However, the woman promised, the divorce took place, and the lover was
soon promoted into a second husband. On the day of the wedding, however,
the man who had exacted the promise passed by the camel on which the
bride was riding, and saluted her, as is the custom, with the discharge
of his firelock. Upon this she remembered, and looloed to him. The new
bridegroom, enraged at this marked preference, noticing that she had not
greeted any one else, and thinking possibly that he was playing the part
of a dupe, instantly fell upon his bride and slew her. He had scarcely
done so when the brothers of the woman came up and shot him down; so
that the first husband compassed ample vengeance without endangering
himself in the slightest degree. This is an instance of Arab cunning.
A subject of considerable importance was brought under my attention at
Mourzuk. It appears that whilst the objects of legitimate commerce, in
being exported from the interior to Fezzan and Tripoli, pay double
duties--that is, twelve and a-half per cent in each place--slaves pay no
transit duty whatever in this regency of Barbary if they are destined
for the Constantinople market, and even if sold in Tripoli or Fezzan
only pay once a duty of ten mahboubs per head. It frequently happens
besides that the Turkish merchants, who embark with their slaves for
Constantinople, sell a considerable number on the way.
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