then, with an air of holy swagger, presented to the astonished guard of the Bey.  The dervish next spat on his patient’s hands, closed them in his own, then smoothed him down the back like a mountebank smooths his pony, and stroked also his head and beard; and, after further gentle and comely ceremonies of this sort, the charming of the charmer finished, and the Boab presented the holy man with his fee.  We dined at the Kaed’s house; this functionary was a very venerable man, a perfect picture of a patriarch of the olden Scriptural times of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  There was not a single article of furniture in the room, except a humble sofa, upon which he sat.

We inspected the old Kasbah at Ghafsa, which is in nearly a state of ruin, and looked as if it would soon be down about our ears.  It is an irregular square, and built chiefly of the remains of ancient edifices.  It was guarded by fifty Turks, whose broken-down appearance was in perfect harmony with the citadel they inhabited.  The square in a building is the favourite form of the Moors and Mohammedans generally; the Kaaba of Mecca, the sanctum sanctorum, is a square.  The Moors endeavour to imitate the sacred objects of their religion in every way, even in the commonest affairs of human existence, whilst likewise their troops of wives and concubines are only an earthly foretaste and an earnest of the celestial ladies they expect to meet hereafter.

We saw them making oil, which was in a very primitive fashion.  The oil-makers were nearly all women.  The olives were first ground between stones worked by the hands, until they became of the consistence of paste, which was then taken down to the stream and put into a wooden tub with water.  On being stirred up, the oil rises to the top, which they skim off with their hands and put into skins or jars; when thus skimmed, they pass the grounds or refuse through a sieve, the water running off; the stones and pulp are then saved for firing.  But in this way much of the oil is lost, as may be seen by the greasy surface of the water below where this rude process is going on.  Among the oil-women, we noticed a girl who would have been very pretty and fascinating had she washed herself instead of the olives.  We entered an Arab house inhabited by some twenty persons, chiefly women, who forthwith unceremoniously took off our caps, examined very minutely all our clothes with an excited curiosity, laughed heartily when we put our hands in our pockets, and wished to do the same, and then pulled our hair, looking under our faces with amorous glances.  On the hill overlooking the town, we also met two women screaming frightfully and tearing their faces; we learned that one of them had lost her child.  The women make the best blankets here with handlooms, and do the principal heavy work.