98 WANT OF WATER IN THE DESERT. 
beasts, who had neither eaten nor drunk for two days. The 
grass was so dry that my horse refused it ; this poor animal 
was so much fallen away, that, in pity, I divided the water 
which remained with him.' Boukari declared that by this 
sacrifice I exposed myself to the risk of perishing with thirst. 
I paid no regard to his remonstrances, but no sooner had my 
horse begun to drink, than I had well nigh been trampled 
under foot by all the horses of the caravan, which ran to obtain 
some water also to quench their thirst. I was obliged to throw 
down all that I had left on the ground to escape their pursuit. 
Near the spot where we halted, either nature or the Poulas 
had scooped a large hole, which in the winter season served as 
a reservoir for rain, and formed a watering-place for the flocks; 
it was now dried up, but the ground still retained so much 
moisture, that our beasts threw themselves down and lay at 
full length upon it, that their bodies might be somewhat re- 
freshed by its coolness. Are these solitudes really destitute of 
water, or have the Negroes, from fear of drawing the Moors 
thither, purposely abstained from the digging of wells ? These 
are questions which I found it impossible to resolve. The 
celerity with which my fellow-travellers, the Jolofls, proceeded 
greatly surprised me ; for the Moors whom I had seen in the 
Desert, and on the banks of the Senegal, travel much slower. 
The abstinence to which their wandering life habituates them, 
enables them to stop in the midst of the deserts, where a few 
small balls of gum suffice for their subsistence. The Negroes, 
