86 
CAMP OF SLAVES. 
and experienced great benefit from it, for it is an excellent 
thing for cooling and allaying thirst. 
This day's journey had greatly fatigued me ; the sharp 
flints on which we had to walk, had cut my feet sadly. In 
vain did I entreat the Moors to permit me to ride for a short 
time on one of the bullocks ; none of them would give up 
his place to me, so that 1 was obliged to follow on foot. 
Accordingly, the moment we halted, I threw myself on 
the ground, and slept in spite of the storm which came 
on. I 
September 4 thi An hour before sunrise we set out, di- 
recting our course eastward, and after proceeding three miles 
we found traces of a camp which appeared to have been left 
the same morning. We travelled about a mile to the south, 
to visit a small camp occupied by slaves of Hamet-Dou's, 
who had been sent to this place to cultivate millet. In a 
moment I was surrounded by the inhabitants of this camp, 
who thronged round to examine me, being the first Euro- 
pean they had ever seen. An old marabout, who appeared 
to be the chief of these slaves, ordered them to retire, and 
asked me numerous questions respecting my conversion to 
Islamism: after making me repeat some words of the Koran 
he directed sangleh to be made. Each family brought us a 
small calabash full ; but had we not been so hungry as we 
were, we could not have eaten it, for, it was not only without 
salt, but the poor creatures had not even milk to mix it with. 
The appearance of the camp gave no high opinion of the 
magnificence of the prince to whom it belonged : the huts 
were small and ill built, and they scarcely afforded shelter 
from the sun. Two very shabby tents were no doubt the 
dwellings of the marabouts appointed to superintend the 
slaves, whose only garment was a sheep-skin, which covered 
them from the waist to the knees : they were about fifty in 
number and lived in fifteen huts. 
