small drums, serenading the bride first, and then the bridegroom, who generally walks through the streets, very finely dressed, with all the town at his heels; during which all the women assemble at the bride's house, dressed in their finest clothes, and place themselves at the different holes in the walls, which serve as windows, and look into the court-yard.

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