432 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXXXV. 
SO far as I have become acquainted with them, and I 
shall say more on the subject of their language in a 
preface to my vocabularies. It was a remarkable fact, 
but easily to be explained, that the greatest heat which 
I experienced in the desert was in this valley, the 
thermometer at two o'clock in the afternoon rising 
daily to between 110° and 112°. 
We remained here the following day, when I en- 
joyed the scenery of the locality extremely, and made 
a sketch of it, which is represented in the plate oppo- 
site. I also desired Corporal Church, who, as I have 
stated above, was in my company, and who felt assured 
that Captain Clapperton had indicated the mountain 
chain on the west by mistake, to ascend the slope of 
the chain above A'shenumma, in order to convince 
himself that that meritorious traveller had not been 
misled in such a strange manner. With the aid of 
my small telescope, he discoverd in the far distance 
to the west, a chain bordering the valley in that 
direction. This breadth of the valley is even indi- 
cated by the distance intervening between A'gherim 
and Fashi on the one side, and Bilma and Dirki 
on the other. 
It was the holiday of the 'Aid el fotr, and the in- 
habitants of the little town celebrated the day by 
a religious procession, in which there figured even 
as many as ten horses, and a few rounds of powder 
were fired. The petty chief also sent me a holiday 
dish, consisting of a sort of maccaroni made of 
millet, with a porridge of beans. It is a very re- 
