70 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXXII- 
sunrise, sent word to me to mount in order to follow 
him out of the town; and he behaved very unpolitely 
when objections were raised to the effect that it 
would be better to wait for El Bakay. Soon after 
he came up himself on horseback before my door, 
sending one of his brother's principal and confidential 
pupils, whom I could scarcely expect to do anything 
contrary to the wishes of his master, to bid me 
mount without further delay, and to follow him to 
the " r6dha," or the sepulchre of Sidi Mukhtdr, 
where El Bakay would join us. Seeing that I had 
nothing to say, while as a stranger I could neither 
expect nor desire these people to fight on my ac- 
count, I mounted, fully armed, and with two servants 
on horseback followed Sidi Mohammed on his white 
mare. 
All the people, in the streets through which we 
passed, cautiously opened their doors to have a peep 
at me. The rulir.g tribe also were not inactive ; 
and they had mounted several horsemen, who fol- 
lowed close upon our heels, and would probably have 
made a demonstration if we had halted at the " rodha." 
But my conductor, instead of staying there, as I had 
been made to believe, led on straight to the tents. 
Numbers of Tawarek families, carrying their little 
property on half-starved asses, met us on the road, 
flying westward, and confirming the fact that the 
approach of the t^bu was not merely an idle rumour. 
The encampment also, which had been chosen at 
another spot, presented a very animated scene, a 
