and have none of that unrest which the sight of a vessel in motion
suggests.

To-day my friend from Timbuctoo came up to have another talk. He was
curious to know the object of my travels, and as he would not have
comprehended the exact truth, I was obliged to convey it to him through
the medium of fiction. I informed him that I had been dispatched by the
Sultan of my country to obtain information of the countries of Africa;
that I wrote in a book accounts of everything I saw, and on my return,
would present this book to the Sultan, who would reward me with a high
rank--perhaps even that of Grand Vizier. The Orientals deal largely in
hyperbole, and scatter numbers and values with the most reckless
profusion. The Arabic, like the Hebrew, its sister tongue, and other old
original tongues of Man, is a language of roots, and abounds with the
boldest metaphors. Now, exaggeration is but the imperfect form of
metaphor. The expression is always a splendid amplification of the simple
fact. Like skilful archers, in order to hit the mark, they aim above it.
When you have once learned his standard of truth, you can readily gauge an
Arab's expressions, and regulate your own accordingly. But whenever I have
attempted to strike the key-note myself, I generally found that it was
below, rather than above, the Oriental pitch.

The Shekh had already informed me that the King of Ashantee, whom he had
visited, possessed twenty-four houses full of gold, and that the Sultan of
Houssa had seventy thousand horses always standing saddled before his
palace, in order that he might take his choice, when he wished to ride
out. By this he did not mean that the facts were precisely so, but only
that the King was very rich, and the Sultan had a great many horses. In
order to give the Shekh an idea of the great wealth and power of the