370 
TRAVELS IN AFEICA. Chap. LXIV. 
reclining on his " teshegit" or divan of reeds, and as 
soon as he beheld us, he rose and saluted El Walati 
and me. He was a man of middle stature, and of 
tolerably stout proportions, his white beard, which 
looked forth from under the litham, giving him a 
highly respectable appearance. He, however, did not 
show us any signs of hospitality, which vexed me the 
more, as, besides the considerable presents which I 
had sent to him a few days before, I had now again 
to make him another one, consisting of two turkedis 
and a hdf ; but I soon found that he was not aware of 
the former presents having been sent by me. 
Being an intelligent man, who had had dealings 
with a great many people, he had some slight sus- 
picion that I was not what my companions repre- 
sented me to be. While I was sitting in my tent read- 
ing attentively a passage referring to these regions in 
the excellent little book of Mr. Cooley on the Negro- 
land of the Arabs, which has rendered me very great 
assistance in directing my inquiries in these countries, 
he made his appearance very abruptly, and seemed 
rather surprised at finding me reading characters which 
he well knew were not Arabic ; but, nevertheless, he 
suppressed his suspicions. Perhaps in consequence 
of the intrigues of El Walati, he laid claims to the 
horse which I myself rode. The eagerness of the 
women hereabout to obtain tobacco was very remark- 
able, and they pestered my servants during a great 
part of the night. 
Saturday, We set out on our ^ ast day's journey by 
August 27th. \ m fi 9 m order to reach the place where 
