Chap. LXIII. TAWA'rEK COMFORTS. 
341 
In such a tent there are generally two couches, or 
divans, called " teshegit," made of a fine species of 
reed, and raised about a foot from the ground ; for 
these people generally choose the most swampy places 
for their encampments, and after a thunder-storm 
are sometimes to be found in the midst of a lake. 
They are also not wanting in comforts ; and on every 
couch there is a leather pillow, " adafor," which cer- 
tainly seems very essential, as it would be most un- 
comfortable to rest the elbow on the uneven and hard 
surface of these reed couches. Almost all the fur- 
niture of these simple people, besides a few wooden 
bowls for eating and drinking, consists of leather 
bags of excellent workmanship and sometimes very 
tastefully ornamented, as will be shown in the fol- 
lowing volume. In these they stow T away their clothes 
as well as their provisions ; and during the night they 
surround the whole tent with very neat mattings of a 
fine species of reed, so that a tent of this description 
forms quite a comfortable dwelling. 
Although our host was evidently not one of the 
first-rate chiefs, he, as well as his kinsfolk and friends 
who came to visit us, had a very noble and prepos- 
sessing appearance, being rather broad-shouldered, 
stout, and well knit, with a pleasing expression of 
countenance and a fair skin, though there were a 
few among them who, with their coarse features and 
their dark skin, bore testimony to the deterioration of 
the Berber blood. We had scarcely made ourselves 
comfortable, when we were treated with large quan- 
z 3 
