52 
MYSTERIES OF TXNTALOUS. 
tlie slighting, summary way in which they are 
spoken of by the members of the former English 
expedition to Bornou. They are, however, divided 
into a great number of tribes, are spread over a 
considerable extent of country, and are partly the 
guardians of the Bornou route. We must pay 
them some attention when they come under our 
observation. 
There is a man come from Dr. Barth and his 
party. They are expected in the course of forty- 
eight hours. En-Noor is very angry that they do 
not mend their pace. We are all ready to start. 
An immense caravan is waiting for their arrival. 
31st. — The people begin to pester me to marry 
another wife in Soudan, — one very young and with 
large breasts is the kind of article they recommend. 
The mysteries of Tintalous are celebrated at the 
well in the evening, under the bright, glowing light 
of Venus, which star is now seen a couple of hours 
above the horizon after sunset. On the margin of 
the well, which is on the other side of the wady, at 
the distance of a quarter of a mile, the damsels of 
Tintalous regularly meet their lovers, and spend 
with them half an hour of sweet communion. Some 
even retire to the shade of a large-spreading tholukh 
near, or behind blocks of rock rising on the edge 
of the valley, and indulge in lawful or unlawful 
embraces. The strangers who come here, the 
Moors of Tripoli and Fezzan, are freely initiated 
into these mysteries. 
