\ 
Chap. LXIY. THE TOWN OF SARAYA'MO. 373 
especially among the rising generation, who obtruded 
not a little on my privacy. 
I had scarcely made myself comfortable, when I 
received a great number of visits ; and it was not 
long before Mohammed Bony ami arrived, mounted on 
a white mare. As El Walati had persuaded me to 
take only one horse to Timbuktu, I sent two of my 
animals with this man to remain with him until my 
leaving that place, while I also intrusted to his care 
my five camels, to be taken to a brother of his. 
While I was conversing with these people, my friend 
the Haj Biida arrived also, with whom I continued to 
pass for a Syrian sherif, although he thought it strange 
that I would not say my prayers with him in the 
courtyard. 
Having enjoyed a good night's rest, tole- Sunday, 
rably free from mosquitoes, as I had shut Au s ust28th - 
my hut at an early hour, I took a walk down to the 
river, the morning being, as usual, cool and fresh, 
and a slight breeze having sprung up. The bank 
on which the town stands was, at present, from 
twenty-five to thirty feet above the level of the river ; 
but this elevation is of course greatly diminished by 
the rising of the inundation, the river reaching gene- 
rally to the very border of the village. That branch 
which is not in direct connection with the water of 
Fatta, along which our last day's march had lain, 
had no current, and was about 200 yards in breadth. 
The communication by water along these shallow 
backwaters of the immense Niger just opening (for 
B B 3 
