EL JU'f. — TAODE^KNI. 547 
of which is gathered by the Kunta, who^ however, leave these 
trees without any cultivation whatever. 
On the S.E. side of E'rgshesh lies the district called El Juf, 
to which belongs Taodenni, rich in salt, but almost destitute 
of herbage, with the exception of the more favoured spot 
called El Haresha, situated at half a day's distance from 
Taodenni to the E.N.E., where trees are found. The 
miserable place called Taodenni, consisting of only a few 
houses (where, besides the Sheikh Zen, nobody will stay on 
account of the bad quality of the water), owes its existence to 
the desertion of Teghaza about the year 950 of the Hejra. I 
have spoken of the salt mines of Taodenni in the diary of 
my stay in Timbuktu: here I will only add that in Taodenni 
a black tobe purchases four camel-loads of salt or sixteen 
rus, worth each 3500 or 4000 shells in Timbuktu. Taodenni 
is distant ten days from Waran, going along E'rgshesh ; nine 
days from Bu-Jebeha ; about the same distance from M amun, 
W.N.W. ; and ten to eleven days from Mabruk, N.W., 
viz. (going from Mabruk), two and a half days to the well 
Anishay, five days to the old well called El Gatara, and 
three days more to Taodenni.* El Juf is bordered towards 
the north by the district called Safie, a sort of hammada, with 
strips of herbage. In this district wander the Welad Delem, 
the 'Aarib, the A'turshan, belonging to the tribe of the 
'Aidde, and several tribes of the Kunta, principally the Erga- 
geda, and the Welad el Wafi ; the principal chief also in 
E'rgshesh, Sidi Mohammed, is a Kunti. 
* I here give the following data, without being able to connect 
them : — From Taodenni, one and a half day, Meret ; tlien the 
same distance, Hasi I'mbedir ; Zugguma, with the 'Arig Atwele 
on its N. frontier, five days ; Asedareb, one day ; from here 
the Dhahar (el Hamar) ; — three days from Tawat, the hasi 
Telig, 7 to 8 ftithoms deep. 
N N 2 
