36 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LIII. 
which receded in the distance. The Bedde call it 
Thaba-kendma. The water is full of fish, which is 
dried by the inhabitants, and, either in its natural form 
or pounded and formed into balls, constitutes an im- 
portant article of export. We met a good many 
people laden with it. 
It was here that, while admiring this riverlike sheet 
of water, I recognized, among a troop of native travel- 
lers, my friend the sherif Mohammed Ben A'hmed, to 
whom I was indebted for a couple of hours very plea- 
santly and usefully spent during my stay in Y61a, and 
for the route from Mozambique to the lake JNyanja, or, 
as it is commonly called, Nyassi. I for a moment 
hoped that it mi^iit be my fate, in the company of this 
man, to penetrate through the large belt of the un- 
known equatorial region of this continent towards the 
Indian Ocean. But as he was now on his way from 
Zinder to Kiikawa, we had only a few moments 
allowed for conversation and the exchange of compli- 
ments, when we separated in opposite directions, never 
to meet again, — my fate carrying me westward, while 
he was soon to succumb to the effects of the climate 
of Neoroland. 
Three miles further on, turning a little more south- 
ward from our westerly direction, we reached the 
town of Geshiya, once a strong place and surrounded 
by a clay wall, but at present in a state of great 
decay, although it is still tolerably peopled, the 
groups of conical huts being separated by fences of 
matting into several quarters. Here we encamped 
