NEIGHBOURING TRIBES. 
59 
that name. The inhabitants of Bousbehey trade in salt, 
which they procure in the small village of Toudeyni. They 
possess many camels, which constitute their principal pro- 
perty : they drink their milk, of which they also make butter. 
They possess a few sheep and some horned cattle. 
The merchants of Timbuctoo purchase cattle from these 
people, and give in exchange millet and rice ; for the soil of 
Bousbehey is totally barren, and scarcely furnishes fodder for 
the camels. The Timbuctoo merchants likewise procure 
salt at Toudeyni, for which they barter millet, rice, cloth, 
and gold. 
Bousbehey and Toudeyni, being only supplied with the 
grain which the merchants of Timbuctoo receive from Jenne, 
would of course be reduced to famine if the trade between 
the two latter cities should be interrupted. 
The country of Salah, which is inhabited by a wandering 
tribe like that of Zawat, is situated on the east, and is 
ten days' journey from Timbuctoo, whither the people of 
Salah often come for the purpose of trade. They possess 
numerous herds of camels, the milk of which, together with 
the grfiin they procure from Timbuctoo, forms their subsis- 
tence. Sidi-Abdallahi informed me, that there was no traffic 
or communication by water between Timbuctoo and the 
country of Haoussa ; because, said he, the navigation of the 
river ceases at Cabra. 
The negroes and Moors devote their attention exclu- 
sively to trade : they possess but limited ideas of geo- 
graphy. All to whom I applied for information respecting 
the course of the river to the east and E. S. E. of Timbuctoo 
agreed in stating, that it runs to Haoussa, and empties 
itself into the Nile.* I was unable to obtain any more 
accurate information on this point, and the great problem of 
* The word Nile is generic, as are also the terms Bahr'Bd, Kouara, 
and many similar names. 
