430 
TliAVELS IN AFRICA. 
CuAP. LXXXV. 
a double set of strong shoes for each of my horses, 
as we had a very stony tract to traverse beyond 
this oasis. He promised to make them and to bring 
them up to us at A'sheniimma, but he did not keep 
his word, and thus was the cause of my losing one 
of my horses in that difficult tract. Having passed 
the villages of Tegimdmi and Eliji, we reached the 
town of A^sheniimma, the residence of the chief of 
these Tebu, situated on a lower terrace formed by a 
gentle slope at the foot of the steep cliffs, and en- 
camped in the bottom of the valley near an isolated 
group of sandstone rock, round which the moisture 
collects in large hollows, scarcely a foot below the 
surface of the gravel. All around, a rather thin 
grove of date trees spreads out ; further westward, 
there are the two salt lakes mentioned by the mem- 
bers of the former expedition. 
In the afternoon, I went into the town, to pay 
my respects to the chief whose name is Mai-Bdkr. 
The place, which seems to have attracted the notice 
of Arab geographers from an early date, consists 
of about 120 cottages, built with rough stones, and 
scattered about on the slope, besides a few yards 
erected with palm branches. The cottages are 
very low, and covered in with the stems and leaves 
of the palm tree. A solitary conical hut, like those 
of Sudan, was likewise to be seen. One of the stone 
houses exhibited a greater degree of industry by its 
whitewashing, but the residence of the chief was not 
distinguished in any way. The latter, who bears the 
