508 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXIX. 
the desert, I intended sending home by the first 
opportunity. 
As the waters increased more and more, and began 
to cover all the lowlands, I should have liked very 
much to rove about along those many backwaters 
which are formed by the river, in order to witness the 
interesting period of the rice harvest, which was 
going on just at this time. It was collected in small 
canoes, only the spikes of the upper part of the stalks 
emerging from the water. But new rice was not 
brought into the town till the beginning of January, 
and then only in small quantities, the saa being sold 
for 100 shells. 
This was an important day : important to 
the Mohammedans as the 'Aid e' subiiwa, 
and celebrated by them with prayers and seddega, 
or alms ; and not unimportant for myself, for my re- 
lation to the town's-people had meanwhile assumed 
a more serious character. Sheikho (Seko) A'hmedu 
had threatened, that if the inhabitants of Timbuktu 
did not assist in driving me out of the town, he 
would cut off the supply of corn. This induced the 
emir Kauri to undertake a journey to the capital, in 
order to prevent the malicious intrigues of the kadhi 
Weled Faamme, who was about to embark for that 
place, from making matters worse. 
I have stated before, that, together with the cara- 
van of the Berabish (the plural of Berbushi), which 
had arrived on the 12th with a considerable armed 
host, 'All, the son of the old sheikh A'hmed, or Hamech 
