THE DESERT.—TASÁWA.—EXACTIONS OF THE ESCORT.—DELAY AT ELÁWEN.
Accompanied by Mr. Gagliuffi, the Greek doctor, and the Bin-básha, we
left Múrzuk by the western gate. My parting from Mr. Gagliuffi was
cordial. He had received us and treated us hospitably, and had shown an
earnest desire to further our proceedings, and to secure if possible the
success of our expedition; and, if in his commercial transactions with
the mission he did not neglect his own advantage, we could not complain,
though it would have been infinitely better for us if we had been
provided with a more useful sort of merchandise.
In leaving the town we kept, in general, along the same path by which
we had first entered it, and encamped during the hot hours of the day
in the scanty shade afforded by the trees of Zerghán, the well close
by affording us delicious draughts of cool water, not at all of that
brackish insipid taste which is common to the water of Fezzán. We had
started in the belief that we should find our luggage in Óm el hammám;
but in this place we learned from the poor ragged people who come
occasionally hither to take care of the trees, that it was gone on to
Tigger-urtín. Not knowing, however, the road to the latter place, we
took the path to Óm el hammám, and encamped about seven o’clock in the
afternoon a little north of it.
Om el hammám is a half-decayed and deserted village, built of clay,
which is strongly incrusted with salt, the inhabitants at present
living entirely in huts made of palm-branches. The plantation being
intermixed with a large number of ethel-trees (_Tamarix orientalis_),
and interspersed with gardens, exhibited a more varied aspect than is
generally the case with these groves; and having pitched our tent near a
large ethel-bush, we felt very comfortable, especially as we had the good
luck to obtain a few eggs, which, fried with plenty of onions, made a
very palatable supper.
Next morning we directed our course to Tigger-urtín, making almost a
right angle towards the north, and crossing a desolate plain incrusted
with salt, after we had left the fine plantation of Óm el hammám. Having
reached the village of our camel-drivers, which consists entirely of huts
of palm-branches, we looked long in vain for a tolerable camping-ground,
as the strong wind filled the whole air with sand. At length we pitched
our tents a few paces south from the well. It was an extremely sultry and
oppressive day, and the wind anything but refreshing. In the afternoon we
went to pay our compliments to Mohammed Bóro, who had left Múrzuk several
days before us. He informed us that he had consumed all his provisions,
and that he would have left to-day for Tasáwa, in order to replenish his
stores, if he had not seen us coming. We consoled him with the intimation
that we hoped our whole party would be soon ready for starting, and sent
him a quantity of dates and corn. The next day I went roving through the
valley, which a little further to the north-west was much prettier, and
had several fine clusters of palm-trees; but the most picturesque object
was the old village, built of clay, now entirely in decay, but surrounded
by a dense group of fine date-trees. Subjoined is a sketch of it.
At the south-west end of the grove also is a little village, likewise
deserted. Here I met a Felláta or Pullo slave, a full-grown man, who,
when a young lad, had been carried away from his native home, somewhere
about Kazaure, and since then had been moiling and toiling here in this
half-deserted valley, which had become his second home. He told me that
fever had driven away the old inhabitants of the village long ago, after
which the Tinýlkum seem to have taken entire possession of it, though
it is remarkable that its name seems rather to belong to the Berber
language, its original form being Tigger-odén (ŏdē means the valley),
which has been changed into the more general form Tigger-urtín. The whole
valley, which makes a turn towards the south-west, is full of ethel-bush,
and affords shelter to a number of doves. Groups of palm-trees are
scattered about.
[Illustration]
In the morning I took a walk round the village of the Tinýlkum, which
exhibited some lively and interesting scenes. All the men were saying
their prayers together upon a sand-hill on the north side of the
principal cluster of cottages, while the women were busy in getting
ready the provisions for the long journey about to be undertaken by their
husbands, and the children were playing among them. About fifty or sixty
huts were lying hereabouts, most of them formed into groups; others more
detached. Some of them had pointed roofs, while others were flat-roofed;
but all of them had a neat and orderly appearance. Besides camels, which
constitute their principal wealth, as by means of them they are enabled
to undertake those long annual journeys to Sudán, they possess a good
many sheep. Two of our camel-drivers, Ibrahím and Slimán, whom I shall
have occasion to mention repeatedly, together with their mother and
sister, were in possession of a flock of about two hundred head, which
they were sending to the fine pasture-grounds of Terhén in Wady Berjúsh.
Besides the latter valley, the Tinýlkum also use the valley Táderart as
their chief pasture-grounds.
On the east-north-east side of the village rose a hill about one hundred
feet high, and affording a fine view over the valley-plain. From its
highest summit, where a niche for prayers has been laid out with stones
on the ground, it stretches from east to west, and forms a kind of
separation in the flat valley, limiting the ethel-tree to its western
part, all the sand-hills in the eastern prolongation being covered with
palm-bushes, which, from a distance, have the appearance of a thick
grove. Descending from this hill northwards, I came to the handsomely
decorated sepulchre of Háj Sálemi, the brother of the sheikh, who
resides in Múrzuk, and further on met a party of Tinýlkum _en route_
for the wady, where numbers of them are residing. Another division
dwells about Sebhha; but the whole body of the tribe comprises from
350 to 400 families, which are united by the closest bonds, and act as
one body—“like meal” (to use their own expression) “falling through
the numerous holes of a sieve into one pot.” About noon arrived the
pilgrim-caravan of the Tawáti, which had been long encamped near Múrzuk,
on their way home; it had been this year only 114 persons strong, with 70
muskets, while sometimes it musters as many as 500 persons. Their chief,
or sheikh el rákeb, was an intelligent person of the name of ʿAbd el
Káder, a native of Timímun, who had been leader of the caravan several
times. They encamped at no great distance from us on the open ground.
Being obliged to buy another camel for myself (in order to be able to
mount our servant Mohammed el Túnsi on a camel of our own, the Tinýlkum
being very particular about their beasts, and not liking to see a man
often mounting them), I bought, in the afternoon, a fine tall méheri
from Háj Mohammed, for 69 Fezzán riyals or 55 Spanish dollars. I made a
longer excursion along the eastern part of the wady, which here, where
it is lower and collects more humidity, is adorned with some beautiful
wild groups of palm-trees left quite to themselves; the valley extends
towards Wady Ghodwa, which it joins. Keeping on in that direction, I
came to a poor hamlet called Márhhaba inhabited by a few families, who
bitterly complained of their poverty. Here was formerly a village built
of clay, and a large spacious castle about sixty-five paces square. All
is now deserted; and only a small part of the available ground is under
culture, forming about six or seven small fields. The same picture is met
with all over Fezzán, where the only places exhibiting to the eye some
degree of life and prosperity are Sokna and Múrzuk. The population of
this wide expanse of country falls short of even sixty thousand souls.
The heat of the day had already set in, when I returned to the tents,
where I was extremely rejoiced to see the different members of our
caravan collecting at last, so as to afford a fair prospect of our
soon setting out for unknown and more interesting regions. There had
arrived Mohammed el Sfaksi, a man with whom Mr. Gagliuffi had entered
into a sort of partnership for a commercial journey to Negroland,
and whom he had supplied with a tolerable amount of merchandise; and
in the afternoon came the boat. The following day Yusuf Mukni, Mr.
Richardson’s interpreter, came with the rest of the luggage, so that
gradually everything fell into its right place, and nothing was now
wanting but the Tuarek chiefs to set our whole body in regular motion. We
therefore procured a load of dates from Aghár, and, getting everything
ready, roused our spirits for the contemplation of novelties and the
encountering of difficulties; for the latter could certainly not be
wanting where the former were at hand.
_June 19._—While the greater part of the caravan took the direct road
to the well Sháraba, Mr. Overweg and I, with the remainder, chose
the road to Tessáwa, or rather, more accurately, Tasáwa; but though
our party formed but a small body of people, yet it presented a very
animated spectacle. The lazy Arab mode of letting the camels go singly,
as they like, straggling about right and left, strains and fatigues the
traveller’s attention; but his mind is stimulated and nerved to the
contemplation of great distances to be traversed when he sees a long
line of camels attached one to the other, and led by a man at a steady
pace without any halt or interruption. As for myself, riding my own
méheri, I was quite at liberty to go before or fall behind, just as the
circumstances of the road called for observation, or presented something
worthy of attention.
Having passed some tolerably deep sand-hills accumulated in the wady,
we obtained a sight of an advanced spur of the plantation of Aghár to
our left, when the ground became firm, and the country more open. Then,
keeping along the southern border of the principal plantation, we passed
the village and our former camping-ground, and having left further on
some deserted villages and a few scattered huts of palm-leaves, still
inhabited, a little on one side, about noon we again entered a sandy
region with a few detached palm-groups. Here I observed a specimen
of a very rare sort of bifurcated or divided palm-tree (not the dúm,
which is generally so), with two distinct tufts hanging down on the
opposite sides: this is the only specimen I ever saw. We then passed
the village of Tasáwa, which, with its clay walls and towers, looks
much more considerable from afar than it appears when viewed from among
the deserted houses within it; still it is one of the more wealthy and
important places in the country. A little beyond it we encamped on the
open sandy ground, when, as our small tent had by mistake gone on in
advance, and our large tent was too bulky to be pitched for one night’s
rest, we contrived a very tolerable airy shade with our carpets.
We had scarcely made ourselves comfortable, when we received the joyful
news that Hatíta, with two sons of Sháfo, had just arrived from Ghát,
and were about to call on us. Their arrival of course had now become a
matter of the utmost importance, as Mr. Richardson had made his mind up
not to start without them, though it might have been clear, to every one
well acquainted with the state of things in the interior, that their
protection could not be the least guarantee for our favourable reception
and success in the country of Aïr or Asben, inhabited and governed by an
entirely distinct tribe. And, on the other hand, the arrival of these
chiefs made our relation to Mohammed Bóro extremely disagreeable, for,
after waiting so long for us, he now clearly saw that Mr. Gagliuffi, in
declaring that we relied entirely on him for our success, while we were
in fact placing ourselves wholly at the disposal of the chiefs of Ghát,
was only trifling with him. He therefore flew into a violent passion,
threatening openly before the people that he would take care that we
should be attacked on the road by his countrymen; and these were not
empty threats.
After a hot day followed a very fine evening, with a beautifully clear
moonlight; and cherishing the fervent hope that, with the assistance of
the Almighty, I should succeed in my dangerous undertaking, I lay down
in the open encampment, and listened with hearty sympathy to the fervent
prayers of the Tinýlkum, which in melodious cadence, and accompanied
with the sound há, há, sometimes in a voice of thunder, at others in a
melancholy unearthly plaint, were well adapted to make a deep impression
upon the mind, the tall palm-trees forming majestic groups, and giving a
fanciful character to the landscape in the calm moonlight.
It is a remarkable fact that, while the Mohammedan religion in general
is manifestly sinking to corruption along the coast, there are ascetic
sects rising up in the interior which unite its last zealous followers
by a religious band. The particular sect to which belong the Tinýlkum,
who in general are Máleki, has been founded by Mohammed el Médani, who
established a sort of convent or oratory (zawíya) near Masráta, and
endowed it with a certain extent of landed property, from the produce
of which he fed many pilgrims. The best feature of this creed is the
abolition of the veneration of dead saints, which has sullied in so high
a degree the purity of Islám. Mohammed el Médani is said to have died a
short time ago; but his son continues the pious establishment. It is a
sort of freemasonry, and promises to make a great many proselytes. In
Tasáwa also reside a few Tinýlkum, who, however, have been intimately
intermixed with the Arabs, while the others in general keep their blood
pure, and do not intermarry with the people of Fezzán.
Having assured ourselves that, owing to the arrival of the Tuarek chiefs,
we should have to make some stay here, we determined to pitch our large
tent early the next morning, while the chiefs had a long dispute with
Mohammed eʾ Sfaksi, the subject of which I must relate, as it throws
some light on the history and the present state of this country. The
northern Tuarek, when they occupied the country round Ghát, established
a sort of tribute, or gheráma, to be paid by merchants passing through
their territory, and on payment of which the trader should be no further
molested, but enjoy full protection. At that time the Masráta—a section
of a very powerful Berber tribe—had made, as we shall see, a colonial
settlement in Ágades, and, owing to their great power, commercial
activity, and near connection with the Tuarek, were considered wholly
exempt from any tribute, while the inhabitants of Tunis, who seem to have
exhibited the jealousy or hostility of the great lords of the desert,
were subjected to the highest personal exaction, viz. ten dollars a
head. Now Gagliuffi’s partner was a native of Sfákes; but having long
resided in Masráta, he insisted upon being free from tribute, like the
inhabitants of the latter place; but our friends were not to be cheated
out of their right, and made him pay as a Tunisian.
Having settled this little business, they came to us. There were Hatíta
Inek (the son of) Khóden of the Manghásatangh, Utaeti (the eldest son of
Sháfo), a younger son of the latter, and several more. The first, who
had enjoyed the friendship of Captain Lyon, behaved throughout like a
man well acquainted with Europeans; but Utaeti conducted himself like
a strict Tarki, neither showing his face nor speaking a single word.
Hatíta expressed the wish that we should not proceed until he returned
from Múrzuk, where he assured us he would remain but a very short time;
and we engaged to do our best to keep back the camel-drivers, who were
but little inclined to stay here long. In consequence of this state of
things, I determined to return to the town, in order to ascertain the
terms entered into between the parties; and accordingly, starting at
five in the evening, and resting a few hours after midnight in Zerghán,
I reached Múrzuk on Friday morning at seven o’clock. I found that Mr.
Gagliuffi had been very ill during the hot weather of the last few days;
but to-day he was fortunately a little better.
Having waited in vain for the chiefs the whole of Saturday, we received
a visit from them on Sunday, when they appeared in the finery with
which they had been dressed by Mustapha Bey, but would not come to any
terms; and it was not till Monday, when they took up their residence in
the house belonging formerly to Mukni, but now to the Wakíl of Borno,
that they concluded an arrangement. The sum which they then received
would have been moderate, had they undertaken to see us safe under
the protection of Annur, the chief of the Kél-owí. I urged, with Mr.
Gagliuffi, the necessity of having a written copy of the agreement; but
to this the chief would not listen, and thus confessed that there was
really no distinct contract, as we had been given to understand, to the
effect that Utaeti should not leave us till he had committed us to the
care of the chief, Annur.
This business being concluded, I was in great haste to return to Tasáwa,
and starting immediately afterwards, at one o’clock in the afternoon,
arrived at our tent a little before midnight. Our tent, indeed, was still
there; but all the Tinýlkum (Músa alone excepted), and all our things,
were gone on, and Overweg and I were obliged to follow the next day
without waiting for Mr. Richardson.
Accordingly, on the 25th of June we left Tasáwa, and after having crossed
some sand-hills, entered upon harder soil, with ethel-bushes crowning the
little hills,—the whole scene making the impression that a considerable
current of water had at one period flowed along here and carried away
the soil, which had once extended to the top of the hills. The whole
district, which is a narrow and very long strip of land, affording a
little herbage for cattle and sheep, bears the name of Wady Aberjúsh,
or Berjúsh, and soon exhibits a more pleasant character; the encircling
borders increase a little in height, while the sand ceases and a great
deal of herbage begins to cover the soil. But after about another hour’s
march, we entered upon pebbly ground like that of the Hammáda, and
continued descending through a bare country till we reached the well
Sháraba, where we encamped a little to the north, near a talha-bush. It
is an open well, only three feet below the surface of the ground, which
here forms a very remarkable hollow, almost six hundred feet below the
level of Múrzuk, but nevertheless contains water only for two or three
months in the year. It is, however, evident that in case of heavy rains a
large pond or lake must be temporarily formed here by the torrent, which,
sweeping along Wady Berjúsh, finds no outlet.
Towards evening the locality was enlivened for a short time by a small
slave-caravan, led by Mohammed Trumba, or ʿAkerút, an active, energetic
man, whom I met several times in the course of my travels, and incurred
some obligation towards him, as it was he who, on my setting out from
Zinder to Timbúktu in the beginning of 1853, brought me a supply of
one thousand dollars, without which I could scarcely have succeeded in
my undertaking. He had come in only sixty-five days from Zinder, and
thirty-three from Asben, having been obliged to pursue his journey as
fast as possible, because, owing to the expedition of the Kél-owí against
the Welád Slimán, provisions were very scarce in Asben. He estimated
the number of fighting men who had gone on that expedition at seven
thousand, and stated that the Tuarek were acting in concert with the
Dáza, a tribe of Tébu, whose real name is Búlgudá. He stated that eʾ Núr
(or Annur, as the name is pronounced), the chief of the Kél-owí, was at
present in Tasáwa (that is to say, the town of that name on the borders
of Negroland), but would soon return to Asben. He confirmed the report
of plenty of rain having fallen in the desert, in consequence of which
the wells were full; but he begged me to beware of the cold during the
nights, which he represented as very intense. He had twenty-three female
slaves with him and only five camels, and hastened on to Tasáwa, in order
to obtain dates for his famished people.
_June 26._—Owing to the camels having strayed, it was very late when we
left our encampment, and entered a sort of flat valley, from which we
ascended to a higher level. From this we obtained a distant glance,
towards the west-south-west, of the ruins of a fortress called Kasr
Sháraba, the history of which, as it is connected with the struggles
of yore between the Tébu and the inhabitants of Fezzán, would be full
of interest, if it could be made out distinctly. Towards noon the
country wore a more genial aspect, being adorned with several groups of
palm-trees. We had to go round a rather steep hill, about three hundred
and fifty feet high, from the summit of which I obtained an interesting
view over the desert. The whole country presented a very irregular
structure, and scarcely allowed the continuous line of the Wady Berjúsh
to be traced by the eye, hills of considerable height and black pebbly
tracts succeeding each other. Over such a desert we continued our march
until, late in the afternoon, we reached a spot where the sight of a true
wady, full of herbage and bordered by a strip of talha-trees, gladdened
our hearts, and we encamped. It was a pleasant open ground; and the night
being cool and refreshing, we felt very much invigorated when we rose the
next morning to continue our march.
The talha-trees continued; but the herbage was principally limited to
resú, an herb which has a very strong taste, and is not relished by
camels for any length of time. The green strip took an irregular, winding
course, sometimes approaching the sand-hills which we had always on our
left at a certain distance, sometimes keeping more to our right; and
Músa, our grave but cheerful camel-driver, dwelt in terms of the highest
praise on the great superiority of this wady, which he said is joined by
as many as a hundred smaller branches. It evidently forms the natural
high road between Fezzán and the western desert, and about a month ago
must have exhibited a more varied aspect, enlivened as it then was by a
considerable torrent sweeping along it. In the afternoon we saw several
spots where the eddying stream had formed itself a bed about five feet
deep, and had turned up the ground all around; the crust of mire which
covered the bed of the torrent had not yet dried. We encamped on a
pleasant spot called Hamáwa, without pitching our tent, so delighted
were we to enjoy the fresh air of the desert. Here we were joined by a
man from Tasáwa, who wanted to seize a debtor who had attached himself
to Bóro’s party in order to make his escape into Sudán—a practice very
common with the people of Fezzán. By repeated measuring with our chain,
we had found that, on tolerably even ground, our ordinary rate as the
Tawárek travel was half an English geographical mile in thirteen minutes.
It is the general custom of these people, who do not allow their camels
to feed on the march, to leave them the whole night on the pasture, and
not to fetch them till morning, for which reason they never start very
early, and often at a rather late hour.
_June 28._—About an hour after we had begun our march along the line of
green herbage, we came to a temporary well called Ahitsa, containing
very fine rain-water, but only for a period of about two months in the
year. Having filled two of our water-skins, we continued our march, and
soon, to our great joy, got sight of two white tents, belonging the one
to Mohammed Bóro, the other to Mohammed eʾ Sfaksi, and pointing out to
us the encampment of the caravan. It had been pitched on open ground,
in the midst of the strip of green herbage, and surrounded with a rich
border of talha-trees. The place offered good pasture for the camels; and
a small encampment of other Tinýlkum not belonging to our caravan, but
merely pasturing their camels and goats here, had been formed near the
trees. The whole presented an animated picture. Our camel-drivers are
said to possess, in the sand-hills bordering this valley on the south
side, considerable stores of dates and corn, and to have taken from
thence their supplies for the road. The whole character of this landscape
appeared to me so peculiar that, the following morning before we started,
I made a sketch of it from the elevated stony ground to the north of the
channel, which here exhibited evident traces of a small waterfall formed
by the heavy rains. Stones had been laid here in the form of a circle,
as a place of prayer. The whole valley was about four miles broad; the
locality is called Tesémmak.
[Illustration]
When we started next morning, we formed a tolerably large party, with
sixty-two camels, which were arranged in four strings, one of which
consisted of thirty-three animals, each fastened to the tail of the
preceding one. The valley was enlivened by a small herd of gazelles,
which Overweg and I tried for a moment to pursue. Having passed a well
called Tafiyúk, at a place where the sand-hills jut out into the valley,
we encamped about half an hour beyond, near another well containing
rain-water for a short time of the year, and called Em-éneza. Two
branches of the wady unite here, and distinct traces of the great force
of the last torrent remained in the broken condition of the ground.
Here we remained encamped for the two following days, in order to
allow Mr. Richardson and the Azkár chiefs to come up. I spent the time
sometimes writing and studying, at others roving about or musing while
seated on some elevated rocks at the border of the rising ground. Músa
was our constant visitor, and gave us all the information required,
though he was not very intelligent. There had been some small differences
between us and our camel-drivers, who, though in other respects not
uncouth or uncivil, had, from religious principles, sometimes assumed
a rather hostile position towards us. We now effected a general
reconciliation, and there was every reason to believe that we should go
on well with them.
_July 2._—Being informed that our companions were near, we moved on a
little, and at length got out of the eternal Wady Aberjúsh, with all its
little side-branches, which are divided from the main wady by a gently
rising ground covered with black pebbles. Then after a little we reached
the Wady Eláwen, forming a broad depression running from the north, where
it is joined by several branch channels descending from the plateau
towards the sand-hills on the south, and encamped on its western side,
between tall sebót shooting up from the sandy ground, and near some fine
talha-trees. We soon discovered, to our great delight, that only two
hundred paces above our encampment the floods, descending from the higher
ground in two large branches, and carrying down with them bushes and
brushwood in abundance, had formed a pond at present about 100 ft. long
and 50 ft. broad, which contributed greatly to enliven the district. All
the world was bathing and playing about the water; and flights of thirsty
birds, of the kinds _Numida_ and _Pterocles_, were hovering about,
watching a favourable moment to come in for their share. Everywhere
in the bottom of the valley there was water at a little depth; and we
obtained excellent potations from a well dug by our people close below
our tents.
About five o’clock in the afternoon we were at length joined by Mr.
Richardson and the chiefs of the Azkár; but the unsatisfactory way in
which the business had been concluded with these chiefs in Múrzuk led
to a break-up sooner even than I had suspected. The next evening Hatíta
summoned us to a divan, and declared distinctly that he required a
month’s time to make the necessary preparations for the journey to Aïr.
Hence it would be necessary for us to separate from the caravan, and,
taking our luggage with us to Ghát, to hire or buy other camels there.
In reply to this unjust and absurd demand, we declared that we had no
other choice but to follow the direct Sudán road in the company of the
caravan, and that it was our firm intention at any rate not to lose
more than seven days in Ghát. Hatíta having left us rather dissatisfied
at our decision, our servants, who would gladly have idled away one or
two months in Ghát as they had done in Múrzuk, insolently told us that
we were very much mistaken in thinking that the road to Aïr was in any
degree open to us, for it would first be necessary to send a courier to
ask the permission of the chiefs of that country to enter it, and we must
wait for the answer.
While remaining firm in our resolution, we of course consented to go to
Ghát, and tried at the same time to come to some final arrangement with
our camel-drivers, promising them a small allowance for every day they
should wait for us. They at length promised to spend ten days on the way
to Arikím, a well three days’ march south from Ghát, where they would
wait six days, and then go on directly to Aïr. Attacking the old chief,
therefore, on his weakest side, we sent him word the next morning that,
as we had but little money with us, he would not succeed in getting
anything of value from us, if he should try to keep us in Ghát for any
length of time; and I insisted, with Yusuf Mukni, upon the dishonesty
of the chief’s conduct, in trying to make an entirely new bargain after
he had got all he demanded. His answer was satisfactory; and with the
fervent hope that we should not be baffled in our attempt to discover new
regions and new tribes of men, we left the further development of the
affair to time.
While these disputes were going on, I employed my leisure hours in
roving about our encampment, in different directions, up and down the
valley. The eastern of the two branches, which by their junction form the
valley, was peculiarly rich in herbage, and commanded by a hill starting
up from the plateau, which afforded a very interesting view around,
though this was almost surpassed by the prospect from a mound a little
to the west-south-west of our tent. The lower part of the valley was
more diversified by numerous branches, which joined it on the south-east
side. One of these, which was bordered by high ridges of sandstone, was
evidently a favourite playground of the gazelles, the fresh footmarks of
which chequered its sandy bottom like a net. Pursuing this direction, I
approached the sand-hills which form the southern border of this whole
district. Fatigued by my long walk, I was the more able in the evening
to do full justice to our supper, which was diversified by a variety of
birds that had been shot in the course of the day near the pond.