All Arabs, who buy dates pay a dollar duty on each load, equal at times to the price of the article, before they are allowed to remove it.

Above 3,000 loads are sold to them annually.

Date trees, except those of the kadi and mamlukes, are taxed at the rate of one dollar for every two hundred; by this duty, in the neighbourhood of Mourzouk, or more properly in the few immediately neighbouring villages, the sultan receives yearly 10,000 dollars.

Of all sheep or goats, he is entitled to a fifth.

On the sale of every slave, he has, in addition to the head-money, a dollar and a half, which, at the rate of 4,000, gives another 6,000 dollars.
The captured slaves are sold by auction, at which the sultan's brokers attend, bidding high only for the finest.