224 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LIX. 
suspect that a few miles to the north lies the province 
of Mauri or A'rewa, which all my authorities repre- 
sent as a country approaching closely to the nature of 
the desert. 
Having then entered again thick forest, which 
occasionally became so dense that it scarcely allowed 
us to pass, and caused repeated delays, we reached, 
after a march of about nine miles, a large depression 
or shallow vale coming from the north-east from the 
province of Mauri, and therefore called Dallul or 
Rafi-n-Mauri (the Vale of Mauri), richly clad with a 
profusion of the most succulent herbage and with 
numerous deleb palms, besides a few specimens of the 
dum palm ; and having halted here for a few minutes 
near a well and the site of a former Pullo settlement 
of the name of Bana, we crossed the path which 
leads from Mauri to Yelu, the capital of the pro- 
vince of Dendina. This is the most dangerous part 
of the whole route, on account of the two provinces, 
that of Mauri and Dendina, having rebelled, and there 
being constant intercourse between the enemy in 
these two quarters along this track, so that our com- 
panions were not a little alarmed when fresh foot- 
prints of horses were here discovered. However we 
could move on but slowly on account of the dense 
thicket, and the anxiety of the people to collect the 
fruit of the deleb palm, corn being extremely scanty 
and scarcely to be got in this region at the time. 
Here the camel, which I had received from Khalilu 
in a present, and which I had given up to my Mejebri 
