Chap. LXXII. CAMP INCONVENIENCES. 
77 
obliged to keep with me in case of any emergency. 
It is on account of this pest that none of the people of 
the desert, whose chief property consists in camels, 
are enabled to visit the town at this period of the 
year. 
Not only flies, but other species of insects also, 
became now exceedingly abundant in this desert tract, 
after it had been inundated and fertilised by the 
waters of the river ; and a countless number of cater- 
pillars especially became very troublesome, creeping 
about the ground, and getting upon the carpets and 
mats and every other article. While thus the incon- 
venience of the open camp was manifold, my amuse- 
ments were rather limited, and even my food was 
poorer than it had been before. The famous " rejire 
had been supplanted, from want of cheese, by the less 
tasteful " dakno," seasoned, in the absence of honey, 
with the fruit of the baobab or monkey-bread tree. In 
the morning, however, it afforded me some amusement 
to observe the daughters of the Tgelad driving out 
to the pasture grounds their parents' asses, and to 
witness the various incidents in the daily life of these 
people. But they were soon to leave, as well as the 
Kel-iilli, both tribes returning to their quarters fur- 
ther eastward. 
All my friends, with whom I had had only so 
short an acquaintance, thus taking leave of me, 
I was extremely glad when a brother of Mohammed 
ben 'Abd-AUahi came out of the town and paid me a 
visit. It was from this man, whose name was Daiid, 
