--ED.
In this day's agricultural and horticultural walk I fell in with the
nymphs of the gardens; or, in other words, the washerwomen of Mourzuk.
They come out constantly to the wells, when the irrigation is going on,
early in the morning or late in the evening, and thus take advantage of
the supply of water raised. They are all dark women of the city, for the
most part unlovely and very dirty in appearance, despite their
occupation. Their system of washing is the primitive one practised by
the labouring classes all over the north of Africa. They roll up the
clothes into a round flat heap, and then with their heels keep up a
continual round of treading, using for soap a peculiar sort of clay.
Some of the girls are very impudent and immodest when a stranger passes
by; but as a rule they are not so. The wells at Mourzuk are not all
good; some are fresh, others salt. In many places will be found a well
of very sweet, delicious water; and running nearly to the surface, at
twenty paces distant from it, are found others really quite salt. The
same phenomenon has been observed at Siwah, in the Libyan desert.
One of our party received a present this morning of some fresh and most
delicious leghma. A good deal is drunk in Mourzuk, in an acrid state,
for the purposes of intoxication.
In the evening I went to see the acting Pasha, with the Consul. He
received us with his usual urbanity, and gave coffee and lemonade twice.
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