Chap. LXIV. CHARACTER OF COUNTRY. 
369 
Having left these interesting sheets of water be- 
hind us, we traversed a district more richly adorned 
with acacias, and crossed a valley where the siwak, 
or Capparis sodata (a bush which I scarcely remem- 
bered to have seen since my return from Kanem), 
was growing in great exuberance, besides numbers 
of gerredh, or the useful Acacia nilotica, but we 
searched in vain for water. The country also which 
we traversed from here onwards was chiefly clothed 
with the Capparis and the Mimosa nilotica, besides 
a good deal of dum-bush ; but, further on, we emerged 
from this undulating tract into an open swampy 
ground, at present tolerably dry, and covered with 
rich herbage, while we left on our right the site of 
the formerly important town Sama-koira *, which once 
lorded it over a considerable territory till it was 
destroyed by the Tawarek, when the remnant of its 
population escaped towards Bamba and Ghago. 
In these open swampy meadow grounds, girt by a 
dense belt of gerredh, where no Arab would think of 
pitching his tent, was the encampment of the chief 
Somki, with his family and his followers (the tents 
of the kind I have described being just pitched), 
and his numerous herds of cattle grazing right and 
left, besides about twenty camels. We found the chief 
* This is the name which the Songhay give to the place, "koira" 
meaning " town " in the Songhay-kim ; while the Wangarawa and 
the Bambara call it Sama-kanda, "kanda" meaning "country" 
or " district " in the Wakore ; and the Fulbe, on account of the 
" swamp" which is formed here, Winde Same. 
VOL. IV. B B 
