Chap. XXXVIII. DEPENDENT SITUATION. 
21 
and I had occasionally to hear it said, " 'Abd el 
Kerim faidanse bago, — " f Abd el Kerim is of no use 
whatever ; " nevertheless I myself was not quite in- 
dependent of their kindness, although I sacrificed 
all I could in order to give from time to time a new 
impulse to their favour by an occasional present. 
The horse which they had first given me had 
proved incapable of such fatigue as it had to undergo, 
and the animal which I had bought before going to 
A'dam&wa had been too much knocked up to stand 
another journey so soon ; and after having bought 
two other camels, and prepared myself for another 
expedition, I was unable, with my present means, to 
buy a good horse. Remembering, therefore, what the 
vizier had told me with regard to my first horse, I 
sent him word that he would greatly oblige me by 
making me a present of one, and he was kind enough 
to send me four animals from which to choose; but as 
none of these satisfied me, 1 rejected them all, in- 
timating very simply that it was impossible, among 
four nags, " kadara," to choose one horse, " fir." 
This hint, after a little farther explanation, my 
friend did not fail to understand, and in the evening 
of the 7th of September he sent me a horse from 
his own stable, which became my faithful and noble 
companion for the next four campaigns, and from 
which I did not part till, after my return from Tim- 
buktu, in December, 1854, he succumbed to sickness 
in Kan 6. 
He was the envy of all the great men, from the 
c 3 
