Having remained a short time at Teijent, he proceeded towards the north-west through Tesegdeltum to Tagtessa, a city built upon the apex of a conical hill, where he saw the earth covered by so prodigious a cloud of locusts that they seemed to outnumber the blades of grass. From this city he travelled to Eitdevet, where he refreshed himself after his various toils by conversing with learned Jews and Ulemas on knotty points of law, and by gazing on the women, whose plump round forms and rich complexions delighted him exceedingly. To keep up the interest of his journey, and diversify the scene a little, he was a few days afterward fired at by the subject of an heretical chief, who inhabited a mountain fortress, and amused himself with laying true believers under contribution; but escaped the danger, and succeeded in reaching Tefetne, a small city on the seashore. Here sufferings of a new kind awaited him. Not from the people, for they were humane and friendly towards strangers; but from certain dependants of theirs, whose assiduous attentions made the three days which Leo spent among these good-natured people appear to be so many ages. In short, notwithstanding that he was lodged in a magnificent caravansary, he was nearly stung to death by fleas! The cause of the extraordinary abundance of these active little animals at Tefetne, though it seems never to have occurred to our curious traveller, is discoverable in a circumstance which he accidentally mentions—the Portuguese traded to this city. This likewise may account for another little peculiarity which distinguished this part from the neighbouring towns, though not greatly to its advantage: the stench, he tells us, which diffused itself on all sides, and assaulted the nostrils night and day, was so powerful that his senses were at length compelled to succumb, and he retreated before the victorious odour.
In order somewhat to sweeten his imagination, he
