Senouhrès-The Municipal Council in High Spirits-Hasné the Dancing Girl-The Fellah Women-A very Low Fellow, even after Death --An Abduction. WE were beginning to get out of the sand, the village appeared in the distance, like an immense fortress perched upon an elevated plateau and covered with graceful minarets and cupolas. Those domes which first came into view belonged to an ancient cemetery of considerable extent, now abandoned and ruinous, but whose importance bears witness to that of Senouhrès in former times. A number of pools, rivulets, and small canals make the approach to the village difficult and tedious. we had to pass without any intermediate stage from fine sand to a marshy soil, it took us several hours to get now round, and then across, these endless small obstacles which divided us from the destination which we expected to have reached much more easily. The village of Senouhrès, in consideration of its commercial, and especially its agricultural importance, has a regularly constituted administration. Authority is there installed on an official footing by no means inferior to our most complicated sous-prefectures, so that forewarned by our dragoman, we prepared for a complete series of formalities. After we had made the tour of the entire village, we pitched our tents to the south, in a meadow, on the border of a delicious stream, and in the shade of grand palm-trees. We had patriotically hoisted our national flag before the eyes of the astonished population, and were gravely preparing to put on our pearl-grey gloves in order to do proper homage to the scheik and the other magis trates of the town. Already our animals, adorned with their gayest caparisons, had crossed the ford which lay between us and the municipal dwelling, already we scented the coffee which would certainly be offered to us, when our dragoman, preceding the line, entered into a long conference with a brilliantly-attired young Arab, who had come running to meet us, quite out of breath, and who now began to use most expressive pantomime. We stopped, wondering, and presently the dragoman turned back, and announced to us, that the scheik and the whole Municipal Council, apprised of our intended visit, found it impossible to receive us on that THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. 95 day, but that on the following morning, without fail, those gentlemen would have the pleasure of paying us a visit of welcome. In the meantime they begged to present their homage and good wishes. Very little concerned at this delay, we were about to return to our tents, when some of the party, not willing to have had so much trouble for nothing, induced the dragoman to make certain enquiries which enabled him to conduct us to the quarter in which the dancers live, those Almées of whom we had perpetually talked before leaving Paris, and of whom we dreamed every evening, and indeed afternoon. After many twistings and turnings in narrow lanes between small and dirty houses, we arrived at a little door through which a crowd of Arabs, of all ages, and sizes, and of both sexes was pressing. It was by no means the mysterious portal of our fancy, guarded by fantastic beings adorned with many-coloured costumes and armed with sabres; it was a free passage of the most liberal kind, and we simply walked in without In the middle of a small square any announcement. court, a dozen women, seated on carpets and mats, were nibbling oranges and drinking water, in the company of several very well-dressed personages who were not at all disturbed by our arrival. We saluted those gentlemen, who immediately made room for us, and politely invited us to seat ourselves beside them. Then began the most absurd scene possible. No doubt we had come expressly to see these women, but we had not foreseen so very facile a reception. Our limited acquaintance with the Arab tongue restricted the expression of our sentiments to a ludicrous repetition. The phrases which we knew best, are those which relate to the harnessing of our mules and the equipment of our camels, so that we ran the risk of enormous blunders by the display of our little repertory. Kross kotir,' and 'kotir kïoss,' was the monotonous refrain which accompanied the sweetmeats which we presented to them in handfuls. 'Ya habibi,' was the response. Our male neighbours were much delighted and amused by our attempts at making ourselves agreeable. The prettiest of these women wore necklets, bracelets, and other ornaments of great value, and the quantities of golden coins fastened by threads to the braids of their long hair, coins of all sizes, and bearing various effigies, proved how sumptuous are the bakshishs bestowed upon the dancers. One of the women struck us particularly, not so much by the regular beauty of her features, as by the |