136 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXXIV. 
this lapse of time, remains a mysterious and insoluble 
enigma to them, as to the place from whence he 
so suddenly appeared, and whither he was going. 
The influence of conversation is great among 
these simple dwellers of the desert, and the more 
we talked the more friendly became the behaviour 
of my visitors, till at last they asked me why I 
did not marry one of their daughters and settle 
among them. On the other side of the river there 
w^ere encampments of the Imediddiren and Ter- 
fentik, and some of the latter paid our hosts a rather 
abrupt visit, taking away from them a head of 
cattle, so that the Sheikh's nephew, Mohammed ben 
Khottar, was obliged to cross the river in order to 
obtain damages from them. The Kel-n-nokiinder, 
who in former times had been greatly ill-used by the 
free Imoshagh, have been imbued by their protectors 
the Kunta with such a feeling of independence, that 
they are now not inclined to bear even the slightest 
injustice, and they had certainly some right to demand 
that, at the very moment while they were treating 
so large a party belonging to their protector, they 
should not themselves suffer any violence. How- 
ever, I heard to my great surprise, that they like- 
wise pay zeka to the Fiilbe, or Fullan. My friend, 
who had some trouble in persuading the freebooters 
from beyond the river to restore the property, re- 
presented them to me as fine tall men, kinsfolk of 
the Tarabandsa, but very poor. It is really sur- 
prising that a family of peaceable men should exercise 
