452 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXIV. 
Arab adventurer from J edda, with the title of sherif, 
who had roved a good deal about the world, made 
his appearance, and was very inquisitive to know the 
motives which had carried me into this remote coun- 
try; and Bii-Sad thought it prudent to pique his 
curiosity, by telling him that we had come to search 
for the gold and silver in the mountains. Old Mallem 
Dalili soon after began to express himself to the effect 
that he should feel offended if I would not stay with 
him till the afternoon ; and I was at length obliged to 
send for the camels, which had already gone on a 
good way. 
A rather indifferent lodging being assigned to me, 
I took possession of the shade of a rfmi, or bentehi, 
— the bentang-tree of Mungo Park (Eriodendron Gui- 
nense), of rather small size, and there tried to resign 
myself quietly to the loss of another day, while in 
truth I burned with impatience to see the river, which 
was the first and most important object of my journey. 
However, my quarters soon became more interesting 
to me, as I observed here several peculiarities of 
arrangement, which, while they were quite new to 
me, were most characteristic of the equatorial regions 
which I was approaching. For while in Bornu and 
Hausa it is the general custom to expose the horses, 
even very fine ones, to all changes of the weather — 
which on the whole are not very great, — in these re- 
gions, where the wet season is of far longer duration 
and the rains much heavier, it is not prudent to leave 
the animals unsheltered, and stables are built for them 
