A GAME MOUNT BAGHZEM. 
127 
obliged to pay a handkerchief to relieve myself 
of the bad omen. Such a thing- is considered a 
horrible thing if you do not buy away the ill effects 
of it. This is certainly an easy way of collecting 
money and goods. It was, however, amusing to 
see the fellow, how still he lay ; truly it was as 
still as death. The ceremony itself arose out of 
the culprit, or man bound, having lost our camels, 
a circumstance which has detained us here to-day. 
The herdsman was thus punished for his neglect ; 
and so all these African people have an amusing 
way of turning their misfortunes into fun, as well 
as of making a profit out of them. I have already 
observed before, that every misfortune we have 
suffered has been a benefit to the Kailouees. This 
has made them so careless about what might 
happen to us. 
2lst. — Our course was generally nearly south, 
but often a little winding. Baghzem was always on 
our right, until we left it behind us, on the north- 
west. This mountain has, probably, been so much 
celebrated in all past times, because it is the most 
conspicuous object on the return route from the 
south to the north. Overweg conjectures that it 
is granite. He had no servant at hand yesterday 
to visit it with him, and he did not like to go alone, 
because it swarms with lions. 
We passed to-day mostly through undulating 
country, a sort of ground which, in the Sahara, 
lies generally between the plateaux and the high 
