GENERALCONFUSION. 
47 
the men are of a different construction from those used by 
the women ; they are high^ narrow seats^ on which a single 
man sits with his legs stretched out and crossed on the 
neck of the beast. If several men ride on the same camel^ 
only one sits on the saddle, the others are behind ; and it 
was thus that I rode with my marabout. 
Our party when on march resembled a routed army, 
all confusion. The cattle went first, driven by a few men 
mounted on oxen ; the mournful lowing of the animals, the 
shouts of the men, and the shrill voices of the women, 
resounded on all sides. Here a camel had disburdened 
himself of a woman, there a refractory bullock refused to 
proceed, a little farther a restive horse threatened to throw 
his rider, and was rearing and plunging amongst oxen and 
camels ; women losing their balance in consequence, were 
rolling on the ground screaming ; the hurly-burly was such, 
that there was no hearing one's self speak. At last, after 
having proceeded three miles towards the north, we halted 
to pitch our tents^ and the confusion subsided. The slaves 
unloaded the beasts and set up the tents, and as there was 
no water at this place, they went back for it to the lake of 
Guiguis which we had just left. Such of the slaves as took 
charge of the cattle employed themselves in cutting briars 
to make fences for the calves, and others went to seek fire- 
wood to light fires before the tents. This article is so rare 
in this country, that when the camp remains long in a place, 
the poor fellows are obliged to go a couple of miles in search 
of it. 
The Moors always burn fires before their tents ; a cus- 
tom which is inconvenient on many accounts ; in the day 
time the heat of these fires is unpleasant, and a multitude of 
grasshoppers and other insects, with which the country 
abounds in this season, take refuge in the tents and prove 
a great nuisance. 
On the 10th of September, the king left us to carry a 
