POPULATION OF AHEER. 
69 
and the people there had no inclination to give 
me information about this fertile portion of the 
Azgher desert. On the former occasion, I learned 
from Haj Ahmed that there was a running stream, 
on the banks of which corn was cultivated, at about 
four days west of Ghat. This is probably the lo- 
cality of Janet. For myself, I do not believe the 
Azgher Tuaricks number more than two thousand 
families. 
Of the population of Aheer I have been able to 
learn nothing definite ; that is to say, nothing which 
I can absolutely depend upon. Some make it reach 
above fifty thousand souls. There are, however, 
only forty towns, exclusive of Aghadez ; and about 
twenty places where people live in tents. I wrote 
down a second list of them, with their directions, 
and some guess at the number of male inhabitants. 
The son of the Tanelkum Sheikh considers the 
Kailouee warriors to amount to about fourteen 
thousand; which, indeed, will make the whole 
population above sixty thousand. The accounts I 
have received, therefore, seem to be sufficiently exact 
for general purposes. 
The Tanelkum Sheikh says there are no other 
tribes of Tuaricks but those enumerated above. 
The largest and most powerful tribe is that in the 
neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, the Oulimad, answer- 
ing, perhaps, to the Sorghou of Caillie ; and the 
smallest and weakest, the Tanelkum. But the 
Tanelkums, if small in number, are great in pride, 
