Toser, or Touzer, the Tisurus of ancient geography, is a considerable town of about six thousand souls, with several villages in its neighbourhood.

The impression of Toser made upon our tourists agrees with that of the traveller, Desfontaines, who writes of it in 1784:—­“The Bey pitched his tent on the right side of the city, if such can be called a mass of mud-houses.”  The description corresponds also with that of Dr. Shaw, who says that “the villages of the Jereed are built of mud-walls and rafters of palm-trees.”  Evidently, however, some improvement has been made of late years.  The Arabs of Toser, on the contrary, and which very natural, protested to the French scientific commission that Toser was the finest city in El-Jereed.  They pretend that it has an area as large as Algiers, surrounded with a mud wall, twelve or fifteen feet high, and crenated.  In the centre is a vast open space, which serves for a market-place.  Toser has mosques, schools, Moorish baths—­a luxury rare on the confines of the Desert, fondouks or inns, &c.  The houses have flat terraces, and are generally well-constructed, the greater part built from the ruins of a Roman town; but many are now dilapidated from the common superstitious cause of not repairing or rebuilding old houses.  The choice material for building is brick, mostly unbaked or sun-dried.

Most of these houses stand detached.

Toser, situate in a plain, is commanded from the north-west by a little rocky mountain, whence an abundant spring takes its source, called Meshra, running along the walls of the city southward, divides itself afterwards in three branches, waters the gardens, and, after having irrigated the plantations of several other villages, loses itself in the sand at a short distance.  The wells within the city of Toser are insufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants, who fetch water from Wad Meshra.  The neighbouring villages are Belad-el-Ader, Zin, Abbus; and the sacred villages are Zaouweeat, of Tounseea, Sidi Ali Bou Lifu, and Taliraouee.  The Arabs of the open country, and who deposit their grain in and trade with these villages, are Oulad Sidi Sheikh, Oulad Sidi Abeed, and Hammania.  The dates of Toser are esteemed of the finest quality.

Walked about the town; several of the inhabitants are very wealthy.  The dead saints are, however, here, and perhaps everywhere else in Tunis, more decently lodged, and their marabets are real “whitewashed sepulchres.”  They make many burnouses at Toser, and every house presents the industrious sight of the needle or shuttle quickly moving.  We tasted the leghma, or “tears of the date,” for the first time, and rather liked it.  On going to shoot doves, we, to our astonishment, put up a snipe.  The weather was very hot; went to shoot doves in the cool of the evening.  The Bey administers justice, morning and evening, whilst in the Jereed.  An Arab made a present of a fine young ostrich to the