Chap. LXXXI. AUDIENCE WITH A'BU' EL HASSAN. 305 
sation, admitting that the Jermabe, or the inhabi- 
tants of Zerma, had really pressed him very severely 
the last year, till he had at last succeeded in van- 
quishing their host and killing a great number of 
them. 
We then read to him the letter of the Sheikh, who 
bestowed great praise upon my character, and re- 
commended me in the most favourable terms. Sidi 
A'hmed made a most eloquent speech, especially as 
regarded the sanctity and learning of his master, 
who, he said, was very anxious to establish peaceable 
intercourse along the Niger, and wanted A^bii el Has- 
san to prevent the Berber tribe of the Kel-geres and 
Dinnik from continuing their predatory expeditions 
upon the territory and against the people of Alkiit- 
tabu. The energetic governor, feeling flattered by 
these compliments, took very graciously the hints 
which my eloquent friend threw out, that, besides 
his other noble efforts, the Sheikh had no objection 
to having homage paid to his exalted position by a 
small number of decent presents ; and two of the 
pupils of the Sheikh, Mohammed ben Mukhtar and 
Maleki, were pointed out to him as the persons who 
would remain here, in order to receive at his hand 
the presents destined for the Sheikh at the earliest 
possible opportunity. This whole business having 
been transacted in the presence of only one or two of 
his most confidential friends, the governor had all his 
courtiers again called in, when Sidi A^hmed read to 
them the poem in which the Sheikh had satirized the 
VOL. V. X 
