Chap. LXIX. DEATH OF e ALl' WELED 'ABE'DA. 509 
Weled 'Abeda, had come to Timbuktu ; and, seeing 
that I was a great friend of the Sheikh El Bakay, he 
had not come to pay his compliments to the latter, 
but had pitched his camp outside the town, and his 
people manifested their hostility towards me on several 
occasions. But, by a most providential dispensation, 
on the seventeenth the chief fell suddenly sick, and 
in the morning of the nineteenth he died. His death 
made an extraordinary impression upon the people, 
as it was a well-known fact that it was his father who 
had killed the former Christian who had visited this 
place ; and the more so, as it was generally believed 
that I was Major Laing's son. 
It was the more important, as the report had been 
generally spread that, as I have observed before, 
the Welad Slim an, the principal and most noble sec- 
tion of the Berabish, had sworn to kill me ; and the 
people could not but think that there was some 
supernatural connection between the death of this 
man, at this place and at this period, and the mur- 
derous deed perpetrated by his father : and, on the 
whole, I cannot but think that this event exercised a 
salutary influence upon my final safety. The fol- 
lowers of the chief of the Berabish were so fright- 
ened by this tragical event that they came in great 
procession to the Sheikh El Bakay, to beg his pardon 
for their neglect, and to obtain his blessing ; nay, 
the old man himself, a short time afterwards, sent 
word, that he would in no way interfere with my de- 
parture, but wished nothing better than that I might 
