140 
THE GIRAFFE — CHARACTERS. 
indented, or scooped-out plains; the whole country 
"being what the people call hamadah, or plateau, 
All the large trees have disappeared with the doom- 
palm. Nevertheless there are every where the marks 
of water. Yet the rain cannot fall here so much 
as in the mountainous regions which we have left 
behind, for it is high ground only which brings 
down the rain in Africa ; except, indeed, near the 
equator. As yesterday, the sand and soft earth are 
covered with the footmarks of gazelles, ostriches, 
the habara, and even the giraffe. The people, in 
fact, say we shall see the giraffe before we arrive at 
Damerghou. But of these animals, who have left 
thus the impression of their feet on the sand, we 
saw not one. Indeed it is quite a matter of luck to 
fall in with animals in the desert. I have seen but 
very few. My colleagues have both encountered 
lions and monkeys, neither of which have I seen. 
We have come to-day seven hours and a-half, a 
very good march for En-Noor. The nights are 
cold enough ; there is also a fresh breeze, generally 
from north-east, every day : nevertheless, the sun 
burns hot. The sky has always now a few cloucls ? 
and the atmosphere is a little thick and misty. We 
have with us various queer characters ; amongst the 
rest, a fellow who boasts of his having killed many 
people with poisoned arrows. When I come near 
him I always attack him, not, indeed, with his 
favourite weapon, but with irony. I tell him, 
"Ah! poisoned arrows kill many people. — What 
