106 DEPARTURE FROM EL-ARAWAN. 
to carry my luggage to the place appointed for the rendez- 
vous of the caravan. My host had invited me to share his 
repast; but as it was not cooked^ I was obliged to set off 
without tasting anything but a little dokhnou and millet. 
He again recommended me to my guide, and took his leave 
of me after wishing me a prosperous journey. It was about 
half past seven, when the caravan began to move to the N. 
E. I was concerned to see the poor slaves, whom I recognized 
as having been my companions from Jenne to El-Arawan, 
running through the sand to overtake the camels, which 
were in advance. 
Our caravan was numerous : it consisted of fourteen hun- 
dred camels, laden with the various productions of the Sou- 
dan ; as gold, slaves, ivory, gum, ostrich-feathers, and cloth 
in the piece and made into dresses. In leaving El-Arawan 
the road leads over a sandy country, with but few traces of 
vegetation. After proceeding six miles in this direction, we 
arrived at Mourat, a small village, containing five houses 
like those of El-Arawan, and built of sand bricks. At Mou- 
rat, the sons of Sidi-Boubacar, chief of El-Arawan, keep 
a school^ where the children of the inhabitants of the town 
study the Koran. Mourat appeared to me even more gloomy 
than El-Arawan; the uniformity of the soil is broken only 
by a few plants, which are eaten by the camels, and which 
are buried beneath the sand, drifted by the east wind. On 
leaving Mourat, the traveller comes to some deep wells 
filled with brackish water. Here our caravan stopped and 
took a hearty draught, for we were now about to enter 
upon a part of the desert where we should find no water 
for the space of eight days. In the midst of these vast de- 
serts, the wells of Mourat, surrounded by fourteen hundred 
camels, and by the four hundred men of our caravan, who 
were crowded round them, presented the moving picture 
of a populous town; it was a perfect tumult of men and 
beasts. On one side were camels laden with ivory, gum. 
