[29] The Sultan’s Minister, Ben Oris, addressing our government on the question says, “Whosoever sets any person free God will set his soul free from the fire,” (hell), quoting the Koran.

[30] A person going to the Emperor without a present, is like a menace at court, for a present corresponds to our “good morning.”

[31] Bash, means chief, as Bash-Mameluke, chief of the Mamelukes.  It is a Turkish term.

[32] This office answers vulgarly to our Boots at English inns.

[33] Bismilla, Arabic for “In the name of God!” the Mohammedan grace before meat, and also drink.

[34] Shaw says.—­“The hobara is of the bigness of a capon, it feeds upon the little grubs or insects, and frequents the confines of the Desert.  The body is of a light dun or yellowish colour, and marked over with little brown touches, whilst the larger feathers of the wing are black, with each of them a white spot near the middle; those of the neck are whitish with black streaks, and are long and erected when the bird is attacked.  The bill is flat like the starling’s, nearly an inch and a half long, and the legs agree in shape and in the want of the hinder toe with the bustard’s, but it is not, as Golins says, the bustard, that bird being twice as big as the hobara.  Nothing can be more entertaining than to see this bird pursued by the hawk, and what a variety of flights and stratagems it makes use of to escape.”  The French call the hobara, a little bustard, poule de Carthage, or Carthage-fowl.  They are frequently sold in the market of Tunis, as ordinary fowls, but eat something like pheasant, and their flesh is red.

[35] The most grandly beautiful view in Tunis is that from the Belvidere, about a mile north-west from the capital, looking immediately over the Marsa road.  Here, on a hill of very moderate elevation, you have the most beautiful as well as the most magnificent panoramic view of sea and lake, mountain and plain, town and village, in the whole Regency, or perhaps in any other part of North Africa.  There are besides many lovely walks around the capital, particularly among and around the craggy heights of the south-east.  But these are little frequented by the European residents, the women especially, who are so stay-at-homeative that the greater part of them never walked round the suburbs once in their lives.  Europeans generally prefer the Marina, lined on each side, not with pleasant trees, but dead animals, sending forth a most offensive smell.

[36] Shaw says:  “The rhaad, or safsaf, is a granivorous and gregarious bird, which wanteth the hinder toe.  There are two species, and both about and a little larger than the ordinary pullet.  The belly of both is white, back and wings of a buff colour spotted with brown, tail lighter and marked all along with black transverse streaks, beak and legs stronger than the partridge.  The name rhaad, “thunder,” is given to it from the noise it makes on the ground when it rises, safsaf, from its beating the air, a sound imitating the motion.”