Note 123 — CHAP. LXVII.
Reading edition
On this occasion, which was a rather serious one, a most ridiculous misunderstanding was caused by the peculiarity of the Arabic dialect used in Timbúktu, which puzzled me and my companions very often, and sometimes made conversation between me and my friends very difficult and intricate. When the servant said that we should remove all our “haiwán” from our house, supposing that she meant animals, we told her that we had only one animal in our house, viz. my horse; and it was some time before we learned that in Timbúktu, which is inhabited mostly by such Arabs as have been at a former period dwellers in the desert, and whose property consisted almost exclusively of camels and cattle, the word “haiwán” comprises all kinds of movable property.