Chap. LIX. A DAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 
223 
therefore, pitched my tent in the midst of the 
forest, I indulged with great delight in the pleasure 
of an open encampment, such as I had not enjoyed 
since leaving Gawasii, the dirty huts in which I had 
lately taken up my quarters having literally turned 
my stomach. But I had to enjoy this wild encamp- 
ment rather longer than was pleasant ; for we had 
to remain in it the whole of the following day, in con- 
sequence of my friends the A'sbenawa losing, in the 
course of the night, one of their camels, which they 
did not choose to abandon. This involuntary feat of 
mine procured me a name in the whole neighbour- 
hood, so that when I safely returned the following 
year from my journey to Timbuktu, the people of 
the neighbourhood designated me only as the man 
who had spent a day in the unsafe wilderness. 
But it almost seemed as if we were to stay here a 
third day ; for when we were getting ready our 
luggage early in the morning of the 12th, a very 
violent thunder-storm broke out, with torrents of 
rain, which made our open encampment rather un- 
comfortable, and did not allow us to start until a late 
hour. After a march of about four miles through a 
very dense forest with low ridges on our right, we 
reached the site of Birni-n-Debe, a beautiful open 
spot adorned with a rich abundance of dorowa 
besides a tolerable number of deleb palms, while 
beyond the rich mass of vegetation a hilly chain ap- 
proached from the north-east. Footprints of elephants 
were here observed in every direction. The rich cha- 
racter of the country scarcely allows the traveller to 
